Second Choice: Slytherin's Heir

It’s been five years. I’m re-reading the Harry Potter series. What jumped out at me in Sorcerer’s Stone this time around was the anxiety of Harry’s first week. I speculated that his choice of Ron, rather than Draco, as his first friend was significant. In Harry’s first evening at Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat put him in Gryffindor. Not much more is made of this in the first book. But Harry has doubts, and the issue comes significantly to the fore in the second book, Chamber of Secrets.

The end of the book features the following exchange (edited into dialogue format).

Harry: So I should be in Slytherin. The Sorting Hat could see Slytherin’s power in me, and it…

Dumbledore: Put you in Gryffindor. Listen to me, Harry. You happen to have many qualities Salazar Slytherin prized in his hand-picked students. His own very rare gift, Parseltongue – resourcefulness – determination – a certain disregard for rules. Yet the Sorting Hat placed you in Gryffindor. You know why that was. Think.

Harry: It only put me in Gryffindor, because I asked not to go to Slytherin…

Dumbledore: Exactly. Which makes you very different from Tom Riddle. It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. If you want proof, Harry, that you belong in Gryffindor, I suggest you look more closely at this.

[Harry sees the name Godric Gryffindor on the silver sword.]

I previously ranked Chamber of Secrets sixth of the seven books in terms of reading enjoyment. I still found Lockhart annoying this time around, but overall I feel more appreciation for the character development in Harry’s story as I’ve focused on the personalities rather than the magic. I particularly like Dumbledore’s argument – that the choices we make are more revealing than our seemingly innate abilities: Reflecting on past choices I’ve made tells me something about what kind of person I am. But beyond being introspective, making choices allows you to mold yourself along a different character-path.

Thinking about this, I’m impressed with the inclusion of the Polyjuice Potion episode in Chamber of Secrets. Previously, I just thought it was a neat potion allowing for clever use in story-plots (and it gets good mileage in the series) or amusing science speculation. But juxtaposing this temporary bodily-physical transformation with the character-person transformation through one’s choices, gives me a new appreciation for this book. Lockhart’s character provides yet another juxtaposition of this theme; he impersonates the character of others for “choice” material in his books.

The puzzle in Chamber of Secrets is: Who is the Heir of Slytherin? The heir, it is implied, walks in the footsteps or character of Salazar Slytherin. While Hermione is often the information-provider in the Harry Potter series, this time boring Professor Binns gets the starring role. Talking about the history of the Hogwarts founders, he says: “A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families… The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic.”

There are many offshoots to this discussion, but in today’s post I will limit myself to musing on one counterfactual: What if Harry had been sorted into Slytherin? What if he had made a different choice, which was then validated by the Sorting Hat? I’m sure there has been numerous speculation on this topic on the Internet for years. I haven’t read any of it, so here are the fresh thoughts off the top of my head.

I suspect that Harry and Draco would still not have gotten along even if they were in the same house given the Malfoy family history. I doubt Snape would have been any more positively disposed towards Harry, but perhaps might not have tried to single him out for repeated humiliation in Potions class. Would Harry have made the Quidditch team? Possibly – if he stayed in the good books of his house – but he probably would not be Seeker. Or he could “rebel” against his own house – this would be very challenging for him in the residential school environment. Even Sirius Black would not have faced the same kind of pressure at school, having himself been sorted into Gryffindor rather Slytherin, although he was the black sheep of the family.

Could Harry Potter have acted as the next Heir of Slytherin? With Parseltongue, he would be able (guided by Riddle’s Diary) to enter the Chamber of Secrets and command the creature within. Given that Tom Riddle, Heir of Slytherin fifty years prior, transferred such abilities to Harry, all this seems possible. But would Harry imbibe the pure-blood worldview? His early experience with the Dursleys could have moved him in such a direction. However, choosing Ron over Draco early in Sorcerer’s Stone seems to say something of Harry’s character and the choices he makes. He is generous and thankful, and learns to trust his friends, something Riddle never learned to do.

Could Tom Riddle have avoided becoming the Heir of Slytherin? Was there any internal discussion in his head with the Sorting Hat about being a Slytherin? I don’t know. Oh, wouldn’t we all want a Sorting Hat to shunt us along the right path! A path that fits our abilities, strengths, character; and maybe sees the sort of choices we make – then again, I’m not sure the Sorting Hat is that powerful. Furthermore the worldview embedded in the Harry Potter stories is inconsistent with closed futures. Rather choices, truly free choices, have help steer one along the road of life. Some people change their paths. Others do not. That’s the point that Dumbledore makes. And it’s a point that will repeat itself in the subsequent books.

I’m looking forward to Prisoner of Azkaban next!

P.S. My previous reading of Chamber of Secrets explored memory, exemplified by Riddle’s diary and Lockhart’s predilection.