Question for Harry Potter fans.

[SapphireSeptember]

Can Muggleborn witches and wizards be evil? I had this argument with my friend, she said no, I said yes. I don't see why not, there are plenty of evil people in the world so I don't see why only Purebloods and Half-bloods would have an interest in the Dark Arts.
It's like saying Hufflepuffs can't be evil, they do have the least amount of Dark witches and wizards, but least doesn't mean none.

Probably, but they wouldn't have that same bigotry towards pure bloods that seem to underpin the evilness of families such as Malfoys. They'd have to be evil for another reason, or perhaps vengeful.

Of course they can! I think the entire point of Harry Potter is that no one is born good or evil it's the continuous choices that they make that define thier goodness.

bigotry towards "mudbloods" i.e their own kind, that should say

Yes of course they can. Maybe your friend is thinking evil = Death Eater. It would be doubtful a muggle born would be a Death Eater!!

yes and no I think.

In the sense that anyone can be good or evil of course they could

But the wizarding war was about bigotry as welcome says and how they were brought up - its hard to see how a muggleborn could (a) buy into it and (b) be allowed/wanted to

Well Voldemort was raised by muggles and hated them, so I would have thought so!

Of course they can, I have met a couple

Wasn't Tom Riddle from a muggle orphanage? Would he have been a mudblood?

Well evil as in doing evil and mean shit yeah of course.

If you mean Voldermort's side / Death Eater , doubt they would rise far or be used for anything else besides pawns/ cannon fodder.

Probably, but Voldemort wouldn't have accepted them as Deatheaters!

Sirius Black says to Harry - 'the world isn't split into good people and death Eaters' ie not everyone evil is evil on the sense that they practise dark magic or follow Voldemort. Muggle borns probably wouldn't be death eaters but they could still be evil in other ways.

Yes - one of the main messages of the book is that is isn’t your background/skills etc that define who you are, it is what you do with them.
Also there are ‘baddies’ who do good things and ‘goodies’ who do bad things, so muggleborns can also do bad things too.

Tom Riddles father was a muggle so yes muggleborns can clearly be evil.

Absolutely! I can certainly imagine a ‘self-hating’ Muggleborn turning dark - especially if they had been poorly treated by their Muggle family / friends. I think a Muggleborn Death Eater - perhaps hiding their roots - would have been an excellent character for the HP series.

See, if I'd been a Muggleborn and had an interest in the Dark Arts during Voldy's rise I'd have started a counter group. Collect all the other evil bastards who he wouldn't have accepted and played him at his own game.

Voldemort was a half-blood (his mum Merope gave his dad a love potion so he'd fall in love with her and abandoned her when she told him, she died not long after she gave birth.) He was then raised in said Muggle orphanage and tortured some of the other kids.

Of course they can, there are more ways to be 'evil' than through bigotry over blood status. One could become some kind of serial killer just like a muggle could.
Tom Riddle was half blood, and so was Snape who could be described as 'evil' as a young man.
A muggleborn couldn't really have been a death eater though, is that what she could have meant?

Willow Possibly, I think some people equate Dark witch/wizard with Death Eater in the HP universe. I'm sure they may even be Dark witches/wizards who have worked with Muggle criminals.

Of course they can, although it is highly unlikely for a muggle born to be placed in to slytherin or even just be inclined to dark magic, it is still possible. If you believe in the theory that the story of Harry Potter is based on the second world war, then you would see that even though some people were born in families that did not support the Nazis, some of them still grew up to become Nazis themselves and vice versa.

PS - dd wrote the above as I don't have a clue

Not all Slytherins are evil, Andromeda Black (sister of Narcissa and Bellatrix) wasn't, she married a Muggleborn and became a member of the Order, likewise not all Dark witches/wizards are Slytherins. Quirrell was from Ravenclaw and Pettigrew was a Gryffindor. (Also Cedric would have supposedly become a Death Eater had he survived, but that's according to the Cursed Child, and we do not speak of that...) Severus Snape was neither good nor evil, just somewhere in the middle. (Still haven't forgiven Rowling for killing him off, 11 and a half years later. )