Typically, fans associate Slytherin house with evil. If not evil, just the general concept of ‘bad’. Think about it: almost every single character you are designed to hate in Harry Potter is a Slytherin. If JK Rowling wanted to make a poignant point about prejudice by bringing ideas of purity of blood into the mix, she probably shouldn’t have designed a specification of character that links you immediately to evil...
The wealth of characters in the house all have their own individual low points, so we’ve taken a look at each of the most prominent Slytherins and decided on the worst thing about them.
Severus Snape: Wasn’t Fit To Teach
Now, Harry Potter fans around the world fell in love with Snape when it was revealed that the whole way through the franchise he had been a triple agent, pretending to work for Dumbledore while pretending to work for Voldemort while actually working for Dumbledore.
This was all because he loved Lilly Potter. Despite this, he was a bullying and heartless teacher who was relentlessly mean to his students.
Horace Slughorn: Played Favourites
Most of the teachers at Hogwarts are supposed to be lovable (aside from Snape) in their own way. As he was a Slytherin, Rowling made sure to make us unsure about Slughorn. He seemed quite nice in general, but had slightly controversial opinions regarding blood-status and was the reason Voldemort could create Horcruxes. He also openly chose his favorite students, which is just a bit weird.
Salazar Slytherin: Only Wanted To Teach Pure-Bloods
One of the founders of Hogwarts school was Salazar Slytherin, the very man whom the house itself is named after. He must have been amicable to befriend the heads of the other houses, but just evil enough to desperately try and have the school closed to anyone except pure-bloods.
The Bloody Baron: An Unknown Dark Deed
As with most of the school ghosts, we only really see the Bloody Baron for an extended period of time in the first two Harry Potter films.
However, as the Slytherin ghost, we know he must have done something pretty bad at some point. He is bound to chains and covered in blood even in ghost form, apparently as punishment for an un-named ‘bad thing’.
Draco Malfoy: A Mean Bully
Draco Malfoy was nothing more than a scared child who wasn’t as evil as his family wanted him to be. He didn’t know what to do with himself, and by the end of the series, we realized he didn’t stay evil forever. However, he was still a bully at school. He tried to befriend Harry for all the wrong reasons, and persistently tried to ruin his life.
Crabbe And Goyle: Never Thought For Themselves
The main factors necessary to be sorted into Slytherin are cunning, resourcefulness and ambition. Aside from their obviously demented evil, the worst thing about Crabbe and Goyle is that they just aren’t Slytherin. They just did as they were told by Malfoy, demonstrating that they had no ambition to achieve anything, could rely on nothing but his orders, and were unfathomably stupid.
Bellatrix Lestrange: Tortured Neville's Parents
Arguably the most deep-rooted evil character in Harry Potter was Bellatrix Lestrange. We know all about Voldemort and his evil and the reasons behind it, but Bellatrix just seemed to love inflicting suffering.
The worst thing she ever did was take part in the brutal torture of Neville’s parents many years before we ever met her on-screen.
Dolores Umbridge: Tortured Children
Thanks to the persistence of her presence throughout The Order Of The Phoenix, Dolores Umbridge was probably the most hateable character in Harry Potter. Her fake sweetness was almost unbearable, but it was the fact that she was allowed to continue to teach while she tortured her students. Not only did her pen carve words into the hand of her victims, but let’s not forget she was happily going to use the cruciatus curse on Harry.
Albus Potter: Accidentally Destroyed The World
Many fans of the Harry Potter books and films have decided to ignore the canonical existence of The Cursed Child. It may be a great experience to see in person, but the story is flawed beyond comprehension.
In that story, Harry’s child Albus gets a hold of a time turner (a literal time machine that for some reason plays almost no part in the main franchise but can change the world) and destroys everything. He creates a multitude of alternate realities in which he doesn’t exist and Voldemort won. Oh, and Voldemort had a child...
Voldemort: Everything
Probably the most obviously evil Slytherin was Lord Voldemort himself. He existed under the name Tom Riddle at school, and spent that whole time proving himself to be both demented and genius. He learned to use murder as a method of splitting his soul into multiple pieces, killed both of Harry’s parents, attempted to eradicate all non-pure-blood wizards from the planet and was the reason for countless deaths by the end of the seven books.