If you can call it that...according to one post-DH interview apparently there were lots of Good Slytherins right there in DH. The text says that Slughorn returned with Charlie Weasley, the shopkeepers of Hogsmeade and what looked like the friends and family of every (non-Slytherin) student already fighting in the battle (since every single Slytherin left--except for Draco, Crabbe and Goyle). JKR somehow remembers Slughorn galloping back with all the Slytherins who had merely gone to get reinforcements!
I think it's the usual pattern in interviews from before; in the books she writes them as completely pathetic and evil, but when asked why they continue exist she claims they're not all bad. She also oddly said that she agreed with Dumbledore that they "sort too soon" because it's terrible to mark a child that young...but if Slytherin isn't evil, it's hard to say why it should be so bad to Sort them. Dumbledore himself says that line to basically tell Snape that maybe he didn't deserved to be damned so young.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-03-04 07:09 pm (UTC)I think it's the usual pattern in interviews from before; in the books she writes them as completely pathetic and evil, but when asked why they continue exist she claims they're not all bad. She also oddly said that she agreed with Dumbledore that they "sort too soon" because it's terrible to mark a child that young...but if Slytherin isn't evil, it's hard to say why it should be so bad to Sort them. Dumbledore himself says that line to basically tell Snape that maybe he didn't deserved to be damned so young.