Just to add to what Ashland posted, do you really think that Tom Riddle would have developed the same way had he been in say, Hufflepuff? Being a muggleborn orphan in the house that prized blood purity would have likely been a nightmare, at least for his first couple of years. Despite being a prodigy, Riddle would not have had much of a chance against any sixth or seventh year bullies who felt like messing with him. Even in later years, when he had an advantage in magical knowledge, it would have taken a lot of clever maneuvering to climb to the top of the social hierarchy due to his inherent disadvantages. He would have had to contend with people like Draco Malfoy, who despite their lack of cleverness or subtlety, could basically buy popularity due to their familial and financial influence.

 

Why not? I'm sure there's a great Evil-Hufflepuff-Voldemort fic out there just waiting to be written. That good ol' (self-reinforcing stereotype) 'puff loyalty is easily turned into evil. Hufflepuffs can be assholes, you know, just look at CoS or GoF. And a parselmouth Riddle could have been eaten alive by the Hufflepuffs just as easily as a muggleborn Riddle by the Slytherin.

But yeah, maybe I didn't write my point clearly enough. Of course the people you spend seven of your teenage years with will have huge impact on what kind of a person you end up as. The point is, that happens only after the sorting hat has sorted them. As eleven year old kids they have maybe some of the prejudices their parents have taught them, but other than that any eleven year old could be sorted in any of the four houses without any problems.

Basically my post was a response to the argument that the Sorting Hat wouldn't have tried to sort Harry into Slytherin without the horcrux. To that I say bullshit; canon Harry could have been sorted into any of the four houses, horcrux or no horcrux.

 

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5846518/1/insurgere

It's a oneshot but it plays right into that premise.

Tom Riddle probably would have been different if he was sorted into Hufflepuff. He may still have gone Dark Lord, but went for Muggleborn rights instead of pureblood rights. If a muggleborn like him could speak to snakes, who knows what else a muggleborn is capable of?

It would be a unique fanfic though, if Harry is brought into a world where Voldemort was a Hufflepuff and fought for the Muggleborns instead.

 

Haven't read the fic, but agree with everything you've said here. This is definitely the vibe that I got off the canon Harry as well. It seemed to me that as the years progressed, he became steadily less Slytherin, except for the moments (like the one you mentioned) that these innate traits comes out to play anyway. The rest of the time it just seems like he tried his damnest to be the most stereotypical Gryffindor ever. With Dumbledore's subtle encouragement and Sirius's less subtle ones, you can't really blame him, though.

He's his most Slytherin in 1st and 7th year, I think. When you're out in the wild, hiding from DEs intent on bringing you to your death, rash and flamboyant really isn't the way to go, not like the way at Hogwarts where there's always that underlying sense of security. It's a school, after all. And without the unconscious desire to play up to Dumbledore and Sirius's expectations, and the Ministry becoming obsolete, he's a lot more ruthless and unscrupulous in his methods (re: Unforgivables.) Though being in the Ministry didn't stop him in his fifth year for sure...

 

Part 3's already been posted!

 

I like Slytherin Harry i'm now reading the They Shook Hands series. Harry and Draco become friends in Diagon Alley and from there it follows the canon line from the Slytherin perspective.

The nice touch is how you see the different dynamic Slytherins have among themselves in the common room and outside it.

Harry Potter and the prince of Slytherin is enjoyable too. It takes a lot of plot holes and unexplained stuff out of canon and provides a logical explanation for it.

---------- Post automerged at 07:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:50 PM ----------

I read your post and i'm curious where in canon do you see a cunning Harry? His behavior is far more impulsive and explosive in most situations than it is cunning. Especially in GoF and OotP he doesn't think things through at all.

 

They Shook Hands was one of my favorite Slytherin Harry series. Then Book Five happened and I dropped it like a hot rock. He had a genus plot device that could have made the story unique and amazing. Instead he wasted it by choosing to show only a 'realistic Slytherin House'. By undermining the plot, he made it one of the most boring story I've ever read in fanfiction. He picked 'realistic characters' over any semblance of a plot. I haven't even tried Book Six to the sheer awfulness of Book Five.

Let me know if you feel the same way after Book Five. It may have just been me.

 

Hi,

The plot of book five wasn't as strong as one might have hoped. The focus was mainly teen troubles so i agree with you on that part. What i liked about the book was the other side of Umbridge how she would have bin if Fudge was on Harries side. For me that made up for a lot of the plot.

 

I know right? Dethryl's writing later on became bland and, even though I hate to say it, lazy.

It seemed as if he had run out of ideas and was just implementing ideas as he went. And most of those ideas were a failure. Let us not talk about Book Six, in which Harry goes *shudders* clothes shopping. You may say that this is just being unfair, but I can tell you for a fact that if you took up the first Book in the They Shook Hands trilogy and compared it to the latest book (Which I have read in fact), it would be clear that his writing became sloppy and plain.

Does anyone know what happened to him?

 

First thing you have to understand is that no one in HP is very cunning at all. They all miss obvious clues and fall into clear traps. So everything is relative here. Can you show me any Slytherin characters that acted with particular cunning, other than Barty Crouch Jr. (which we don't know is a Slytherin, and is arguably not so cunning)? almost all characters have those impulsive, explosive tendencies, particularly the Heir of Slytherin.

Now I'm not going to list all of the instances where Harry showed cunning, however ones I easily recall off the top of head is how he scared Peeves by pretending to be the Bloody Baron, on a moments notice, because he knew that the only one Peeves fear is the Baron. There was the placebo Felix Felicis scene with Ron. The manipulation of Slughorn all throughout HBP. Using Marge's visit to get a permission slip from Vernon. Getting Lockhart to let him and Ron walk alone in the corridors, and then lying to McGonagall about going to see Hermione in order to avoid her wrath. Using Griphook to get into Gringotts and the dragon to escape. There are various little instances like that all throughout the series that shows he has much more cunning - and resourcefulness - than most Slytherins we've met.

 

The hat suggested Slytherin because he had the traits that Salazar Slytherin valued in him, not because of Riddle Hocrux. Dumbledore confirmed it that Harry would have really done well in Slytherin. Harry was an hatstall, He didn't specifically ask for Gryffindor. All he said was "Not Slytherin". But because he was also immensely brave and that he didn't want to be in Slytherin, the hat put him in Gryffindor.