12 Harry Potter Theories Better Than What We Got

5. Hogwarts Was Pressured By Dark Wizards Thanks To Financial Requirements

One of the most disarming, worrying statements made in the entire history of Harry Potter comes right at the start of the first book. As a means to explaining the house system, JK Rowling has Hagrid tell Harry that there was "not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin."

And yet, Hogwarts - an apparently wholesome institution of learning - continues to have a Slytherin House, which might as well be called Evil Club. Surely, if you had a repeated problem that you knew at least one cause of, you'd seek to deal with that problem? Rather than, you know, continuing to stigmatise Slytherin as the House of Evil to the other students and making the kids sorted in there sleep in the dungeon. Even just watching out for the students who seem rather over-enthusiastic about being sorted into that House might have been an idea...?

Once more, it looks like Dumbledore and his teaching staff being incompetent ignoramuses.

Or maybe Hogwarts' neglect in fostering such a dangerous environment was by design? One theory suggests that because Hogwarts doesn't charge fees, it relies on the donations of benefactors. And it would fit that the students most suited to greed and power - Slytherins, in other words - would go on to become wealthy enough to become benefactors.

Given the pure-blood preachings of Salazar Slytherin, those benefactors might have a vested interest not only in preserving his Hogwarts legacy but also in secretly encouraging an environment in which more students could be groomed to share his and their beliefs. After all, the Malfoys hold way too much sway for a family of bigots with links to a genocidal maniac and you can only think their continued patronage of Hogwarts is allowed because they offer something in return.

Otherwise, it really is just negligence.