Did ALL Death Eaters Come from Slytherin? - Harry Potter Theory

Hey everyone,

Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video we’re going to be discussing the 4 Hogwarts houses- Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff, in relation to the evil witch and wizard population. More specifically, we will be discussing whether or not Death Eaters have ever come from a house other than Slytherin.

Hagrid once remarked to Harry:

"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."

And as far as dark witches and wizards go, the worst kinds were death eaters - followers of Lord Voldemort who obeyed his bidding in an effort to ‘cleanse’ the wizarding world. The death eaters were a group of pure-blood radical supremacists, ever-bloodthirsty and always more than eager to incite fear in the hearts of their enemies. The Death Eaters were originally formed while a young Tom Riddle attended Hogwarts between 1938 and 1945. But at that point they were not yet known as ‘Death Eaters’, they were called the Knights of Walpurgis. The Knights of Walpurgis was a group formed by Slytherin students exclusively, as many of their core goals and perspectives as a group coincided with the beliefs of Slytherin House. These students were certainly a bit morally dubious, and Dumbledore once described Riddles gang as “a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking glory, and the thuggish seeking a leader who could show them more refined cruelty”.The key phrase that sticks out to me here is ‘the ambitious seeking glory’, as I feel that this almost directly resonates with one of the key characteristics involved with being a Slytherin student. Core aspects of each of the four houses can be very broadly summed up in the Sorting Hat’s own words, which are as follows:

“By Gryffindor, the bravest were
Prized far beyond the rest;
For Ravenclaw, the cleverest
Would always be the best;
For Hufflepuff, hard workers were
Most worthy of admission;
And power-hungry
Slytherin Loved those of great ambition.“

Ambition. Great ambition. This is the characteristic that I feel best addresses the core similarities between Slytherin students and Death Eaters, and this is why I think that so many Death Eaters ended up coming from Slytherin. It’s not that students from other houses aren’t ambitious, it’s just that ambition is extremely closely rooted to the very existence of students that end up getting sorted there.

One thing that I feel should be addressed however, is that ambition isn’t bad- I know that the connections to Slytherin and the Death Eaters sort of make it feel that way, but ambition is a wonderful thing if the right person possesses it. Another thing that I feel needs to be mentioned is that Slytherin students aren’t inherently bad or evil. Yes, one of their core characteristics matches one of the core characteristics of the death eaters, but there are also plenty of Slytherins that never turned evil. Most of their bad rep comes from founder Salazar Slytherin’s perspective on muggle-borns and half-bloods. When he founded the house, Salazar Slytherin imbued the belief in his students that muggle-borns and half-bloods were not worthy of practicing magic. His perspective made an impression on some of (but not all of) the students of his house, and the poisonous ideologies that he introduced were subsequently passed on from generation to generation:

But in truth, Slytherins aren’t always just the one-dimensional evil villains that they’re always painted out to be. The house is comprised of all sorts of complex characters that are far more deserving of a label that isn’t just ‘evil’. Slytherins are often very clever, very resourceful and very determined- but, in Dumbledore’s own words, usually also possess ‘a certain disregard for the rules’. In addition to the above qualities, they are also often very strong leaders- as shown with Tom Riddle and even Salazar Slytherin himself.

I think that one the main issues with the house, however, is that it does sort of foster pureblood supremacist ideals to some degree, and this is perhaps why it ends up producing the largest amounts of dark witches/wizards when compared with the other houses.

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Видео Did ALL Death Eaters Come from Slytherin? - Harry Potter Theory канала Harry Potter Theory