As a fan of the Harry Potter franchise, you probably already know that he chanted “Not Slytherin” several times during his sorting ceremony. This happened when he wore the Sorting Hat on his first day at Hogwarts.
So, how did Harry quickly decide that he didn’t want to be in Slytherin, seeing as he only just arrived at Hogwarts?
Here’s all you need to know.
Why didn’t Harry want to be in Slytherin?
At the core, Harry’s reasons for not wanting to be in Slytherin were due to all the negative stories he had heard from Ron (his to-be best friend) and Hagrid (his first wizard friend). Besides, he had also had a distasteful first encounter with Draco (a Slytherin hopeful).
Being an easily impressionable 11-year-old, all these turned him off from the Slytherin house.
However, what exactly did Harry hear and experience that made Slytherin a no-go for him?
Here are five reasons that could be responsible for Harry Potter’s decision to avoid Slytherin:
He found out Voldemort was in Slytherin
On his first train ride to Hogwarts, Harry met Ron Weasley, and the two hit it off and quickly got talking. During their conversation, the two found their way to the subject of Hogwarts houses, and Ron revealed his entire family had been in Gryffindor.
Then, Ron revealed that the man considered to be the darkest wizard of all time had been in Slytherin in Hogwarts.
“…Gryffindor,’ said Ron. Gloom seemed to be settling on him again. ‘Mum and Dad were in it, too. I don’t know what they’ll say if I’m not. I don’t suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin.’ ‘That’s the house Vol– I mean, You-Know-Who was in?”
Having just found out Voldemort killed his parents, it is understandable that Harry didn’t want to be in the same house as the killer wizard.
You can find out why Voldemort wanted to kill baby Harry here.
Hagrid told him all Slytherin eventually go bad
While this statement may not be 100% accurate, it is not too hard to see how Hagrid arrived at this conclusion.
First, it was teenage Tom Riddle (a Hogwarts prefect in Slytherin House) that framed Hagrid for the death of Moaning Myrtle and got him expelled from Hogwarts. Then, of course, there is also considerable evidence of several other Slytherin alumni becoming Death Eaters.
Some prime examples include the Malfoys and Lestranges.
These and more drove Hagrid to bear deep hatred towards Slytherin’s house.
So, when Harry asked him about the Hogwarts houses, Hagrid told him there wasn’t any Slytherin alive who hadn’t gone over to the dark side. Not surprisingly, being Harry’s first connection to the Wizarding World (and indeed his first friend), Harry quickly took Hagrid’s words to heart.
“Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin. There’s not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one.”
His first encounter with Draco was rather unpleasant
Even before he discovered all the controversy surrounding Hogwarts houses (particularly Slytherin), Harry’s first impression of Draco was enough to send him running from Slytherin.
Harry met Draco while he was shopping for his Hogwarts robes. During their brief encounter, Draco sang praises about Slytherin while talking down on the other house. Even worse, he made fun of Hagrid (Harry’s first wizard connection and first friend).
“Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I’ll be in Slytherin, all our family have been – imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I’d leave, wouldn’t you?’
From their first encounter, Harry didn’t like Draco. So, if anything, he did not want to be in the same house with the spoiled and entitled rich kid.
However, when he saw his arch-nemesis being sorted into Slytherin, Harry reinforced his resolve not to end up in the same house.
“Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, ‘SLYTHERIN!”
There was no way he wanted to be in Slytherin after this!
Ron told him Slytherin was the worst Hogwarts house
In the case of Ron, his prejudice against Slytherin had more to do with his family’s stance than his personal experience. After all, the Weasleys were popularly anti-Slytherin.
However, unlike Harry, Ron grew up in the magical world where he was exposed to news about Death-Eater activities, dark wizards and witches, Voldemort supporters, etc. Of course, he also quickly learned that most of these people had a Slytherin background.
So, wanting to look out for his new friend, Ron told Harry that all “slimy snakes” (referring to Slytherin members) were evil and “Death-Eaters in training.”
In addition, Ron’s gloomy, almost-depressed outlook at the thought of being in Slytherin helped drive his point home.
The people at the Slytherin table didn’t look very nice
Although Harry was probably past convincing at this point, it is also worth mentioning that he didn’t like how the people at the Slytherin table looked.
While Harry was waiting in the great hall to be sorted into a house, he noted that the students sitting at the Slytherin table didn’t look very friendly. This happens after he just saw one girl, in particular, being sorted into Slytherin.
“‘Bulstrode, Millicent’ then became a Slytherin. Perhaps it was Harry’s imagination, after all he’d heard about Slytherin, but he thought they looked an unpleasant lot.”
However, this thought was arguably due to his growing dislike for the Slytherin house more than anything. After all, how un-nice could they have all looked?
Conclusion
Harry Potter’s growing prejudice for Slytherin (much of which he inherited from his two new friends) was a large part of him not wanting to be in the house. However, the fact that his parents’ murderer was also an infamous Slytherin supporter was a major turnoff.
Of course, his unpleasant encounter with a Slytherin hopeful couldn’t have helped matters.
At the end of the day, Ron and Hagrid played a pivotal role in shepherding Harry away from Slytherin as they both hated the house and impressed their sentiments on The-Boy-Who-Lived.
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