I’ve been thinking about this ever since I read The Half-Blood Prince. Now, according to the legend of the Chamber of Secrets in Book 2, Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor had a falling out-Slytherin didn’t want to admit any Muggle borns, only pure bloods. So he left, and created a monster that only a Parselmouth could control, in a secret chamber so that some day his Heir might be able to avenge him.
Now, think about it-at the time Hogwarts was founded, most likely in the Dark Ages, Professor Binns told the students that the the wizarding community at the time was under a lot of persecution. So that got me thinking-suppose Slytherin wasn’t merely after muggle-borns, mudbloods, half-bloods etc, out of malice, but out of fear. A fear that wasn’t without reason.
So, while he went about it the wrong way, I submit that perhaps Slytherin would NOT have been happy with Voldemort. He was, after all, at one time a great friend of Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw. Surely he wasn’t all bad!
Perhaps like many other concepts etc, his got twisted and distorted over time. I think you may be on to something, but unless Rowling’s writes Hogwarts: A History -we won’t know for sure.
Your OP brought a question to mind: if the basilisk could be controlled by a Parselmouth, how come Harry didn’t/couldn’t control it?
Explaining it like that makes him sound a lot like Magneto. I’m no X Men expert but isn’t that basically his deal? He really only bugs humans because they bug him?
I agree with you. He was simply a little misguided and would probably be a bit pissed off at V.
I’m guessing the basilisk could only answer to the Heir of Slytherin. Parselmouths were rare-and since Tom Riddle was probably the first of Slytherin’s descendants to attend Hogwarts since his departure, well, there you go.
I can’t comment on Magneto, because I know nothing about X-Men. Sorry.
X-Men is basically Harry Potter in comic book/superhero form. Magneto is Slytherin. Professor Xavier is Albus Dubledore. Cyclops is Harry, sort of, Jean Grey is Hermione, and Wolverine is Ron. Any number of X-Men henchemen have rotated through the role of Draco Malfoy. That pretty much sums it up.
Two problems with this theory. First, the muggle-borns who would actually show up and take classes at Hogwarts are not the ones who would be persecuting the wizarding community - they would be part of the wizarding community.
Second, it’s Herod’s solution - “a child will be born that will overthrow me, I don’t know which one, so I’ll kill all the children.” Even if Herod’s goal - preserving his rule - could be considered moral, his method was evil. Likewise, even if Slytherin’s goal was to protect the wizarding community from persecution, his method - kill all potential threats - was also evil.
Ha! Harry Potter as a version of X-Men! I love it!
Anyway, the later books do imply that Slytherin was not an evil man, albeit perhaps an odd one. Apparently, though, his descendants did not turn out well. Actually, come to think of it, half the world is probably related to him now, but he has only one heir.
Even if the Basilisk wasn’t controllable only by Slytherin’s heir, Riddle was no doubt skilled enough to control it even with Harry trying to interfere.
I read a fan fiction story with an interesting take on this. The good guys win, Voldermort is killed, and the death eaters are killed or imprisoned. However, the muggles learn about the existence of magic during the fight. They are, naturally, frightened. So the muggle autorities decide to implement a - ahem - final solution to the magician problem. The story is an Anne Frank type of story, where the few remaining wizards and witches have gone into hiding, fearing for their lives. No happy ending, to put it mildly.