Slytherin house values ambition, cunning, and resourcefulness. Its emblematic animal is the serpent, and its colors are emerald green and silver. The Bloody Baron is the house ghost. The founder of the house was Salazar Slytherin.

Slytherin corresponds roughly to the element of water.

The Slytherin dormitories and common room are reached through a bare stone wall in the Dungeons. The Slytherin common room lies beneath the Black Lake. It is a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and silver lamps hanging from the ceiling.