The House of Salazar Slytherin

"Or perhaps in Slytherin, You'll make your real friends, Those cunning folk use any means, To achieve their ends." ~ Sorting Hat (SS) ~ GENERAL INFORMATION Founder: Salazar Slytherin House Head: Severus Snape (SS-HBP), Horace Slughorn (DH) House Color: Green and Silver Emblematic Animal: Serpent (symbol of the founder's ability to talk to snake) Resident Ghost: Bloody Baron Common Room: Slytherin Common room is located on the dungeons, underneath the lake. The room is low-ceilinged and dungeon-like with chairs and skulls all around. Greenish lamps can be found hanging in these low ceilings.

Salazar Slytherin

House Trait: Students from the house of Slytherin are cunning and clever as well as determined and resourceful. They are extremely ambitious and, (according to the Sorting Hat) would "use any means to achieve their ends", even to the extent of disregading rules. Slytherins also tend to affiliate themselves with people who matter, people who can help them acheive their goals. Indeed, during their fifth year, Draco Malfoy expressed that it's not what you know but it's who you know that would determine their fate in the upcoming OWLs.

Slytherins also possess high senses of self-preservation. They don't act rashly. Instead, they analize every situation by how it might affect them, weigh the pros and cons of all possible scenario and decide which path to take according to the advantages they might get from it. In their quest to the realization of their ambitions, they tend to become self-absorbed and cold, to the point of disregarding the well-being of the people around them.  

The house of Slytherin has always been viewed in a negative light, owing to the fact that it was the house where Lord Voldemort and most of his followers (Death Eaters) came from. Slytherin, however, is not, by itself evil. True enough, there are certain Slytherins who are considered good. Example of those are:

• Horace Slughorn: Head of the Slytherin House during Dumbledore's time and became head once while Snape was Headmaster. He was one of those who duel against Lord Voldemort before Harry Potter took over.
• Andromeda Black Tonks: Despite being raised in a family which values purity of the blood above all else, Andromeda still married a muggleborn and helped the Order of the Phoenix in their campaign against Lord Voldemort.
• Severus Snape: Though his intentions were unclear, before the last book, Severus Snape is no doubt not an evil wizard. He placed his life in great risk, just so his beloved Lily hadn't died for nothing.

Blood Purity: If there's something that the Slytherins value most, it's the purity of blood. They judge people primarily on how pure their blood is. And because they have been raised by wizarding families, they are partial to their kind, viewing muggleborns as outsiders. Though blood purity is a factor for being chosen, this does not guarantee that everyone in Slytherin is pure-blood. Severus Snape and Lord Voldemort are both half-blood, but they were sorted to Slytherin. Besides, pure-bloods are now running out. Few of the notable pureblood families are:

• The Blacks: The Blacks are supporters of blood purity. They intermarried several pure-blooded wizardng families, both dark and not to ensure that they remain Toujours Pur or Still Pure. Since Sirius died, The Noble and the Most Ancient House of Black, lost its last surviving member carrying Black as surname.
• The Malfoys: One of the wealthiest wizarding clan, related to the Blacks by mirriage of Lucius Malfoy to Narcissa Black. This makes Draco Malfoy, their only child a descendant of two prominent (not to mention, old) wizarding families.
• The Crouches: There no longer is a surviving line for this family. The last members of this family have died in the fourth book. Bartemius Crouch Sr., was killed by Bartemius Crouch Jr., who, in turn lost his soul to the Dementor's Kiss.

The Weasleys are also pure-bloods but then, in the Slytherin's point of view, the Weasley's wouldn't count because they are the greatest blood-traitors (though the Weasleys doesn't care about this). Blood-traitors are as bad as muggleborns.

SLYTHERIN AND THE ELEMENT OF WATER

The element of water roughly corresponds to the house of Slytherin.

Slytherin, a house known for its ambition, cunning, resourcefulness, and pure blood heritage, also exhibits qualities of water element. Slytherins are often perceived to be cold, and in a way, "deep". Cunning, deceptive, like the tranquil surface of water which hides currents underneath. The saying, "Silent water runs deep" also applies in their situation...and vice versa. It can be noticed that among Slytherins, those who were quite and introvert were usually the ones which hides mystreries underneath.

Slytherin common room is located under the lake--which is a body of water. The slytherin mascot, the snake is often associated with earth, as it slythers on the ground; but there are also water snakes which could represent the element of water. It might be, though, that the snake was chosen as a mascot not because of its association with the water element but more because of the attitudes and characteristics associated with it.