I don't think this has ever really been discussed here.

What would happen if a Muggleborn was put into Slytherin? I know it's unlikely, but is it impossible?

And, has there ever been a story that used this concept, that was well done?

 

Well I would imagine a muggle born in Slytherin would be horribly bullied by many of their Slytherin peers plus there would be a lot of distrust from the other houses on account of being sorted there.

That being said Tom Riddle didn't enter Slytherin house as a pureblood, and I'm sure he faced a lot of opposition from other students until he made it clear he wasn't to be fucked with and then of course being able to speak parseltongue would have raised his status. Any other muggle born student would have to prove themselves if they wanted to be treated well in Slytherin.

As for your question about a muggle born getting sorted there I sure there have been a few. I was always under the impression that the sorting hat didn't sort by blood status, but by character traits. I know I've read a couple of fics where a muggle born has been sorted into Slytherin but none come immediately to mind.

 

There's nothing in canon to suggest that Muggleborns don't generally go to Slytherin, afaik. The hat sorts based on personality traits, and those are universal.

 

What Republic said.

I imagine a few kids would be dicks about it, but otherwise Muggleborns in Sytherin would be treated fairly normally. But if you're writing a story about it, you've got a lot of room to work. Just try to keep it realistic (meaning no extreme bullying/teachers turning a blind eye) and the angst to a minimum.

 

I'm not writing a story specifically about it, but it is part of a character's backstory.

It was mostly just a couple of people who were consistently dicks about it (though to be fair, they were dicks to everyone). Snape honestly tended to ignore this student. Though his own initial reaction (Internally of course), was probably "How the hell did that happen?"

 

Remember that the personality traits are just the "marketing". The true way the hat functions is that it sorts as it believes the original Founders would have sorted - which presumably includes their quirks and eccentricities. In Slytherin's case that would mean discrimination against Muggleborns.

JKR said in interview that Slytherin became a lot more diverse after Voldemort's fall. That kinda implies that it wasn't pre-fall.

 

Source on this? I don't recall it from anywhere.

I mean sure, it is implied considering those character traits are what the founders are purported to have valued in their lifetimes, but that alone is not enough to support that the Hat would carry on Slytherin's discrimination and keep muggleborns out of the House even if they fit the character profile of the House.

Granted, but then you get to the whole 'Interviews-Books' debate. For the sake of argument, 'canon' to me is limited to book information solely.

 

I thought the hat sorted the students based on which house they'd do best in, not their individual personality traits.

 

I agree with Republic. Canon to me is the seven books.

 

I always read the GoF sorting song as saying this:

That is to say, the Founders created the Sorting hat to continue their pre-existing sorting method.

In any case, the particular traits identified in the songs differ from year to year. Each House has more than one trait associated with it.

PS:

G: brave, daring, nerve, and chivalry
S: cunning, goal-oriented
R: wit, learning
H: just, loyal

GoF:

G: bravery
S: ambition
R: cleverness
H: hard-working

OotP:

G: brave deeds, brave, bold
S: pure ancestry, pure-blood, cunning
R: intelligence, sharp mind
H: the rest

Note that the OotP sorting song explicitly mentions purity of blood as a Slytherin criteron.

 

One thing to note is that when we look at all the students we actually know in the books, there's not actually that many (confirmed) muggleborn. I think it's like 4 total in the entire time Harry was there.

Anyways, I'm not sure if there would be an actually appreciable difference between a halfblood and muggleborn. Like, Riddle and Snape are both muggle names. They're not purebloods - is one wizarding parent the part *they* care about, or is it that the have *muggle blood* at all. To me, it seems like being a Slytherin would be the most important part. I can't really imagine that any sort of bigotry would be tolerable, especially amongst 11 year olds.

 

There's a story about Hermione in Slytherin.
Library thread : https://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?t=24148

 

When last mudblood - albeit almost, son of a muggle and asquib - was sorted into Slytherin, he became The Dark Lord.

You don't want to know what would happen if a complete mudblood was sorted there.

 

I imagine that it involves overusing and abusing italics.

 

I think you missed the "that was well done" part. It's one of the most idiotic stories I've read and it certainly doesn't explore the concept of a muggleborn in Slytherin in any realistic or meaningful way. It's just a Hermione-in-name-only power trip.

 

Any muggle born that got sorted into slytherin would naturally be of the personality type to gain advantage from that sorting because they wouldn't have requested it like Hermione did, because of the stigma that they would see they would be facing while on the train and waiting to be sorted

 

I think the opposite - any muggleborn with the traits that Slytherin valued would probably prefer to be sorted into a different house, where he won't be shunned or bullied because of bigotry.

To OP, I've read several stories with a muggleborn in Slytherin, nothing worth mentioning though. I find most interpretations of Slytherin in fanfiction childish and outlandish. The most likely scenario is that the muggleborn would be alone, unhappy and perhaps bullied, though there might be the occasional Slytherin that wouldn't care about his heritage. Nothing particularly interesting would happen, though. He wouldn't become a Dark Lord, wouldn't be cursed in his sleep with fatal curses, and he wouldn't go Columbine on Hogwarts. But that's just the boring realist in me.

 

They're muggleborns. What do they know of pureblood bigotry?

 

He might learn about it before the sorting. You know, like reading "Hogwarts: A History" or something and finding out one of the founders was kicked out because he was racist towards your kind, and many in his house share his views. Didn't take much time for Harry to get Slytherin's reputation.

 

Not everyone is Hermione, for goodness' sake.

He had Hagrid to thoroughly poison that well beforehand. Not every Muggleborn child would get that.