I finished the Deathly Hallows, and I'm in this strange limbo- I feel a lot of resentment towards how Slytherins were portrayed in the book (I mistyped and originally had "portrayed" as "betrayed"... and honestly I feel like I could have left the mistype and it would have fit perfectly). I know it's stupid... but I can't help but think of our Pottertalia drabbles. There are characters who are pure Slytherin through and through- Arthur, Gilbert, Feliks, Vladimir- as well as Hope. I only started reading Harry Potter my senior year, so it's been a solid year since I've started, and I may be new to the fandom, but I've come to recognize Slytherins as sly and cunning, intelligent and willing to make sacrifices for personal gain, and they may not be as feverishly loyal as a Gryffindor or a Hufflepuff, but I don't think of them as evil or even bad characters. They have their flaws as well as their strengths that come with that House. They are innocent until proven guilty, correct?

So it irritates me that amateur authors, such as myself and the rest of the HetaSquad, can recognized that not every Slytherin is bad, but J.K. Rowling herself, the author of the Harry Potter series, portrays every member of the Slytherin as evil.

I understand that some of their parents were Death Eaters. I understand that they were all pure bloods, and probably had no problem at all with the idea of Voldemort's rule... but are you seriously trying to tell me that not one Slytherin stayed to protect Hogwarts?

... seriously? Because the one person Harry didn't like when he first met was a Slytherin? So now they're all bad?

I'm sorry, I just can't swallow that. I don't buy it for a second. First of, it's illogical. There's probably around 100 students in each house? I can't imagine TOO many- I mean, there were only 5 boys, including Harry, in the boys dormitory for his year. Let's break everything even and say there are 5 girls as well (if there isn't please don't correct me it's 4:30 in the morning and I don't feel like recalling every female Gryffindor in Harry's year to make sure I'm right), which makes 10. There are 7 years in the school, and 7 x 10 is 70, give or take a few students, it's close enough, but I digress.

You're telling me, that if you put 100 Slytherins in front of me, none of them would be good? All of them would side with Voldemort and the Death Eaters? None of them would feel the slightest allegiance to their school? Not one student?

The probability of the scenario is laughable, so WHY IS IT THE CASE IN THE BOOKS?

The series was wonderful as a whole, but if I had to nick pick, I think the lack of positive Slytherin representation was a huge let down for me.

And I'm not even a fucking Slytherin.