Dumboldore is to blame that during their studies the Slytherins went to Voldemort, and what did he do to stop them? Slughorn did nothing. Compare how many Slytherins went to Voldemort when Slughorn was the head of the house and when Snape was the head of the house. And many people say that Snape is a bad head of the house.
Well, I find it funny how the saga keeps repeating that there's no place safer than Hogwarts, when honestly I think my kids would be safer in the middle of a forest surrounded by hungry wolves than in that school full of adults with pedagogical skills up their asses.
First of all, we're talking about a boarding school, meaning the teachers are not only responsible for educating the children, but also for taking care of them while they’re there. They're their guardians during the school year. In the absence of their parents, it's up to them to ensure the kids' safety, and the truth is, they don’t give a flying fuck. These are adults full of prejudice who project their biases onto the children without the slightest shame, and I find it amusing that everyone always targets Snape for this when it's actually a widespread issue across the entire teaching staff. Let’s not forget that Dumbledore judges Tom Riddle even before he sets foot in Hogwarts and already labels him a sociopath. Slughorn spends his entire career using children as tools to gain contacts with influential families. Hagrid is a complete idiot with the common sense of a rock, and he has a specific grudge against Slytherins from the very beginning, which he passes on to Harry before the boy even arrives at Hogwarts or meets Ron. I mean, we're talking about supposedly positive characters (not Slughorn, fair enough), who are portrayed by the narrative as “good people,” but are they really? Honestly, they’re just the same dysfunctional adults projecting their shit onto the kids. That’s all there is.
One thing that’s always struck me is how Draco is portrayed as this spoiled crybaby who keeps tattling to his dad, and how Lucius uses his influence to get his son out of trouble. And sure, I can criticize the Malfoys for many things, but I’m not going to criticize them for flipping out when their son tells them about the crap that goes on at that school. If my kid told me that he’d won the House Cup fair and square and then the headmaster arbitrarily changed the results last minute out of pure favoritism? I swear to you, I’d march into Dumbledore’s office and set his damn beard on fire. If my kid calls me saying they left a reckless werewolf who doesn’t take his potion around him and his classmates? I swear I’d burn the whole school to the ground. There are so many, so many things that happened at Hogwarts that if I were a mother and my kid told me about them, I swear I'd nuke the castle with all the faculty inside. Because yes, Draco wasn’t right about many of the things he complained about, and Lucius was corrupt—that’s true—but my point is, seriously, some dark shit went down at that school and the teachers allowed it. They allowed bullying, they allowed the formation of cult-like groups, they didn’t just allow but encouraged prejudice against one of the houses, fostering its ostracism and the radicalization of its students. They allowed—and FUELED—the competition between kids from different houses as if house identity were something worth dying for over a goddamn Quidditch match, creating sides, grudges, and conflicts between kids the same age who could’ve easily been friends if there weren’t such a classist division. The whole school was a pedagogical nightmare. Anyone with the slightest interest in child and youth psychology can tell you the problem at Hogwarts wasn't Snape. The problem at Hogwarts was all the adults who encouraged and promoted detestable behavior.
And all of this was allowed by Dumbledore. He was the highest authority and he didn’t give a damn. A cult is forming under his nose? No problem, kids, let’s marginalize and judge those students as harshly as possible because why intervene in childhood development, right? Why bother with psychology and care? Why put effort into difficult cases if we’ve got students who kiss our ass by default?? Someone’s getting bullied at school? Who is it? Can they be useful to me or not? Oh, okay, then never mind. I have teachers who are absolute nightmares to children, but hey, who cares, right? It’s all fine.
There’s a systemic failure at Hogwarts, and honestly, the older I get, the more convinced I am that if my kid went to that school, I’d spend my life camped out at the gates raising hell and screaming like a lunatic because I genuinely think that place is an absolute horror show. And the worst part is the narrative normalizes it.
