15 Most Famous Slytherin Characters in Harry Potter (Ranked)
Slytherin was one of the four Houses at Hogwarts, founded by Salazar Slytherin who instructed the Sorting Hat to pick students who had particular characteristics he valued most, such as resourcefulness, leadership and ambition. Salazar highly valued pure-blooded wizards and didn’t want any half-blooded or muggle-born students in his House. The emblematic animal of the house is a snake and its colours are green and silver. This is the list of the 15 most famous Slytherin characters in Harry Potter.
15. Phineas Nigellus Black
Phineas was a pure-blood wizard who became the least popular headmaster of Hogwarts, loathing his profession. He had black hair and dark eyes, a pointed beard and thin eyebrows and looked pretty clever and sophisticated.
He wasn’t concerned about others’ feelings and didn’t really care about them, being pretty snide, sarcastic and impatient. He disliked young people, found them boring and simply wouldn’t see any need in changing the way he spoke and behaved in front of them.
He respected Severus Snape and was aware of Albus Dumbledore’s skills, which he also acknowledged, even though he had completely opposite views. He was a very talented and skilled magician and took a lot of pride in that.
14. The Bloody Baron
The Bloody Baron attended Hogwarts in the time of the four founders and he was sorted into the House of Slytherin. He fell in love with Ravena Ravenclaw who didn’t share his feelings and when he found her in Romania, faced her refusal, he killed her in rage.
He committed suicide by stabbing himself with the same knife when he realised what he had done to Ravena. He became one of the ghosts roaming the castle and very soon the ghost of Slytherin House.
He was described as a hot-headed and short-tempered, impatient man who didn’t like to be wrong and contradicted. As a ghost, he was pretty frightening and scary so even fellow ghosts didn’t like to spend time with him, let alone wizards.
13. Regulus Black
Regulus was a pure-blood wizard and a member of the noble House of Black, an old wizarding family. He became a Death Eater when he was very young, but decided to quit when he found out about Voldemort’s hidden plans. He even learned about one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes and decided to destroy it.
He was Sirius’s younger brother and resembled him a lot, even though he was a bit shorter and less handsome than Sirius, as Harry once described him.
Regulus wanted to be similar to his parents and share their world and wizarding views. He was a true Slytherin, loyal to his house and at the beginning Voldemort’s great admirer, just like his parents, but he changed his opinion after learning a lot about his devious plans.
12. Merlin
Merlin attended Hogwarts in his formative years and it is possible that he was taught by Salazar Slytherin himself. He studied the five secret rooms at Hogwarts that one day became known as the fabled Cursed Vaults.
He is considered to be one of the greatest wizards of all time, with great skills, such as exceptional ability in charms, wandless magic, divination and spell creation. A lot is speculated about him, but he is always mentioned as one of the most notable Hogwarts students.
11. Leta Lestrange
Leta was a British-French pure-blooded witch who was pretty disturbed by the situation in his family and bullied at Hogwarts. She was Newt Scamander’s big friend until they parted ways when Newt took the blame for something she had done.
She was more of a taker than a giver, selfish and always to get out of any undesirable situation, especially the one she was in charge of. She felt guilty for the death of her brother and considered herself evil and a monster.
She wasn’t a typical Slytherin, she didn’t see herself as superior to anyone and showed her disinterest in belonging to a certain house when she befriended the Hufflepuff Scamander.
10. Andromeda Tonks
Andromeda was a pure-blooded witch and Narcissa and Bellatrix’s sister. After graduating from Hogwarts she married a Muggle-born, Ted Tonks and was disowned by her prejudiced family who never wanted to have anything to do with muggles.
Everyone used to say there was an uncanny similarity between her and her sister Bellatrix, with the main difference in their hair and eyes. Andromeda had light brown hair and wider and kinder eyes than her evil sister.
She was completely different from her sisters and family in general, with a big heart, blind to differences which she proved by marrying a muggle. She was a good mother and a loving wife and Sirius Black’s only real family.
9. Horace Slughorn
Slughorn is a talented and eccentric magician who returned to Hogwarts as Potions Master and later as a retired man when Dumbledore asked him to teach. He was described as being a very fat, enormous and bald old man.
He is very short with a huge belly, with a gingery blond moustache and hay-coloured hair. He was portrayed as a life-loving man who enjoyed the food but would sometimes come out as vain. He was a good-natured person but interested only in people he thought were special in a way.
He was a Potions teacher and compared to his predecessor Snape, his classes were more excitable, interactive and friendly and he knew how to motivate his students to participate and study.
8. Salazar Slytherin
Salazar was a full-blooded wizard known for his determination and shrewdness. He is still regarded as one of the greatest wizards of all time, being a Parselmouth and a skilled Legilimens. He was one of the four founders of Hogwarts and the namesake of the Slytherin House
He was opposed to muggle born students and when he expressed his opinion to the rest of the sounders, they disagreed so he left Hogwarts and never returned and died sometime after creating the Chamber of Secrets, concealing a basilisk.
He was a very cunning and determined man who never stopped when he decided to achieve something and he valued the same characteristics with other people. He was also very proud and vain, thinking the best of himself.
7. Narcissa Malfoy
Narcissa is a full-blooded witch, Bellatrix and Nadromeda’s sister, Lucius Malfoy’s wife and Draco’s mother. She was never a true Death Eater but she believes in the importance of blood purity and supports her husband in following Lord Voldemort.
She is a pure, stubborn woman who often looks down on others, especially the ones she considered lees worthy, such as muggle born or half-blood wizards and witches. She is coldhearted and doesn’t like to deal with people, but has a big heart when it comes to her family.
She is especially protective of her son Draco and has a close relationship with her eccentric sister Bellatrix despite their different personalities. On the other hand, she has always despised Andromeda who led a completely different life.
6. Draco Malfoy
Draco is Lucious and Narcissa’s only son who was raised to believe in blood purity and has always looked down on everyone different from him. He is Harry’s biggest enemy at Hogwarts, always lurking from somewhere and never leaving him alone.
He was made prefect of his house and also a Death Eater at 16, but was disappointed with their lifestyle. He wasn’t capable of killing Dumbledore when he got the task so Severus Snape took it over.
Tall, slender, fair skinned, with blonde hair and cold-grey eyes, he is an arrogant, vain and spiteful bully who hides all his insecurities behind his load and aggressive persona. He is intelligent and cunning but showed his cowardly side more than once.
5. Dolores Umbridge
Professor Umbridge is maybe the most disliked character in the whole Harry Potter series, due to her ignorance, hypocrisy and overall mean behaviour. She was a British Ministry of Magic bureaucrat who was installed as the Defence Against Dark Arts Professor and then later Hogwarts Headmistress.
She was remembered as one of the worst headmasters ever since her reign was cruel and full of punishment for the most hilarious things. She has always interfered in a condescending manner which made her unpopular among students and teachers too.
She is an extremely evil woman, who represents the worst in people, but also the worst in political power. She is cruel, corrupt, sadistic, brutal, never open to talk or discuss and full of herself, convinced she is the best in everything.
4. Bellatrix Lestrange
One of the greatest villains in the Harry Potter world is this eccentric and evil, but extremely talented pure-blooded witch, Andromeda Tonk and Narcissa Malfoy’s sister. Bellatrix. She was a member of the House of Black and after graduating from Hogwarts, she became a Death Eater.
She is one of the most loyal and devoted to Lord Voldemort’s followers and definitely one of the most sadistic and dangerous, due to her temper, sadistic tendencies and psychopathic behaviour.
She looks eccentric, with her long, messy curly hair, crazy eyes and evil smile. She is completely devoid of feelings toward many around her, is obsessed with blood purity and extremely proud of her aristocratic background.
3. Lucius Malfoy
Lucius is a pure-blooded wizard, Draco’s father and a Death Eater. He attended Hogwarts where he was made a prefect in Slytherin House. He is one of the biggest antagonists in the movie, an aristocratic wizard who believes in the superiority of pure-blooded wizards.
He is tall and slender, with a pale face, blonde hair and cold grey eyes. He can be seen carrying a walking stick with a snake head. He is very wealthy and influential in the wizarding circles and he takes great pride in his aristocratic background.
He is very intelligent and knows how to use his skills and knowledge. He can be manipulative and is in general very cold-hearted and cruel. In spite of these negative personality traits, he is very loving and caring towards his wife and son.
2. Severus Snape
Snape is a half-blood wizard, a Death Eater, a member of the Order of the Phoenix, Hogwarts Defence Against the Dark Arts professor and Headmaster. He is one of the most beloved Harry Potter characters, even though can be often seen on the list of its negative protagonists.
He was a weird, shy and quiet Hogwarts student, Lily Potter’s good friend but lost her when she fell in love with James Potter, who immediately became his enemy, together with his best friend Sirius Black who even bullied him on certain occasions.
Snape is one of the most complex characters, appearing cold, withdrawn, malicious, bitter and sarcastic, often very strict and cruel to his students, but at the same time with a good heart. He was very insecure and vulnerable, a sad lonely man who wanted to be part of a better world, but has never been given a chance.
1. Tom Riddle (Voldemort)
Tom Riddle was a half-blooded wizard, later known as Lord Voldemort, considered to be one of the most dangerous and powerful wizards of all time. He was a very talented Hogwarts student who disliked his muggle side and wanted to forget it.
He abandoned his muggle name and became Lord Voldemort with a great army next to him who performed gruesome murders and many atrocities. He had many opponents, but the only one who could ever do him harm was Harry Potter.
He was highly intelligent and skilled, cunning and sly and tremendously capable of everything related to magic. He never cared about anyone else but himself and used people only for his fights and defeats. But this was also one of his flaws, the inability to see a larger picture and being concentrated only on what he believed was important.
