This is one of the more popular houses to write, for the fandom. Unlike Ravenclaw or especially Hufflepuff, Slytherin House is rarely forgotten by any writers, no matter how inexperienced. Even the ones who haven't read the books know of the hawt!!tOm FeLtOn!!1, and therefore know of the House that the protagonists are against.

Slytherin House, portrayed in the books, is the 'evil' House. From Hagrid's 'there's not a witch or wizard that went back that wasn't in Slytherin' to Harry's own 'Not Slytherin... NOT SLYTHERIN', to the Quidditch Final in PoA, where all the Houses EXCEPT for Slytherin are decked in Gryffindor colours, because Slytherin is the baaaaad one.

The two common ways that the more simplistic writers interpret this are rather opposites of each other. The first way is, of course, to 'follow canon' and declare that Slytherins are EEEVIL. Especially the males and Pansy Parkinson. Pretty much, that Slytherin House = the Junior Death Eater Corps, with Draco Malfoy as acting president and Pansy Parkinson, always as his faithful, mincing little girl Friday, the gold-digging bitch secretary. Sure makes you wonder what the hell Slytherin House would have been like before Voldemort's time when 'Death Eaters' didn't exist.

But in actuality, this ISN'T 'following canon'. Canonical Slytherins have been shown as mean at times, to be sure. They can be ruthless, rude, bratty, spoiled and obsequious. They can be prejudiced, self-serving and manipulative. But then again, those are not the defining characteristics of the house, and furthermore, none of these equate to evil. They equate to the potential for evil, but then, other things do as well. Everyone has the potential of evil inside, and moreover, Slytherins aren't even the only ones who are the above 'negative' characteristics. Is not Peter Pettigrew obsequious? Is not Sirius Black, object of one million fangirls' lust and adoration, spoiled and prejudiced in some places? Is not Hermione, paragon of the fandom, self-serving and ruthless when she deliberately sets the centaurs upon Umbridge, odious though that woman might be in her eyes? Is not Zacharias Smith, of the 'nice Hufflepuffs' (that rant is for another time), somewhat rude and bratty in his behaviour?

The lesson to be learned from all this is that all the characters are HUMAN. Therefore, they all have failings. To say that Gryffindors are automatically good and Slytherins are automatically evil is not only untrue, it is oversimplistic and ignores basic principles of human behaviour. Not to mention... sure, the Slytherins are characterized negatively in canon, but we shouldn't forget whose point of view canon is from. Oh yes, Harry's. Harry doesn't LIKE Slytherin. Harry has no friends in Slytherin. It is therefore natural (if somewhat biased on his part) for him to portray that house as negative. But the fact that he IS in fact biased should be taken into account.

All right. Enough on the topic of 'all Slytherins are evil heartless Death Eaters'. Onto the other most common characterization flaw.

The angsty dark poet with the heart of golden fluff, secretly rebelling against the rest of the House. Especially common in Draco/Hermione fics. In these fics, the select Slytherin character of choice (usually Draco and Narcissa, for some incomprehensible reason) wish to GOD that they were only Gryffindors, where they'd be accepted and *weep* LOVED.

All right. First of all, I have no idea HOW the idea(s) that Draco and Narcissa are abused came about, but there's really nothing to support this in canon. I'm not saying that the Malfoys are just a blonde version of the Weasleys. Far from it. But why the hell would Lucius beat his only son and wife? He DOES have a reputation to maintain, and being a high-powered wizard in the Ministry might be a bit hard if social workers kept banging on his door clamouring about the mistreatment of his family. Not to mention, suuuure, a quaking, fearful, bruised and battered wife and son are JUST the type you have around when your Death Eater friends come and gather. Yeah, uh huh, Narcissa is going to host an elegant soiree of all the pureblood families in the region with a black eye, staggering about on crutches and twitching from the aftermath of the Cruciatus curse. The woman was a Slytherin. Give her some credit. She'd HAVE to be made of stronger stuff than that to face the expectations of her family and the general prejudice of the school than to content herself with being a battered housewife.

Also, Draco is canonically a BRAT. He's a snob. He's a spoiled, snarky, arbitrary child used to getting his own way. He might not be used to the idea of being friendly, but generally he seems content to be the way he is. NEVER has it been shown that he'd prefer to be a Gryffindor. He HATES the Gryffindors on principle.

Aside from Draco and Narcissa, I think that the Slytherins are a close knit bunch with lots of house pride. They stick up for each other and move as one no less than the Gryffindors do. They might stab each other in the back if necessary, but in general I don't think that they do, because they know from their own selves what their housemates are capable of. But they'd have to be at least publically united in the face of the rampant prejudice of the other houses. So, even if [Slytherin A] and [Slytherin B] were having a personal disagreement, you better believe that they'd defend each other viciously from the attacks of [Gryffindor/Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw C]. Slytherin does NOT equate to Goth, punk, loner or existentialist.

Which brings me onto the next topic... the Mary Sues of Slytherin House.

Usually it's not the Slytherin Sues who are the perky blonde cheerful types with violet eyes and pet phoenixes and the animagus form of a unicorn. However, they tend to be either the walking Hot Topic advertisements, or the angst whore long lost relative of either Malfoy, Riddle, Snape or, on occasion, Potter.

The Hot Topic Sue wears pseudo punk clothing and/or leather, might be part-vampire, is often pale but with dark hair (although the haircolour-not-found-in-nature is also popular), and a complete bitch. She is what the author deems as witty, but often her lines are stolen from TV shows or such, or alternatively she uses ghetto American slang insults straight from mass-manufactured rap. What I do not understand is how the hell any of this makes her Slytherin. None of this is in the least 'ambitious', unless the ambition in question is 'how to become Hogwarts' resident freak'. The Hot Topic Sue also seduces, usually without any trouble, either Snape or Draco.

This is a more difficult task than one would imagine. Snape is really not the type to go after a student, no matter how attractive. He's disciplined (think Occlumency), rather unsociable, and really, has better things to do than to ponder which of his students to shag. Y'know, the whole 'Death Eater/Order of the Phoenix double agent' thing, dealing with all the students, etc. etc. As for Draco, he's not shown TOO much interest in girls thus far. Not to mention, he's SNOBBY. He's practically an aristocrat, and he'd have better taste than the slutty looking one with fifty piercings wearing something straight out of a trashy Muggle dance club. If he WERE to choose a girl, the girl would be pure-blooded, clean up really nice (and be WILLING to clean up really nice), and appeal to him mentally and physically. Hot Topic Slut Sue really doesn't meet any of these qualifications, and besides, even if Draco had been placed under Imperius and forced to guzzle love potion, Narcissa wouldn't allow a pleather-wearing piercing-loaded piece of trash into her home, and you'd better believe that if the choices were 'a decent shag' or 'my obscenely large inheritance and the dotage of my mother', Draco would go for the latter. What's not to say that a PRESENTABLE girl wouldn't be a good shag, too? Not to mention, wouldn't someone who's got metal spikes in random parts of her body be rather uncomfortable to have sex with? Anyway, moving on.

The Angsty Sue is often the long-lost and often-ignored relative of a Malfoy or a Snape or Voldemort. She's often astonishingly beautiful but tragic, with some terrible past and a very uncertain future, because her relatives are, for whatever reason, either cruel or don't know of her existence. Although it is plausible for such a character to exist, she's been cliched and done to death. Also, most people really wouldn't care what happens to her, as in the grand scheme of all things canon, she's probably not important. Although the authors tend to make her very important, which just irritates readers even more because dammit, who gives a crap about YOUR character?

She is also often like the aforementioned dark poet Slytherin type, angsty and crying buckets over everything and bemoaning the terrors of her House. Really, even if she were in anguish, I'd think that a Slytherin would have the ability to NOT bawl and whine and make ugly scenes in public with no possible gain. It really isn't as though the other Houses would be oh-so-sympathetic to her plights.

Now that several sins have been discussed, I suppose I should go onto what I consider positive characterization of OCs and canon characters.

Take for example slythhearted's Marcus Flint. He's snarky, confident, friends with Draco Malfoy and occasionally rude (yeah, teammate Angelina got pregnant JUST to spite him XD). However, he's neither eeeeeevil, extremely angsty or acting in any way that contradicts canon. He's no heroic knight on shining armour like the Gryffindors, but he is extremely protective of what is his, although he doesn't hobnob easily with those he considers unworthy. In truth, aside from Katie, Ginny, Draco and Snape, he doesn't really have close friends. He's proud of his House and doesn't fall over himself apologizing to Katie for previous spats on the Quidditch pitch in their school days. Nothing contradicts the Flint in the books, but he's not shown to be flatly evil OR unrealistically good. He's HUMAN, and that's what's important.

Take also for example mynuet's Draco. He's a brat. He hates Harry, Ron, Hermione... well, just about all of the Gryffindors. He's vicious when crossed, and he's self-serving and has his petulant moments. All of this is canonical. But he's not flatly evil either, and the author establishes enough back-story to show why he chooses the paths that he does. Oh yes, and he never wears leather pants. See, it CAN be done, to make a human Draco, with both positive and negative points.

There are plenty of other Slytherin OCs or almost-OCs out there too, who I consider characterized well. kimmieann's Emma Dobbs is cynical and occasionally misguided, but gutsy and ruthless in her own way to pursue what she wants. kirixchi's Narcissa is a formidable witch in her own right, somewhat snooty but well-bred, an equal to her husband. dovielr's Snape IS canon Snape, with the same rivalries and skills and shortcomings that the Potions Master of the books has (and no, Snape is NO sex god). Hell, even when yours truly writes Slytherins, she tends to at least TRY to make sure that they have the calculating, self-serving sort of take on life that one can draw as a characteristic from the books (with or without the Harry bias), but also to make them, y'know, human, with human emotions. There are others as well.

There are other things I could go into that I don't agree with, but I think that these are the most prevalent fandom cliches. Slytherin is a complex, interesting House, perhaps more so because of the negative attention in the books, and many authors try to tackle it in their writing. I can only wish anyone who does good luck. When done well, a good Slytherin characterization is hard to beat. Just avoid the traps and pitfalls ;)

End.