Just hear me out here:

pottersprogeny:

I want to start out with that i have absolutely no intention of offending or upsetting anyone. I simply want to point something out. I understand that I’m a gryffindor and i don’t understand exactly how slytherins feel about this subject, but i think I’m seeing it from both sides. so here me out, and please don’t get mad. 

now, a huge problem that people have with that battle of Hogwarts is that all the slytherins are escorted from the great hall because of what pansy said and that J.K. writes no instances of slytherins fighting in the battle. A lot of people feel that this was lazy, and i see where you’re coming from, i do. But I don’t think this is really whats going on. 

lets start with McGonagall having all the slytherins being escorted as a house out of the great hall because of what Pansy said. Now, I think that we can all agree on that Pansy is not a good example of a slytherin and that the whole house shouldn’t have been punished for her words. But put yourself in McGonagall’s place for a second. A battle is coming in an hour. She knows that most of the death eaters children are going to be in slytherin. She must make fast, and consequently rash, decisions. She has to make sure that these students cannot help their parents get into the castle and harm anyone else, including the other slytherins, in anyway. 

But McGonagall is a very fair teacher and person, as shown in the books when she takes points from gryffindor just as soon as she would from the other houses. i honestly believe that she understands that this is a generalization and not true. She knows that the majority of the house is nothing like pansy, crabble, and goyle. She also knows that slytherins will do anything to achieve what they want to achieve. 

ALL of these students are escorted to the dungeons by just one old caretaker that cannot use magic and then evacuated from the building after that, and i think this is completely intentional. SHE GIVES THEM CHANCES TO GET AWAY. McGonagall knows that the slytherins who want to fight will find a way in that span of time to get away from that group. That if they really want to fight for Hogwarts, they will. That is their momentary ambition, and they will achieve it. McGonagall knows and understands her students. She understands this about them. 

Now for the actually battle. The most important thing to remember is that THE BATTLE WE READ/SEE IS IN HARRY’S POINT OF VIEW. WE ONLY SEE WHAT HE SEES, AND HE HAS A VERY SPECIFIC TASK. He has to get to the horcruxes. He is not, until they very end of the fight, in the middle of this battle at all. He cannot take in everything around him or note everything that’s going on, he is in one place, concentrating on one thing. He cant see through walls and note everyone that’s fighting. 

He notices Lavender because Ron had a relationship with her, he notices Fred and Percy because he has relationships with them. He notices Ginny later because he loves her. He even notices Draco because he had a relationship with him, even if it wasn’t a good one. and other than that, harry didn’t have any relationships with slytherins. There is no reason why he would pick them out and note them specifically, when he is so focused on what he has to do. 

but that, in no way, means slytherins didn’t fight. I think its simply ridiculous to think they didn’t! They cared for the school and the cause just like all the other houses did. If they wanted to fight, they would have, and i believe without a doubt that they wanted to fight. It would have taken many people from all the houses to keep up with the death eaters like they did. If Hogwarts wasn’t united as one, they would’ve fallen, they wouldn’t have stood a chance. But Hogwarts didn’t fall, in fact it put up one hell of a fight. and that’s why i believe that the slytherins fought too, even if Harry didn’t mention it.