Highlights
- Salazar Slytherin built the Chamber of Secrets to preserve his pure-blooded legacy and only his true heir could open it and control the monster within.
- The true heir of Slytherin is revealed to be Tom Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort, who had a direct bloodline connection to Slytherin through the Gaunt family.
- Tom Riddle opened the Chamber of Secrets during his time at Hogwarts and framed Hagrid for the incident, using a diary to possess Ginny Weasley and unleash the Basilisk once again.
Hogwarts is known, among many other things, for putting underage wizard students through life-or-death situations. During the second installment of the Harry Potter saga, The Chamber of Secrets, it is revealed that Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts, built a secret chamber that wouldn’t open until his heir arrived at the wizarding school. Right as Harry starts his second year of wizarding classes, the chamber, of course, opens, unleashing panic amongst the students, particularly muggle-borns, and raising the question: who is the heir of Slytherin?
Salazar Slytherin, known for his desire for a pure-blooded wizard society, created the Chamber of Secrets to preserve his legacy. Only his true heir could unlock its secrets and control the monster hiding within. There have been many Slytherin descendants throughout the decades, long before the events of the Harry Potter saga take place. However, it took over a thousand years for one of them to let the monster, a giant basilisk, loose in the school.
Is Harry Potter Related to Salazar Slytherin?
When Harry, Ron, and Hermione decide to uncover the identity of Slytherin’s heir, their first suspicions point to Draco Malfoy, as the Malfoy family is the epitome of what the house represents. Lucius Malfoy, a pureblood supremacist, openly agrees with Slytherin's anti-muggle ideologies, as does his son. However, the Golden Trio are surprised to find out that Draco is not directly related to the Hogwarts founder. This leads them to believe that maybe Slytherin’s true heir is none other than the Boy Who Lived himself.
Throughout the series, Harry’s Gryffindor identity is put into question, making many, including the Sorting Hat, wonder if he would have been a better fit for Slytherin. After the Chamber of Secrets is opened, Harry discovers his own ability to speak Parseltongue, something particularly rare in the wizarding world, but common amongst the Slytherin bloodline, placing him as the top suspect of being Slytherin’s heir. This ability, however, is later revealed to be a result of the link between Harry and Voldemort’s soul inside him, not due to any connection to Salazar Slytherin. It is possible, yet unlikely, that Harry is related to Slytherin through other family connections, though there is no evidence of Potter family members having relationships with Slytherin’s descendants, and his mother was a muggle-born.
Who Is the True Heir of Slytherin?
Looking into the past, the true heir of Slytherin turns out to be none other than Tom Marvolo Riddle, better known as Lord Voldemort, the Dark Lord. Besides his ability to speak Parseltongue, which he passed on to Harry after he survived his attack, his bloodline was linked to the Hogwarts founder. This relationship traces back to the Gaunt family, his maternal relatives. Tom Riddle, his biological mother Merope, uncle Morphin, and maternal grandfather Marvolo Gaunt were all direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin himself. The Gaunts used to be a powerful and wealthy purebred family. To maintain their pureblood status, they often married their cousins, which led to inbreeding, resulting in less intelligent but proud and arrogant wizards. Despite a financial downfall before Riddle was born, there was one heirloom left from the Gaunts’ past fortune: the Slytherin locket, which further strengthens his connection to the legendary wizard and his self-importance.
Long before becoming Lord Voldemort, arrogant and ambitious Slytherin alumn Tom Riddle pursued a pureblood wizarding society, which eventually led him, and many others who seeked the same, down a path of darkness and self-destruction. Back when he was a student at Hogwarts, his connection to the Gaunts, and therefore Slytherin, allowed him to open the Chamber of Secrets, kickstarting his first attempt to complete Slytherin’s work and cleanse the school of impure blood. Student Myrtle Warren, now known as Moaning Myrtle, was killed after looking into the Basilisk’s eyes near the entrance of the chamber. Riddle then closed the chamber and framed Rubeus Hagrid and his Acromantula, Aragog, for the incident. Before graduating from Hogwarts, Tom turned his diary into a Horcrux, which would possess the mind and take the physical body of whoever wrote in it.
During Harry Potter andThe Chamber of Secrets, Tom Riddle’s Diary possesses Ron's youngest sister, Ginny Weasley, using her body as a vessel to open the Chamber of Secrets for a second time, speaking Parseltongue, and unleashing the Basilisk, causing multiple students to get Petrified. The diary allowed a sixteen year-old version of Tom Riddle to regain a physical body in exchange for Ginny's life. Harry, Ron, and Professor Lockhart go inside the chamber, which Harry opens by speaking Parseltongue. Harry manages to kill the Basilisk and destroy the diary, saving Ginny and preventing students from further danger. Though many Slytherin relatives have passed through Hogwarts, Tom Riddle’s legacy remains the most infamous, having forever left a dark mark on the wizarding world.