First Year
September 1, 1991
Dear Diary,
I got sorted into Slytherin today! My family will be proud to learn of this. Harry Potter is in my year and was sorted into Gryffindor, as expected. Imagine if he was sorted into Hufflepuff, the house of the losers, or into Ravenclaw, the house of the nerds. Or if he was sorted into Slytherin! He would get torn apart and eaten alive because he’s the Boy-Who-Lived and he defeated the master of so many of our parents. Oh well. Classes begin tomorrow, so wish me luck!
September 6, 1991
Dear Diary,
The first week of classes is finally over. Professor Snape was correct in telling us that the rest of the school hates Slytherins, even the teachers. I answered a question correctly in Transfiguration and I didn’t get any points, but a Ravenclaw answered a question and she got points. At least Professor Snape gives us points; otherwise Slytherin would have no points at all. I overheard the Gryffindors complaining about the overabundance of points given to Slytherin by Professor Snape, but they don’t understand that he is trying to make up for the lack of points given by other professors. He’s being unfair to be fair, you know?
September 12, 1991
Dear Diary,
Today was our first flying lesson with the Gryffindors. Draco loudly made fun of Clumsy-Gryffindor (I can’t remember his name right now), and of course Potter, being the Gryffindor he is, demanded that Draco give the Remembrall back. Obviously, that made Draco get on his broomstick and fly to act superior because ‘nobody demands anything from a Malfoy’. Potter then intimidates Draco, so to regain some of his pride Draco threw the Remembrall. Potter caught it in a spectacular dive, and Professor McGonagall saw him and led him off. I’m glad that she finally sees that her lions aren’t as well behaved as she thought they were.
October 31, 1991
Dear Diary,
Today was Halloween. At the feast, Professor Quirrell (or as I like to call him, Professor Squirrel or Professor T-t-Turban because he’s a stuttering idiot) ran in shouting that there was a troll in the dungeon. Then he fainted. (Some Defense Against the Dark Arts professor he is.)
Dumbledore ordered everyone to go back to our common rooms, which is another example of how little Slytherins are cared about by the staff. Our common room is in the DUNGEON, in other words, the place where Professor Turban just said the TROLL was. The only staff member who realized this fact, or bothered to care, was Professor Snape. He told us to stay in our seats at our table in the Great Hall and he would come back when the troll was gone.
We waited for what seemed like forever worrying while the older students tried to reassure us that everything would be alright. Finally, Professor Snape returned and told us that the troll was taken care of and it was safe to go to our common room. We noticed that he was limping, but we didn’t ask him why out of respect. If he wanted us to know how he got hurt, he would tell us. The general consensus is that he got hurt while fighting the troll.
November 9, 1991
Dear Diary,
I take back that last statement in my entry on September 12. Apparently, McGonagall showed extreme favoritism and didn’t punish Potter at all (no points taken away, no detentions given, nothing). Instead, she broke the rules to allow Potter to have a broomstick (Recall what she wrote on all of the Hogwarts acceptance letters: “First Years Are Not Allowed Their Own Broomsticks”) so Potter could be the Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. And it’s all because he’s the Gryffindor Golden Boy.
I only found this out today at the Gryffindor-Slytherin Quidditch game, which Gryffindor won because of Potter. If McGonagall was fair, we would have won. I’ll never forgive her for this.
January 5, 1992
Dear Diary,
I’m back at Hogwarts now after spending the Christmas break at home. You know the saying about how you don’t know how good something is until it’s gone? I realized how true that saying is when I returned home. I never really realized how much I love being at Hogwarts until I had to go home, even though it was only for a couple of weeks. It’s crazy.
May 10, 1991
Dear Diary,
During the night, we lost 20 points and Gryffindor lost 150 points because Draco, Potter, Granger, and Longbottom (I remembered Clumsy-Gryffindor’s name!) were caught out after curfew. I have many thoughts on this. Firstly, it’s about time Gryffindor loses points. We are now in the lead of the House Cup! And McGonagall finally realized that the Golden Boy and her Star Student aren’t as great as she thought they were. (Happy Dance!) I personally think that Longbottom was just along for the ride or was temporarily filling in for Weasley since Weasley was in the hospital wing. Oh well.
Secondly, what is wrong with Draco? (Answer: many, many things.) If you go out after curfew, you have to be SNEAKY and NOT get CAUGHT. One of the qualities of a true Slytherin is sneakiness, which apparently is one thing Draco doesn’t possess. Also, why is Draco so obsessed with trying to get Potter in trouble? And Draco always does it in the least subtle, aka Slytherin, way. In other words, Draco doesn’t have the attributes of a true Slytherin.
Where am I going with this, you might ask if you weren’t an inanimate object? Well, I overheard Weasley in the library (I realize how wrong that sounds. A Weasley in the library? Ha!) saying that Draco is the reason everyone hates the Slytherins because all Slytherins are like him. What?!? I’m not like him. Most of the people in my House aren’t like him. Draco doesn’t even have the qualities of a true Slytherin, so how can he be the representative of Slytherin for the school?!
This brings up a larger question: Are a small percentage of Slytherins responsible for the bad reputation of the Slytherin House and all in it? Are they the reason that we are hated, picked on, and shunned by others?
June 8
Dear Diary,
The dungeons are filled with anger, tears, and attempts of comforting. I am writing this as tears are dripping down my face. The tears are caused by disappointment, anger, and injustice.
I mean, did he really have to do that then? Wait until the very last minute when we were already celebrating and rejoicing? Do it in front of the entire school so everyone could laugh at our embarrassment?
Dumbledork waited until after he had stated the rankings and who should have won in front of everyone to announce that for the actions that happened three days ago the Golden Boy, Know-It-All, and their Weasel Sidekick gained enough points to exactly tie Gryffindor with us in first place. If that wasn’t bad enough, Dumbledork proceeded to give Clumsy-Gryffindor (and I did not forget his name) 10 points for “standing up to his friends.” People do that all the time, but does anyone give them points for that? No! Dumbdork just used that as an excuse to give Gryffindor enough points to beat us and win the House Cup. Then, Dumbdork changed the emerald green decorations to blood red. The other Houses then cheered and laughed, not for Gryffindor’s win, but at the humiliation of the Slytherin House.
The walls and tablecloths were bleeding and covered with our blood. No one outside of our House cared that most of us, especially us first years, were mortally wounded by this injustice.
The year had been an uphill climb for Slytherin. The other students hated us. The professors, except Professor Snape, were biased against us. The House Cup was a way to prove that we were just as good as anyone else. When the others were unfair to us, the older students would reassure us that when we win the House Cup, the injustice will seem insignificant and we will forget the pain. So we worked hard for those points so we could feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in the end.
Instead, our pain was intensified exponentially. As my mind clears from the pain, I reflect on what I’ve learned:
- There is no such thing as fairness in the world, at least not for Slytherins.
- The only people Slytherins can hope to trust are other Slytherins, and even they can’t be trusted sometimes.
- No one cares about Slytherins except other Slytherins. Dumbledore and the other teachers, except Professor Snape (because he’s a Slytherin), could care less about Slytherins.
- Trying your best, working hard, and being nice to others won’t make any difference if you’re a Slytherin. Actually, it may hurt you when it falls flat, so it’s better to not try at all (so you don’t feel any pain).
- Murder is okay and rewarded if done by the Golden Boy. Apparently, Potter got all those points at the feast for killing Professor Quirrell.
- Breaking the rules will cause points to be taken, unless you’re a Gryffindor at the end of the year. In that case, you will be given points for breaking the rules. And I bet this is true for all Gryffindors, not only the Golden Boy and his posse. How else would Gryffindor not have hardly any points left when they have the Weasley twins?
- Since no one else cares about the people in our House except those in it, why should we care about the people not in our House? If they are going to be cruel to us, why shouldn’t we be cruel to them?
- We need to prove to everyone that we are better than them. But as we learned through the House Cup, we won’t let our feelings get in the way. That way if we get a setback or fail, we won’t feel that much pain.
It was our hope in the fairness of authority, even though the unfairness of the teachers was proven time and time again, that caused us the most pain. Justice is not given to Slytherins. We have to get justice directly without relying on any medium such as teachers. As Professor Snape demonstrated, Slytherins have to act unjustly to get justice.