Harry Potter: 10 Bravest Slytherins Of The Whole Series

At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Slytherin house has a reputation for a lot of different things. They’re well known for being ambitious and cunning. They’re widely regarded as the sneakiest Hogwarts house. They tend to socialize mostly with each other, they’re elitist, and they’re isolationists. They don’t have a high regard for Muggles, which a lot of more forward-thinking witches and wizards think is incredibly prejudiced.

One thing that Slytherin definitely doesn’t have a reputation for is being brave. Out of all of the houses at Hogwarts, Slytherin seems to be the most likely to look out for themselves. However, that doesn’t make them cowards. Sometimes, it just means they’re clever. Regardless of the Slytherin stereotype, though, there have been plenty of students in the house of the snake that have been bolder and braver than even most Gryffindors. So, here are some of the bravest Slytherin students in history.

10 Narcissa Malfoy

Narcissa Malfoy may not be a good person, but it’s pretty hard to deny that she’s a brave one. One of the greatest lessons to be learned in the entire Harry Potter series is that the power of a mother’s love is something that is borderline impossible to defeat, and that is a lesson that Lord Voldemort failed to learn both from Lily Potter and from Narcissa Malfoy.

Most people would be too terrified to lie straight to Voldemort’s face, but when the choice was between protecting her son at the risk of her own life or just telling Voldemort the truth, Narcissa didn’t hesitate to put herself in the potential line of fire.

9 Andromeda Tonks

Say what you will about the Black family, but it seems that their pure bloodline comes with a pretty heavy dose of bravery. Andromeda Tonks is the middle sister of the Black sisters (just imagine being sandwiched between Narcissa and Bellatrix, yikes), and she is one of the few members of the Black family who chose her own path regardless of the consequences.

Marrying a Muggle-born is not something that the Black family was permitted to do, but when Andromeda Black fell in love with Ted Tonks, she was willing to be disowned by her entire family just to follow her heart.

8 Albus Potter

It may be hard to believe that the progeny of Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley could be sorted into any other Hogwarts house besides Gryffindor, but the youngest Potter child actually was. Albus Severus Potter wound up in Slytherin, and although he apparently differed enough from his parents (or perhaps not) that he wound up in the house of the snake, he certainly took after them in a lot of his other school behaviors.

Throughout his career at Hogwarts, Albus got up to some pretty wild stuff, even using a Time Turner to go back to his father’s era at Hogwarts to try to change the past.

7 Regulus Black

Regulus Black seems like another member of the Black family who decided to carry on the pseudo-tradition of choosing his own path regardless of the consequences. In his young life, Regulus was more than happy to continue on with his family’s arrogance, pure blood mania, and attraction to the dark arts. But after joining up with the Death Eaters and seeing what Lord Voldemort truly had to offer, Regulus became disillusioned with the situation and decided to defect.

He didn’t just leave, though: he decided to take on the mission of stopping Voldemort himself, and he even managed to snag one of the dark lord’s Horcruxes.

6 Bellatrix Lestrange

There’s kind of a philosophical discussion to be had about people like Bellatrix Lestrange. If someone is basically too reckless and too fanatical to care about anything that happens to them or anyone else, can their behavior ever really be considered brave?

Regardless of how anyone feels about that particular question, something that is utterly undeniable about Bellatrix Lestrange is that she is not one to ever back down from anything. She is always at the front lines of every fight, and even when she finds herself in grave danger she can’t be bothered to care. She even seems to enjoy it.

5 Merlin

There are many characters within the wizarding world that are legends in their own right, but it is very rare that a witch or wizard is famous in the Muggle world as well.

Merlin is a wizard that will be familiar to nearly everyone on the planet, even though they may not be aware that he attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, or that he was actually in Slytherin house. Merlin was definitely on team Muggle, though: he wanted the wizarding world and Muggle world to work together and was willing to put himself on the front lines in order to facilitate that.

4 Leta Lestrange

On a certain level, what constitutes bravery will probably be subjective from person to person, but there are a few things that are just undeniably brave. going up against an enemy that you know you can’t defeat for the sake of giving others a better chance is one of the bravest things a person can do.

When Leta Lestrange decided to stand up against Gellert Grindelwald she knew that she was signing her own death warrant, but when her fiance Theseus and childhood friend Newt were likely about to die at Grindelwald’s hands, Leta provided just enough distraction to allow them to escape, even though it ended her life.

3 Salazar Slytherin

With any list of the bravest Slytherins who ever lived, it would be a crime to leave out the founder and namesake of Slytherin house. Salazar Slytherin is one of the greatest wizards who ever lived, and although his house has a reputation for being quite cowardly and devious, that’s kind of a misinterpretation of many common Slytherin traits.

Salazar wound up leaving Hogwarts because he didn’t want to admit Muggle-born students. Obviously, that’s prejudicial, but he also wasn’t willing to potentially risk the safety of students at the hands of Muggles, and at least he stood by his principles enough to leave when the rest of the Hogwarts founders disagreed.

2 Tom Riddle

Tom Riddle may have grown up to be the darkest, most evil wizard who ever lived, but there is one thing that is undeniable about his experience at Hogwarts in Slytherin house. He was certainly a very bold student, and he definitely dared to do many things that most students wouldn’t even dream of attempting.

Ripping your soul into pieces is a repulsive thing to do, but it’s easy to overlook how dangerous it really was, and it did take an exceptionally strong and particular kind of courage for Voldemort to develop into the person he became. You know, even if he was the actual worst.

1 Severus Snape

When even the people who hated you admit that you’re one of the bravest people they’ve ever known, then obviously you have to be pretty brave. Severus Snape actually had a reputation as a bit of a coward, and in his youth he probably was, but he grew into a level of bravery that even the boldest of Gryffindors probably couldn’t attain.

It’s one thing to stand up for what you know is right, but it’s quite another to do what Severus Snape did. He understood that he was wrong in the past, and he literally put his life on the time a countless number of times to make up for those wrongs.