Slytherin

Most of the first years who are sorted into Slytherin have been prepared for this their whole lives. They are high society people, after all. They come from money, wealth, and tradition. Whether or not their families believe in blood supremacy, they are most often people who have risen to the top and managed to stay there. Their children were born into this tradition, and have been raised with it. As such, most of them are prepared for Slytherin – and even those without the tradition behind it are of the sort who know what they want and are willing to do what they need to get there.

So they're all excited and ready – thought trying not to show it – to begin their lives as Slytherins. However, at their first entry into the common room many of them lose that excitement.

It looks cold, after all – cold and eerie and hard. It doesn't seem a welcoming environment at all, and for these nervous, tired eleven-year-olds it hardly seems like home.

But as they begin to get to know their Housemates and their common room, they realize that – despite its first impression – Slytherin House is the place where they belong after all, and the common room shows that.

First of all, it's obvious right from the start that Slytherin is the House for people who know what they want. Many of the other Houses are taken off guard by career counseling in fifth year. Not so the Slytherins – for them, this starts in first year. It's reinforced to the students that they don't have to decide what they'll do for the rest of their lives just yet, but there is also no rest for the ambitious. Every student must devise a plan to stay in school and take the subjects he or she wants to take – and everyone must do this alone. There will be meetings with career counselors later on – either the Head of House, or a private counselor hired by the family (and for those who lack the money, other students will be willing to chip in) – but from the very beginning, the students know that they must always be on their guard, always be looking to their futures.

There's also an emphasis on self-sufficiency in Slytherin. As such, hazing in dorms is common – but once the younger students "pass" and prove themselves strong enough to take the torment and fight back, the older students become their closest friends and allies. Slytherins strategize together, after all, and this creates a deep-seated loyalty between members of the House that's hard to beat.

This determination for self-sufficiency lends itself to self-defense. Lockhart's "dueling club" was a joke to the Slytherins, who have one which has compulsory attendance for at least the first two years. The Slytherins do not rest until they know that everyone in their House has at least an elementary level of skill at dueling and self-defense – and the half-bloods and ones with Muggle relatives will teach Muggle fighting, too, just in case someone is caught wandless. For the most part, the Slytherins dislike anything Muggle, but they see the practicality of this approach to teaching – and if it helps, then it's worth the lowering of their standards (as they see it).

As far as studying and learning go, the Slytherins have tables up for studying in the common room. When people have questions, they're always welcome to ask an older student – but the older students will try to avoid answering directly. Rather than providing answers or explanations, they'll give hints that will hopefully lead the struggling person to find the answer on his or her own.

Because they're determined for their House members to be able to hold their own in the real world as well as in Hogwarts, Slytherin parties are slightly different from those of the other Houses. While Gryffindor parties are loud, raging, and often drunken; Hufflepuff parties are cozy and comfortable; and Ravenclaw parties often devolve into discussions, if they happen at all; Slytherins hold much more dignified parties. Theirs are cocktail parties, in which everyone who attends wears dress robes and sips wine and champagne and asks the others probing questions about their personal lives – even if they already know the answers.

These parties are not only a way to have fun – because most of the Slytherins genuinely enjoy dressing up and eating expensive food – but they're also a practice for the life that most of these people will lead. They come from money, after all, and tradition. They need to know how to defend themselves against gossip, how to drink socially and responsibly, and how to handle themselves in polite society. These parties ensure that all these young people will grow up knowing how to behave and how to ask the right questions to get information and give the right answers to keep their business private. These parties are an entertaining way for them to practice for the lives that they will all someday lead.

However, the Head of House does not often venture into the Slytherin common room. Snape never comes, and even Slughorn is rarely there – much preferring the comforts of his office. And it is for this reason – their independence and lack of supervision – that after a few hours, Slytherin parties invariably become a little more like those often seen in Gryffindor House. People get a little wilder, a little less composed, and a little more drunk. Luckily, enough people have the sense to block sound outside of the common room so that no one can hear what will happen, and even drunk most Slytherins have the presence of mind not to do anything too moronic. But that doesn't mean that they don't have fun.

Slytherins, for all their ambitions, can be wickedly amusing. The common room, for instance, is a dangerous place to be on April Fools' Day. The cunning nature of most Slytherins makes them excellent at jokes and pranks, and only on this day are they willing to lower themselves to play them. Clever booby-traps await anyone unfortunate enough to stumble into them all over the common room. Everywhere, practiced liars are spouting out well-rehearsed stories. On this day, all dignity disappears from Slytherin House, and although they manage to preserve their façade in the face of the other Houses, in the common room it all falls away.

The Slytherin common room is cold and stiff, but filled with underlying motives and hidden excitements perfect for those who live there. It is a place where ambition and self-sufficiency are welcomed and celebrated, where people can strategize and learn, and where they become more prepared than anywhere else to face real life outside of Hogwarts. Although it may seem frightening at first, is a place that most students soon come to recognize as home.