Hogwarts: Atypical Slytherin

Dear Mom and Dad:

Trust me, everything is fine at Hogwarts.

I made new friends at Hogwarts, and they are all friendly, lively, and very cute!

I met a very gentle and polite boy in the robe shop in Diagon Alley. Her name was Cedric Diggory. He was the first person I met at Hogwarts. friend. He was sorted into Hufflepuff. We often take classes together, are partners in many practical classes, and work well together. He is very popular in Hufflepuff because he has a very gentle aura, loves learning, and is loyal to helping others. I like him very much.

The other two friends, whom Dad had met, were the two lively red-haired teenagers we met when we were looking for the Nine and a Quarter Station. They were the most enthusiastic peers I have ever seen! I feel very happy when I think about them, but sometimes they are too naughty! They like to make fun jokes with others, are very creative, and can sometimes come up with very clever ideas.

Since arriving at Hogwarts, I no longer have that nightmare. Perhaps, as Professor McGonagall said, these nightmares that cannot be intervened by conventional means may be related to my control of magic. Our school offers many courses, including Charms, Herbology, Potions, History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts. The most special one is the flying course, where we can learn how to fly in the sky on a broomstick - this is amazing! Although I have learned about this school with you before, I still couldn't imagine what flying lessons are like before - I will definitely take you to experience this magical feeling when I have the opportunity!

On the first day of school, I gave ten points to my college! I think the magic course is really interesting. I feel like I have entered a new world. Magic is not unfamiliar to me. I feel very comfortable. The teachers are also very good to me and I like this school very much.

Our meals are rich and delicious, with plenty of vegetables and meat every day. The elves working in the kitchen here also provided Mr. Black with fresh meat and were very friendly.

Forgot to mention, I was sorted into neither Hufflepuff nor Ravenclaw, but Slytherin. The school's sorting is not decided through personal ideas or some kind of test, but through a talking wizard's hat. The Wizard Hat will assign students to different colleges based on their characteristics. Most of the students in Slytherin where I am from come from pure-blood wizarding families. Some of the students here don't like Muggle-born wizards like me. So on the first day of school, I got into a fight with a boy who insulted my bloodline. Had a hard fight. I feel out of place in this academy.

I was not punished, but this boy was beaten very badly by me - thank you very much for training me all the time! I'm not hurt either! And because of this boy’s behavior, the dean of our college deducted a lot of points from our college. He didn't deduct points for my behavior, nor did he scold me on the spot. He just asked me to attend after-school services.

You already know this: my best friends are either in Gryffindor or in Hufflepuff. Because of their personalities, they always make friends - although I was not ignored because of this, I felt a little disappointed that I was the only one assigned to Slytherin, and I didn't make any friends in Slytherin. New friends - because they seemed to have known each other before they entered school. After the separation, they chatted with people they knew each other, and no one came to join me. But as time went by, my roommates and I did not exchange Christian names and were not close. By asking my friend Cedric, he told me that there are also some very disliked people in the wizarding world. As a young wizard from a Muggle family, I also reject everything related to Muggles. I don't know what attitude I should use to face them. I am troubled by my situation.

Mom and Dad, what should I do? My friends are also very nice to me, and I don’t hate the college I’m in. I’m happy most of the time in school, but this is the first time I’ve encountered such a situation. Regarding how to deal with this problem, I thought a lot, but I didn't think of a good way. Can you give me some advice?

Love you Clowney.

December 1989, 9

Ms. Duffin replied with a long letter.

Dear Lenny:

I am very happy to receive your letter. After my father and I carefully read your letter, we decided that I would be the main one to reply. Your father said that he only has two words to evaluate you, and not much else. These two words are: "WELL DONE."

Mom's thoughts are the same as your dad's.

You said that on the first day of school, a classmate insulted you because of your bloodline. This was very disrespectful and uneducated. You told me that your college is full of classmates who are full of racist ideas, which makes me a little worried. But you handled it well.

In this case, your approach is the only way to go. If a person's criterion for judging another person is based on a mere acquaintance and that person's ancestry, then that person's thinking has already been stereotyped. And this kind of thinking must have been imposed on him the day after tomorrow, so here, my mother boldly speculated that there are not a few people in the wizarding world who hold this idea.

Your father told me that it has only been a mere dozen years since the last racist war, and it may be very common for this kind of racial thinking to be engraved in people's hearts. A change in the overall thinking of a society not only requires the proposing of new ideas, but also requires time to evolve and replace them, and rights and power to force their completion. But no matter what, the magical world is still recruiting young wizards, and the war on racism has also ended in failure, which shows that people with such extreme emotions and thoughts must be in the minority.

Racism is disgusting, but there must be underlying causes. From the perspective of interests, it is impossible for people to do things that are completely unprofitable for them. Excluding the few people who are inherently bad, the reason that motivates the behavior of the majority must be profitable. If racism within a region is to prevent foreign invasion, racism outside a region is to expand interests, and racism within a newly built area is to implement and promote hierarchical rule, then within the same scope, Dividing the same people into different classes, and having the dominant class exclude new members of the class, must be to ensure that the resources it originally occupied are not infringed upon by emerging classes. From this perspective, except for a few absolutely ignorant groups, most people acquiesce in the spread of racism out of fear of harming their own interests.

The boy you mentioned certainly belongs to the former. He couldn't understand why his family supported racism, and his parents failed to teach him what parenting was, a real failure on their part. However, your behavior may lead to two situations: first, he may have tasted the pain of being uneducated in you, and will stop disturbing you; second, he may have a grudge and want to take revenge. you. If it's the first type, that's great, but if it's the second type, don't panic. Mom and Dad believe in your ability to handle this matter for you. This conflict is only between you and him. He cannot bring other people into the battlefield, and his behavior must be disgusted by the public - justice is on your side. Other people with a sense of justice will also be watching him for you, but you can't take it lightly, okay?

As for the fact that the new classmates in the college are all old acquaintances of each other, the advice your mother can give you is: keep the friendships you have now, and don't be sad about the friendships you don't get. Just like when you come to a new environment, if you see your good friend, your first reaction is to go find your good friend, right? So this is a normal thing. Everyone will habitually want to find familiar people to fight against an unfamiliar environment at the first time. But when this environment is no longer unfamiliar to them, they will no longer be afraid of new things. things.

However, because of what happened to the little boy earlier, my mother guesses that there may still be some racists in your college. When facing this group of people, you don’t need to care too much about their feelings. You just need to be yourself. There is no need to deliberately make friends. As long as they don't invade you, you don't need to look for them. When you become stronger, more and more people will gather around you.

Don't be afraid of walking alone, Lenny. Sometimes walking alone can attract other silent colleagues.

Regarding learning, we can all imagine how mysterious and interesting magic is. This mysterious power is indeed fascinating, but your parents don’t want you to waste your homework in the real world just because you are learning magic. Your father and I found a junior high school for you. You don't need to come to class, but you need to come back to take the exam during the holidays. Real-world lessons are also important, and they will certainly help with your magical studies.

The most important thing is that we don't know what kind of job you can do after you graduate from the wizarding school, and you are only eighteen years old at that time. If you follow the normal path, you can still go to college and see the wider world. Keep an active mind and a broad perspective to view everything.

Also: don’t forget to practice your violin!

love you mom and dad