Slytherin

What is Slytherin?

Slytherin is one of the four houses of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was founded by Salazar Slytherin, one of the four great witches and wizards who built the school more than a thousand years ago.

The house values ambition, cunning and resourcefulness. Its students tend to know what they want and plan carefully to get it. They’re often natural leaders, good at reading people, and fiercely loyal to their own circle.

Slytherin also has the darkest reputation of any house. Many of the series’ villains, including Lord Voldemort, were Slytherins. But the books are careful to show that the house’s values aren’t evil in themselves, and some of the most important heroes of the story wore green and silver.

The history of Slytherin House

Salazar Slytherin

Salazar Slytherin was one of the four founders of Hogwarts. According to the Sorting Hat’s songs, he came from the fens. He valued ambition and cunning in his students, but he also believed magical education should be reserved for children from all-magic families. He distrusted Muggle-borns and wanted them kept out of the school.

He was a Parselmouth, able to speak to snakes, a rare gift that passed down through his descendants. That’s where the house’s serpent emblem comes from.

The quarrel with Gryffindor

For a while the four founders worked together. But Slytherin’s demand to restrict admissions put him at odds with the others, especially Godric Gryffindor, who had been his close friend. After a serious argument, Slytherin left the school.

That split is the origin of the Gryffindor–Slytherin rivalry that runs through the whole series.

The Chamber of Secrets

Legend says that before leaving, Slytherin built a hidden chamber under the castle that only his true heir could open. Inside it lived a monster meant to purge the school of students Slytherin considered unworthy.

In Chamber of Secrets, the legend turns out to be true. The monster is a basilisk, and the heir is Tom Riddle, who opened the Chamber as a student in 1943. A girl named Myrtle died, and Riddle framed Hagrid. Fifty years later, Riddle’s diary opened it again through Ginny Weasley, until Harry killed the basilisk.

Slytherin’s locket

Salazar Slytherin’s heavy gold locket, with an ornate S picked out in green stones, was passed down through his descendants, the Gaunt family. Tom Riddle’s mother, Merope Gaunt, sold it to Borgin and Burkes for very little. Riddle later recovered it and made it a Horcrux. Read more in the four founders of Hogwarts.

The Slytherin crest and colours

Symbol	Slytherin’s version	What it means
Colours	Green and silver	Cool, elegant and a little remote
Animal	Serpent	Cunning, adaptability and the founder’s Parseltongue
Element	Water	Adaptable and patient; links to the lake above the common room
House-points gem	Emeralds	Fill the Slytherin hourglass in the Entrance Hall
Ghost	The Bloody Baron	Power, and the consequences of passion turned to violence

The serpent is the most direct link between a house and its founder. Salazar Slytherin could speak to snakes, and so could his heir, Tom Riddle. Snakes are also old symbols of wisdom and renewal, as well as danger. For more on all four houses’ symbols, see house colours, animals and elements explained.

The Slytherin common room and dormitories

The Slytherin common room is in the dungeons, partly beneath the Black Lake. The entrance is a bare, damp stretch of stone wall. Give the password and a hidden door slides open. In Chamber of Secrets, the password is pure-blood, which says a lot about the house’s history.

Inside is a long, low underground room with rough stone walls. Green lamps hang from the ceiling on chains, and light filtering through the lake water gives everything a green glow. The furniture is carved and elegant, and there’s a fire under an ornate mantelpiece. Students are said to sometimes see the giant squid and other creatures swim past the windows.

The dormitories have four-poster beds hung with green silk. It’s a grand, slightly chilly space, built for people who already belong, and very hard for outsiders to get into.

Harry and Ron are among the few non-Slytherins ever to see it. In Chamber of Secrets they drink Polyjuice Potion to look like Crabbe and Goyle and follow Draco Malfoy inside. Read about all four in the Hogwarts common rooms.

What it means to be a Slytherin

Core values

Trait	What it looks like
Ambition	A strong drive to achieve and to make a mark
Cunning	Strategic, clever thinking; seeing several moves ahead
Resourcefulness	Making the most of whatever you have
Leadership	Naturally taking charge and influencing others
Determination	Not giving up once a goal is set
Self-preservation	Weighing risk carefully before acting
Loyalty to one’s own	Fierce protection of family and close friends

Slytherin at its best

At its best, Slytherin produces focused, capable people who get things done. They plan ahead, read situations quickly and protect the people they care about. Their courage tends to be quiet and calculated rather than impulsive.

Slytherin at its worst

At its worst, ambition becomes ruthlessness, and loyalty to one’s own becomes contempt for everyone else. The house’s long association with blood-purity prejudice, going back to its founder, made it a natural recruiting ground for Voldemort.

Slytherin in everyday life

Situation	A typical Slytherin response
A group project	Takes charge and divides the work strategically
A rival	Has already noticed them, and has a plan
An unfair rule	Follows it in public, works around it in private
A risky opportunity	Weighs the reward against the risk, then commits
A friend in trouble	Protects them fiercely, often behind the scenes

Famous Slytherins

Character	Known for
Severus Snape	Potions master, Head of Slytherin and Dumbledore’s double agent
Draco Malfoy	Harry’s school rival, who couldn’t bring himself to kill Dumbledore
Lord Voldemort	Tom Riddle, heir of Slytherin and the series’ villain
Bellatrix Lestrange	Voldemort’s most fanatical follower
Narcissa Malfoy	Lied to Voldemort to save her son, helping end the war
Horace Slughorn	Potions master and Head of House; fought for Hogwarts
Regulus Black	Teenage Death Eater who turned on Voldemort
Phineas Nigellus Black	Former Headmaster whose portrait aids Harry
Merlin	The legendary wizard, a Slytherin according to wizarding history
Pansy Parkinson, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle	Draco’s circle at school

Heads of Slytherin House

• Horace Slughorn led the house for decades, including when Tom Riddle was a student. He famously collected promising students into his “Slug Club”.
• Severus Snape was Head of Slytherin for most of Harry’s time at Hogwarts, from Philosopher’s Stone to Half-Blood Prince.
• Horace Slughorn returned to the role when he came out of retirement in Half-Blood Prince, and led Slytherin reinforcements into the Battle of Hogwarts.

Slytherin in the books

Book	Key Slytherin moments
Philosopher’s Stone	Slytherin is about to win a seventh straight House Cup until Gryffindor’s last-minute points.
Chamber of Secrets	The Chamber of Secrets is opened; Harry hears the basilisk; Harry and Ron visit the common room.
Goblet of Fire	Draco’s “Potter Stinks” badges; many Death Eaters’ children are in the house.
Order of the Phoenix	Slytherins join Umbridge’s Inquisitorial Squad.
Half-Blood Prince	Draco’s secret mission; Snape revealed as the Half-Blood Prince; Slughorn returns.
Deathly Hallows	Snape becomes Headmaster; most Slytherins leave before the battle, but Slughorn returns to fight; Snape’s true loyalty is revealed.

The redemption of Slytherin

The series ends with a deliberate softening of Slytherin’s reputation. Several of its members turn out to have been pivotal on the right side:

• Snape protected Harry for years, at the cost of his life.
• Regulus Black stole Slytherin’s locket so it could be destroyed.
• Narcissa Malfoy saved Harry by lying to Voldemort.
• Slughorn fought Voldemort alongside McGonagall and Kingsley.

In the epilogue, Harry tells his son Albus Severus that he was named after two Headmasters, and that one of them was a Slytherin and probably the bravest man Harry ever knew. If Albus is sorted into Slytherin, Harry says, the house will be lucky to have him.

Common myths about Slytherin

Myth	Reality
“All Slytherins are evil.”	Slytherin produced heroes as well as villains.
“All dark wizards were Slytherins.”	Most were, but not all. Peter Pettigrew was a Gryffindor.
“Slytherins are cowards.”	Their bravery is calculated rather than reckless. Snape and Regulus showed extraordinary courage.
“Only pure-bloods can be Slytherins.”	Tom Riddle and Snape were both half-bloods.

Slytherin vs the other houses

	Slytherin	Gryffindor	Ravenclaw	Hufflepuff
Core value	Ambition	Courage	Intelligence	Loyalty
Acts on	Strategy	Principle	Curiosity	Fairness
Typical flaw	Ruthlessness	Recklessness	Aloofness	Over-trusting
Element	Water	Fire	Air	Earth

For head-to-head comparisons, read Gryffindor vs Slytherin and Ravenclaw vs Slytherin.

Are you a Slytherin?

You might be a Slytherin if:

1. You always have a goal, and usually a plan to reach it.
2. You read people quickly and know who to trust.
3. You’d rather wait for the right moment than charge in.
4. You’re fiercely protective of your inner circle.
5. Failing bothers you more than being disliked.

Take our house quiz to see how strongly Slytherin shows up in your answers, and how close your other houses are.