Slytherin-Malfoy about slytherin   Like Salazar Slytherin, its founder, Slytherin house values ambition, cunning, resourcefulness and pure blood heritage. The book also suggests that power-hunger is a characteristic of Slytherins. Its animal is the serpent, and its colours are green and silver. The Bloody Baron is the house ghost. According to Rowling, Slytherin corresponds roughly to the element of water. The Slytherin dormitories and common room are reached through a bare stone wall in the dungeons. The Slytherin common room is a long, low underground room (probably under the Hogwarts lake, corresponding with Slytherin house's affiliation with water) with rough stone walls and round greenish lamps hanging from the ceiling. Until the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince the head of Slytherin House was Professor Severus Snape. After Professor Snape fled with the Death Eaters, Professor Horace Slughorn filled in for him. Slughorn had been Head of Slytherin for many years before retiring, and had just returned to Hogwarts in Half-Blood Prince. The Sorting Hat claims that blood purity is a factor in selecting Slytherins, although this is not mentioned until the fifth book. This suggests that it bases its decisions more upon the views of its members, than directly on any accurate test of blood. There is no reason to believe that muggle-born students are not sorted there, merely that pure-blooded students are more desirable to that house, as here are definite examples of half-bloods in the house (Snape and Voldemort). The fact that Rowling intended to place a character named Mafalda, a half-blood who was the daughter of a Squib and a Muggle, in Slytherin, suggests that Rowling at least does not view the Slytherin House desire for blood-purity as particularly influential upon the Sorting Hat. Mafalda, intended to be a cousin of the Weasley children, was ultimately cut from final edits of the book, to allow for more room to develop other plot lines. According to Albus Dumbledore (in 'The Chamber of Secrets'), the qualities which "Slytherin prized in his hand-picked students" include "Parseltongue...resourcefulness...determination...a certain disregard for the rules": which Dumbledore notes are qualities possessed by Harry Potter. Contrary to the wishes of the other founders, Salazar Slytherin wanted a stricter policy of admittance—one limited to pure-blood students. The controversy this created apparently led to Salazar leaving the school and the Chamber of Secrets behind. A millennium later, the house's students are still considered affiliated with Salazar's reputed views although some half-bloods, most notably Voldemort and Snape, have been in Slytherin. "Pureblood" lineage is certainly one of Voldemort's public goals. It is often mentioned in the novels (especially in Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets) that most of the dark wizards were in Slytherin (though how many were from this house before Tom Marvolo Riddle began recruiting there is unstated: as his own House, it was certainly most easy for him to recruit there). However, good Slytherin wizards also exist: most notable in the canon is Horace Slughorn, a member of the House prior to the entry of Tom Riddle. Cunning and ambition are easily turned towards ill purposes, but are not inherently negative; furthermore, daring, intelligence, and loyalty can as easily become negative. A reason Slytherins may not be thought of as the best kind of people is because they value their own lives more than the lives of others. When Harry is trying to run away, because he is afraid that his presence is putting his friends' lives in danger in Chapter 23 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Phineas Nigellus sees him and says, "We Slytherins are brave, yes, but not stupid. For instance, when given the choice, we will always choose to save our own necks." Sure enough, in the final book, when the students are given a choice to defend Harry and the castle or flee, the "entire Slytherin table" is deserted (Horace Slughorn is the only member of his house to remain on the defensive, having been reluctantly persuaded to do so by McGonagall). Rowling herself has defended Slytherins, claiming that while most Dark wizards are Slytherins, most Slytherins are not Dark, and smaller groups of Voldemort's supporters are aligned with other Houses. However, in Deathly Hallows, most of Slytherin didn't side with Harry Potter. The majority doesn't appear to have sided with Voldemort either. Horace Slughorn is an exception who fought against Voldemort. A few notable Slytherins (for a complete list, see List of characters in the Harry Potter books. Also see Minor Slytherins): Lord Voldemort The Malfoy family Draco Malfoy The Black family (with the exception of Sirius Black, who was a Gryffindor, and Nymphadora Tonks, who was a Hufflepuff) Marcus Flint Bellatrix Lestrange Horace Slughorn Regulus Black Severus Snape Phineas Nigellus Black Rodolphus Lestrange Rabastan Lestrange