SLYTHERIN
FOUNDER: SALAZAR SLYTHERIN
Slytherin house values ambition, cunning, and resourcefulness. The animal representing Slytherin is the serpent, and the house colours are green and silver. The house was founded by Salazar Slytherin. The Head of this house is Severus Snape in the first five books and most of the sixth book. At the end of the sixth book and in the seventh book, the old Potions master and previous Head of House who has come out of retirement, Horace Slughorn, reassumes authority of the house. The ghost of Slytherin house is The Bloody Baron. According to Rowling, Slytherin corresponds roughly to the element of water. The Slytherin dormitories and common room are reached through a bare stone wall in the dungeons. The Slytherin common room is a long, low, dungeon-style room, located under the Hogwarts Lake, furnished with green lamps and carved armchairs.
That Slytherin is an "evil" house is a common misconception. Harry develops a negative view of Slytherin and in the first book asks the Sorting Hat not to place him in that house because of its sinister reputation. At one point, Rubeus Hagrid told him that "there [wasn't] a witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin". This is an exaggeration on Hagrid's part, however, as at the time, he believed that Sirius Black, a Gryffindor, was a Death Eater. Still, Slytherin House seems to have attracted more evil-doing wizards than any other house, including Voldemort himself and almost all of his supporters. While the House of Slytherin does not actually represent evil, having ambition as a core value results in the admission of many highly competitive students without necessarily having an accompanying moral code. Some good-natured Slytherins include Slughorn, Andromeda Tonks, and Snape (although his loyalties are unclear until the Deathly Hallows).
