I don’t really understand how people place Rachel in Slytherin.
I mean, I guess I understand on paper when you write down “ambition” and “cunning”, yes, Rachel is both of those, sometimes to the point where they drown out her conscience (damn Rachel-Sunshine-crackhouse storyline just ruins everything). But those are the qualities that define Slytherin. And they do not define her.
Has she shown less intelligence than cunning? Less bravery than ambition? As a matter of fact, how does an obsession with succeeding in the dream to become a successful musical performer translate over to the world of Slytherin, where ambition almost absolutely exists for power? It’s not as if Hogwarts or the HP-verse exists in a land with no song or music, and it is so very much part of what defines Rachel Berry. (Heh, I’m imagining her in Slytherin. It is funny.)
And the thing that has always redeemed her is her kindness. When being bullied and belittled even by people she considers friends, including Mercedes and Kurt, she has still gone out of her way to go to them and make them feel better. She forgives impossibly easily and is apologetic about her own mistakes.
If she were only about herself, would she have convinced Mercedes to do the solo in A Night of Neglect? Or made sure to know Kurt didn’t feel too isolated? Or not thrown “Lucy Caboosey” in Quinn’s face even once, after everything, especially the slap? Or given Sunshine the pep talk at Nationals?
She admitted after winning the MVP award that she wanted to belong more than anything else. And actually, even the Sunshine-crackhouse situation can be linked to that. If she were truly ambitious, she would have kept Sunshine at New Directions and wielded her as another tool. Instead, she didn’t want to lose the one thing she had, her undisputed status as the best singer. That’s sad more than it is evil.
(And two-gay-dad every-minority-ever-friendly Rachel as a member of the House that promotes pure-blooded wizardry? Hmmm. Yeah. No.)