Sadde grins. "You know, you would actually make a fine Slytherin," he comments.

"You probably think you're complimenting me."

"I mean a real Slytherin, like me!"

"As opposed to what, fake Slytherins?"

"Yeah! You know, like those who aren't even consistent enough to oppose muggles and then not go ahead and use primitive muggle methods of conflict resolution. Those are totally fake Slytherins."

"There are only four houses, I'm not sure you can use such a rigid standard and still expect a roughly even split."

He shrugs. "Sure, but apparently the Hat has decided to put the people who don't mind being associated with Slytherin rather than those that really should be Slytherin. Or the blood purists, or whatever. I mean, you can't really say any of them has exactly embodied any of the virtues of Salazar for like forty years." Someone's been reading his war history books.

"Salazar did actually care about blood. It was a thing."

"Yeah but it wasn't what his House was about."

"Are you sure?"

"Well not sure sure, I guess I'd have to look at some history book or something, but it sounds... incongruous with the whole theme the Houses have going on: bravery and determination, wit and learning, hard work and loyalty, cunning and hating muggles."

"Traditionalism," suggests Karen.

"I don't think that's one of the things, I could totally see Slytherins defending that if it was and they don't. They go mostly the cunning and ambition way, those sound pretty neat already, I don't think Traditionalism makes a lot of sense there." He shrugs.

"It's a long held association and was one of the original considerations of admission even if it would not make a top two list. Your aesthetics for what the lists should look like are not necessarily Salazar's anyway."

"Fine, but they're what I'm gonna reform Slytherin into anyway, so there." He lizard-tongues at them.

"Well, good luck."

"I'm still gonna pick your brains about it!" he warns.

"I tremble in fear."

He grins. "Anyway, Winky visited yesterday."

"How'd that go?"

"It was... curious. Turns out the reason Turvy said she was talking so much about her feelings was because she was, erm, crying a lot all the time about her dead ex-masters."

"Oh poor thing!"

"Wasn't pretty," he nods.

"They get really attached, especially if their families are nice to them."

"I don't know if they were so nice to her," he says. "I mean, one of them actually fired her."