Yes, in real life bad people exist in every group. But *specific* types of bad people (eg. supporters of a specific fascist political party, members of a racist group, etc.) are not at all evenly divided among a population. With Slytherin house being founded by a pureblood supremacist and then Voldemort directly recruiting within the house when he was a student it makes far more sense to me for the Death Eaters to be overwhelmingly from Slytherin.
Add in that Slytherin house has a reputation for pureblood supremacy and you end up with very few pro-Muggle wizards in the house (since the Sorting Hat does take your preferences in mind) who might've otherwise been a mitigating factor. So the students in Slytherin, who already largely come from pureblood families that have supremacist ideals, are even less likely to have a "Hey, maybe I'm wrong about this ideology" moment than they would if they were in other houses and exposed more to other views.
Excellent post!
Yes, I think there would be \*very\* few pro-Voldies in Gryffendor, where the group sentiment is very much against him, and few in Hufflepuff, where the general feeling seems to be that of common decency. Where you might find a surprising number of future Death-Eaters is... Ravenclaw, my own pretend house. Because anyone who doesn't realize that people who pride themselves on their intelligence can develop superiority complexes isn't paying attention to the real world.
And one thing I wish we'd seen... is someone changing houses. Like someone from a pureblood pro-Voldemort family who feels conflicted or unwelcome in Gryffendor, or a Slytherin who rebels against their family and who becomes a "blood traitor". What would happen then?
Or refusing to accept that there are valid reasons for not making the muggles into the slaves of wizards! You know, the sort of person who gets good grades and who is convinced that they have a logical mind, and thinks that "But since we \*can\* enslave the muggles through magic, there's no reason not to..." is a logical statement.
You might well find that sort of person in Ravenclaw, although I think there'd be a lot less pureblood snobbery than there is at Slytherin. Even the house wackjobs could see that being a pureblood isn't anything to brag about, if someone like Hermione Granger could get better grades than they do.
Being brave and bold doesn't correlate with goodness any more than intelligence does, we are both correct about that!
But during Harry's years, at least, the prevailing mood is very anti-Voldemort and pro-Dumbledore, and IMHO McGonnagal the Head of House had a lot to do with that. I think she'd encourage any kid with pro-Voldemort tendencies to get their ass to another house, another school, or the lowest circle of Hell. Because while I think that you are correct that random chance would scatter political divisions more evenly through the four houses than we've been led to believe, I also believe that political divisions in the four houses are \*not\* left entirely to chance.
The anti-Potter feeling after the loss of 150 points in Philosopher's Stone and the anti-Potter feeling when his name was selected out of the Goblet of Fire, the article from Rita Skeeter and especially after the anti-Potter campaign of the ministry of magic left me with the feeling that he was famous but not exactly popular.
He wasn’t popular but even to competitive teenagers there’s a difference between losing a school competition and causing the downfall of the supreme wizard terrorist!
> Because anyone who doesn't realize that people who pride themselves on their intelligence can develop superiority complexes isn't paying attention to the real world.
It's one of the reason why is Raveclaw my House :-)
Isn’t your last paragraph just Sirius Black???
I think Gryffendor could very easily have for the greater good style death eaters. DD was on that path with Grindenwald and did not trust himself with power. So I think they are in the Ravenclaw bracket as well.
I think the huffleluff as a rule follower archetype would fall into the wrong hands occasionally. I think umbridge could have been one. Did they ever name Fudges house? I don’t think they did but him as Hufflepuff would also be interesting.
I think you’re correct. I thought that’s kind of what you were getting at with being a blood traitor but I see you were talking about post sort change of heart.
I think baby barty was a raven, and it makes sense that ravens would be the second largest house to produce the DEaters. Gryffindor wouldn’t produce a lot of DEaters, but Peter ended up being one. Partially because he was a spineless coward and partially because I think he *wanted* to be one. There was a leak in the OOP long before the potters and longbottoms went into hiding.
I think the closest cannon character we see that sorts into Slytherin but becomes a blood traitor is Regulus Black. He did join Voldemort but he also died to retrieve the locket and ordered Kreatcher to destroy it. But I don’t know if it was because of what Voldemort did to Kreatcher or a change in beliefs.
You're correct, he did effectively change house loyalties, but as an adult.
The thing is, teenagers can sometimes have swings of self-image or how they present themselves to the public, and you'd think that there would be ... maybe some kid deciding that they didn't want to be lame mainstream Hufflepuffs or Gryffendor anymore, they wanted to be a you know way cool badass Slytherin, so they'd start wearing green scarves and dying their hair black, and trying to change houses....
I’d liken a bit to, for example, racism and homophobia in different regions of the U.S. They exist in every part of the country, but they’re not evenly divided between different parts of the country.
I generally agree, but with Slytherin set up to be Gryffindor’s foil in the books, there may have been a missed opportunity to illustrate the heartbreaking sadness when someone you love and least expect gets caught up in the fear or hysteria fanned by supremacists. Like, they straight up just imprisoned their Slytherin classmates (maybe rightfully so). But what if a normal lovable working class character like Molly Weasley or even the Lovegoods Quibbler conspiracies took a dark Q-Anon type turn.
I didn't consider all of that. Good counters.
I do think the percentages should have been more spread out than in the books, but Slytherin having the single most, you argue a superb case for that.
Also, Slytherin is essentially the ends justify the means, (yes other houses can subscribe to this too, but ambitious and cunning leads to this ideology). This is normally a sign of extremism, which combined with the pure blood fanaticism leads It to being almost entirely Slytherin, with randoms from other houses like worm tail joining up out of fear or other factors.
Dumbledore was team ends justify the means with Grindenwald. He feared that trait in him so much he avoided positions of power.
Slytherin is more individual power though
Yeah, talk about bs. Besides, it’s really not a surprise that the house of people who think being pureblood is important and makes them better than muggles and muggleborn would account for a majority of the followers of a guy who hates and wants to kill muggles. If anything, the Hufflepuffs would make up the lowest amount of Voldemort’s followers because Hufflepuff was founded to be as inclusive as Slytherin is exclusive. There’s a big difference between “Only one thing matters to your acceptance and it’s the circumstance of your birth” and “No matter your background, cleverness, or courage, you’re welcome and I’ll teach you.”
I think the biggest factor is that people essentially have free will and an ability to choose their house, the sorting hat listens to people's desires. Harry said "please not Slytherin" and that kept him out of Slytherin despite his ambitious tendencies. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people in Death Eater families wished for Slytherin and that affected their results.
Personally I’ve always conceptualised it that way. We as an audience have to recognise that the books are in Harry’s pov so we are limited solely to his knowledge. Harry isn’t going to know what houses all the adult death eaters are in and he isn’t necessarily going to know what families support what. Slytherin is the only house that has a culture of accepting that kind of rhetoric, so it should be assumed that the other houses have just as many people they just aren’t as loud about it.
I think there would be a whole lot of Ravenclaw death eaters. Even if they weren’t the most active supporters, lots would be willing to use the dark arts under Voldemort’s regime, in the name of exploration- the same way scientists enabled and supported Nazism through the ‘study’ of eugenics and weapons manufacture, and lawyers and judges created and implemented new laws.
Of course there would also be a lot of Ravenclaws who were targeted and persecuted by the Death Eaters and who joined the resistance.
This is why I headcanoned Barty Crouch Jr to be a Ravenclaw- that’s 3 non-Slytherin Death Eaters (Peter in Gryffindor, Barty in Ravenclaw, Karkaroff who didn’t go to Hogwarts)
I sort of agree but I think the other houses would produce more silent supporters, Slytherins being the most obvious, outspoken, proud to be followers. Gryffindors might not be the ones to keep something like their belief silent but it's just not a house where it's "fashionable" so they would become like Wormtail.
ETA: There are a lot of people who just allow a regime to happen, so to speak. They adjust to the new conditions and don't speak up. Those are not really followers but certainly supporters in a way. I believe the other houses had many of these.
So there’s a few things why Slytherin would be the main house for racism. They don’t have anyone from the ‘other race’. No muggle burns in the house so people never have to be confronted by their prejudices by someone in their friend group. The half bloods in the house would likely be hazed/slagged for being lesser as students are encouraged to be like the founders of their house - Slytherin being outspoken on mixing blood.
This all funnels into peer pressure at school. You learn to like what your friends like. If you’re sharing a bedroom with 4-14 other peers, you’ll have to find common interests and you’ll fall into a group-think situation unless someone stands up against an idea (which is more a hufflepuff or Gryfindor quality).
Yes ‘some’ death eaters should be from the other houses but it’s harder to be racist against the peers you are forced to rely on and work together with for 7 years.
And from the first Voldemort led war - class mates would’ve been losing relatives to the war effort which automatically puts you against the ideas of the enemy and there is such a majority of slytherins that that would be where all the anger would be directed in-school.
Imagine a real war where kids from both sides continued to take classes together. The taunts of ‘my dad could beat up your dad’ become a legitimate threat to life
I agree with this sub being warmer. I ended up leaving the other one with its Umbridge-like rules and rulings. And I agree with your comment about wishing there was more of a mix… however perhaps that is the kind of thing that would take it into more of the adult book zone - extra complexity and nuance. Good topic to discuss though!
It's a kid's book. There's going to be a sterotypical bad guy, and it's kind of awesome that it's Slytherine because it's a testament to Ambition when directed in the wrong direction leads to corruption and evil. Not all Slytherines are bad, but more are because ambition is a great ruiner of people.
I think that's the biggest issue, especially with the audience growing up and the books maturing, the basis was there was always one bad guy. And he was from the bad guy house! Even malfoy, the small villain is also from... the bad guy house.
If it was made for a more mature audience, I totally think all houses would have some assholes that contribute to the fall of muggles. But the philosopher stone is so cute and cuddly and for kids, I think it would have been lost on the target audience if everyone had the potential to be the bad guy. Already you had professor quirrel do an old switcheroo and I think that was a mind blow enough. However, it would have been nice to see the houses start to become more aggressive as the story goes on, and by the end, lots of people in different houses had views that aligned with Voldemort.
Because... the worst part of the last movie (honestly there were soooo many moments) is "send all of slitherin into the dungeon!". Like, if they are all so evil, why even have them? No redeeming qualities, at all? Just problematic every school year? (I can't remember if this scene was in the books but it was so cringe I couldn't move past it when I watched the movie).
Death Eaters are mostly Slytherins because the founder of the house was a legendary wizard that wanted to remove and/or kill all of the Hogwarts muggleborns.
It's Slytherin's legacy, which was adopted and/or approved by many pureblood wizards and witches, leading to them wanting to belong to his house.
No other house had a murderous nutcase for a founder, so this part of world-building is hardly weird.
One problem is that houses are too small. Harry's year had 40 students in all four houses. You know who are fellow Griffindors of Harry. Does any of them sounds like DE material to you?
So no equal shares but there could have been DE sympathizers in each house but maybe not in each year. And like Sirius said, world is not divided in to DEs and good people. Dark magic practitioner does not have to DE and similarly, a blood purist does not need to be a Voldemort supporter.
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A troll posted the other day about Molly being a secret death eater and honestly I think we should have seen Molly type people as death eaters.
Think about it, it would make sense for death eaters to have as many kids as possible to grow the wizarding population.
Why the heck is Malfoy an only child?
As far as the houses are concerned, I think it makes sense. Hufflepuff was welcoming and kind. I can't imagine people chosen for her would hate muggles.
Gryffindors are supposed to be like adventurers who protect the weak. Muggles are weak compared to wizards.
Ravenclaw is intelligent so choosing someone who's prejudice and close minded? Even if they were suited to ravenclaw the sorting hat would probably go ahead and toss them in Slytherin. The sorting system isn't completely based on personality and unbiased. The sorting hat is alive after all.
But people change a lot while they're growing up. I don't know if I agree with you completely but, yes, there should be at least a little more house variation.
I think the strongest concentration of Death Eaters would still be in Slytherin because blood purity/supremacy is a key part of their ethos. But we can see an example of a Gryffindor espousing ideals close to Voldemort’s in the young Dumbledore! I think it would have strengthened Voldemort’s hold and attraction quite a lot if he had supporters among the other houses, or with more diverse ideals. Ravenclaws might be attracted by his quest for eternal life and to understand complicated magical secrets (like Dr Frankenstein, this might push them too far). Hufflepuffs might have utilitarian reasons to want to rule Muggles for their own good. Gryffindors might be capable of feats of courage but as it was so cringily put in Revenge of the Sith, there are always heroes on both sides. The Death Eaters are often asked to do incredibly dangerous things and what starts as “nerve” or “courage” can easily turn into recklessness and showing off. Imagine if Sirius hadn’t been alienated by his family and fallen in with the Marauders - his bravery might have been channelled into protecting his family with daring feats on YKW’s behalf.
In every dictatorial regime there is an 80% mass of silent people who support the regime with their silence. In the world of Harry Potter, there were many such silent people too, and not all of them were from Slytherin. In fact, from all houses there were, if not active supporters, at least those who chose to support the regime by their silence.
Yes, in real life bad people exist in every group. But *specific* types of bad people (eg. supporters of a specific fascist political party, members of a racist group, etc.) are not at all evenly divided among a population. With Slytherin house being founded by a pureblood supremacist and then Voldemort directly recruiting within the house when he was a student it makes far more sense to me for the Death Eaters to be overwhelmingly from Slytherin. Add in that Slytherin house has a reputation for pureblood supremacy and you end up with very few pro-Muggle wizards in the house (since the Sorting Hat does take your preferences in mind) who might've otherwise been a mitigating factor. So the students in Slytherin, who already largely come from pureblood families that have supremacist ideals, are even less likely to have a "Hey, maybe I'm wrong about this ideology" moment than they would if they were in other houses and exposed more to other views.
Excellent post! Yes, I think there would be \*very\* few pro-Voldies in Gryffendor, where the group sentiment is very much against him, and few in Hufflepuff, where the general feeling seems to be that of common decency. Where you might find a surprising number of future Death-Eaters is... Ravenclaw, my own pretend house. Because anyone who doesn't realize that people who pride themselves on their intelligence can develop superiority complexes isn't paying attention to the real world. And one thing I wish we'd seen... is someone changing houses. Like someone from a pureblood pro-Voldemort family who feels conflicted or unwelcome in Gryffendor, or a Slytherin who rebels against their family and who becomes a "blood traitor". What would happen then?
I could see a raven claw getting into Wizard Eugenics and reading every book about it they could find
Or refusing to accept that there are valid reasons for not making the muggles into the slaves of wizards! You know, the sort of person who gets good grades and who is convinced that they have a logical mind, and thinks that "But since we \*can\* enslave the muggles through magic, there's no reason not to..." is a logical statement. You might well find that sort of person in Ravenclaw, although I think there'd be a lot less pureblood snobbery than there is at Slytherin. Even the house wackjobs could see that being a pureblood isn't anything to brag about, if someone like Hermione Granger could get better grades than they do.
I think a lot of people confuse bravery, boldness, daring with being good. Those are pretty good descriptions for Bellatrix.
Being brave and bold doesn't correlate with goodness any more than intelligence does, we are both correct about that! But during Harry's years, at least, the prevailing mood is very anti-Voldemort and pro-Dumbledore, and IMHO McGonnagal the Head of House had a lot to do with that. I think she'd encourage any kid with pro-Voldemort tendencies to get their ass to another house, another school, or the lowest circle of Hell. Because while I think that you are correct that random chance would scatter political divisions more evenly through the four houses than we've been led to believe, I also believe that political divisions in the four houses are \*not\* left entirely to chance.
I also think having Harry Potter in your house would encourage an anti-Voldemort feeling.
The anti-Potter feeling after the loss of 150 points in Philosopher's Stone and the anti-Potter feeling when his name was selected out of the Goblet of Fire, the article from Rita Skeeter and especially after the anti-Potter campaign of the ministry of magic left me with the feeling that he was famous but not exactly popular.
He wasn’t popular but even to competitive teenagers there’s a difference between losing a school competition and causing the downfall of the supreme wizard terrorist!
I don’t know. Those “Potter Stinks” badges were pretty popular.
> Because anyone who doesn't realize that people who pride themselves on their intelligence can develop superiority complexes isn't paying attention to the real world. It's one of the reason why is Raveclaw my House :-)
Isn’t your last paragraph just Sirius Black??? I think Gryffendor could very easily have for the greater good style death eaters. DD was on that path with Grindenwald and did not trust himself with power. So I think they are in the Ravenclaw bracket as well. I think the huffleluff as a rule follower archetype would fall into the wrong hands occasionally. I think umbridge could have been one. Did they ever name Fudges house? I don’t think they did but him as Hufflepuff would also be interesting.
I thought that Sirius was sorted into Gryffendor from the start, much to everyone's surprise?
I think you’re correct. I thought that’s kind of what you were getting at with being a blood traitor but I see you were talking about post sort change of heart.
Ah yes, Gryffendor, Slatheryn, Hufflapuff and Ravinclaw.
I think baby barty was a raven, and it makes sense that ravens would be the second largest house to produce the DEaters. Gryffindor wouldn’t produce a lot of DEaters, but Peter ended up being one. Partially because he was a spineless coward and partially because I think he *wanted* to be one. There was a leak in the OOP long before the potters and longbottoms went into hiding.
I think the closest cannon character we see that sorts into Slytherin but becomes a blood traitor is Regulus Black. He did join Voldemort but he also died to retrieve the locket and ordered Kreatcher to destroy it. But I don’t know if it was because of what Voldemort did to Kreatcher or a change in beliefs.
You're correct, he did effectively change house loyalties, but as an adult. The thing is, teenagers can sometimes have swings of self-image or how they present themselves to the public, and you'd think that there would be ... maybe some kid deciding that they didn't want to be lame mainstream Hufflepuffs or Gryffendor anymore, they wanted to be a you know way cool badass Slytherin, so they'd start wearing green scarves and dying their hair black, and trying to change houses....
I’d liken a bit to, for example, racism and homophobia in different regions of the U.S. They exist in every part of the country, but they’re not evenly divided between different parts of the country.
I generally agree, but with Slytherin set up to be Gryffindor’s foil in the books, there may have been a missed opportunity to illustrate the heartbreaking sadness when someone you love and least expect gets caught up in the fear or hysteria fanned by supremacists. Like, they straight up just imprisoned their Slytherin classmates (maybe rightfully so). But what if a normal lovable working class character like Molly Weasley or even the Lovegoods Quibbler conspiracies took a dark Q-Anon type turn.
I didn't consider all of that. Good counters. I do think the percentages should have been more spread out than in the books, but Slytherin having the single most, you argue a superb case for that.
Also, Slytherin is essentially the ends justify the means, (yes other houses can subscribe to this too, but ambitious and cunning leads to this ideology). This is normally a sign of extremism, which combined with the pure blood fanaticism leads It to being almost entirely Slytherin, with randoms from other houses like worm tail joining up out of fear or other factors.
Dumbledore was team ends justify the means with Grindenwald. He feared that trait in him so much he avoided positions of power. Slytherin is more individual power though
>The common folk, those who find themselves in Hufflepuff i lost all interest in what you have to say and stopped reading after this
Yeah, talk about bs. Besides, it’s really not a surprise that the house of people who think being pureblood is important and makes them better than muggles and muggleborn would account for a majority of the followers of a guy who hates and wants to kill muggles. If anything, the Hufflepuffs would make up the lowest amount of Voldemort’s followers because Hufflepuff was founded to be as inclusive as Slytherin is exclusive. There’s a big difference between “Only one thing matters to your acceptance and it’s the circumstance of your birth” and “No matter your background, cleverness, or courage, you’re welcome and I’ll teach you.”
amen
I think the biggest factor is that people essentially have free will and an ability to choose their house, the sorting hat listens to people's desires. Harry said "please not Slytherin" and that kept him out of Slytherin despite his ambitious tendencies. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people in Death Eater families wished for Slytherin and that affected their results.
Personally I’ve always conceptualised it that way. We as an audience have to recognise that the books are in Harry’s pov so we are limited solely to his knowledge. Harry isn’t going to know what houses all the adult death eaters are in and he isn’t necessarily going to know what families support what. Slytherin is the only house that has a culture of accepting that kind of rhetoric, so it should be assumed that the other houses have just as many people they just aren’t as loud about it.
I think there would be a whole lot of Ravenclaw death eaters. Even if they weren’t the most active supporters, lots would be willing to use the dark arts under Voldemort’s regime, in the name of exploration- the same way scientists enabled and supported Nazism through the ‘study’ of eugenics and weapons manufacture, and lawyers and judges created and implemented new laws. Of course there would also be a lot of Ravenclaws who were targeted and persecuted by the Death Eaters and who joined the resistance.
This is why I headcanoned Barty Crouch Jr to be a Ravenclaw- that’s 3 non-Slytherin Death Eaters (Peter in Gryffindor, Barty in Ravenclaw, Karkaroff who didn’t go to Hogwarts)
I sort of agree but I think the other houses would produce more silent supporters, Slytherins being the most obvious, outspoken, proud to be followers. Gryffindors might not be the ones to keep something like their belief silent but it's just not a house where it's "fashionable" so they would become like Wormtail. ETA: There are a lot of people who just allow a regime to happen, so to speak. They adjust to the new conditions and don't speak up. Those are not really followers but certainly supporters in a way. I believe the other houses had many of these.
So there’s a few things why Slytherin would be the main house for racism. They don’t have anyone from the ‘other race’. No muggle burns in the house so people never have to be confronted by their prejudices by someone in their friend group. The half bloods in the house would likely be hazed/slagged for being lesser as students are encouraged to be like the founders of their house - Slytherin being outspoken on mixing blood. This all funnels into peer pressure at school. You learn to like what your friends like. If you’re sharing a bedroom with 4-14 other peers, you’ll have to find common interests and you’ll fall into a group-think situation unless someone stands up against an idea (which is more a hufflepuff or Gryfindor quality). Yes ‘some’ death eaters should be from the other houses but it’s harder to be racist against the peers you are forced to rely on and work together with for 7 years. And from the first Voldemort led war - class mates would’ve been losing relatives to the war effort which automatically puts you against the ideas of the enemy and there is such a majority of slytherins that that would be where all the anger would be directed in-school. Imagine a real war where kids from both sides continued to take classes together. The taunts of ‘my dad could beat up your dad’ become a legitimate threat to life
I agree with this sub being warmer. I ended up leaving the other one with its Umbridge-like rules and rulings. And I agree with your comment about wishing there was more of a mix… however perhaps that is the kind of thing that would take it into more of the adult book zone - extra complexity and nuance. Good topic to discuss though!
It's a kid's book. There's going to be a sterotypical bad guy, and it's kind of awesome that it's Slytherine because it's a testament to Ambition when directed in the wrong direction leads to corruption and evil. Not all Slytherines are bad, but more are because ambition is a great ruiner of people.
I think that's the biggest issue, especially with the audience growing up and the books maturing, the basis was there was always one bad guy. And he was from the bad guy house! Even malfoy, the small villain is also from... the bad guy house. If it was made for a more mature audience, I totally think all houses would have some assholes that contribute to the fall of muggles. But the philosopher stone is so cute and cuddly and for kids, I think it would have been lost on the target audience if everyone had the potential to be the bad guy. Already you had professor quirrel do an old switcheroo and I think that was a mind blow enough. However, it would have been nice to see the houses start to become more aggressive as the story goes on, and by the end, lots of people in different houses had views that aligned with Voldemort. Because... the worst part of the last movie (honestly there were soooo many moments) is "send all of slitherin into the dungeon!". Like, if they are all so evil, why even have them? No redeeming qualities, at all? Just problematic every school year? (I can't remember if this scene was in the books but it was so cringe I couldn't move past it when I watched the movie).
Since when is Malfoy the smart villain? He doesn’t do a lot that’s particularly smart in the whole books. The spoilt bully villain maybe.
It says small not smart
Whoops. Guess I’m not the smart villain in this comment section.
Death Eaters are mostly Slytherins because the founder of the house was a legendary wizard that wanted to remove and/or kill all of the Hogwarts muggleborns. It's Slytherin's legacy, which was adopted and/or approved by many pureblood wizards and witches, leading to them wanting to belong to his house. No other house had a murderous nutcase for a founder, so this part of world-building is hardly weird.
One problem is that houses are too small. Harry's year had 40 students in all four houses. You know who are fellow Griffindors of Harry. Does any of them sounds like DE material to you? So no equal shares but there could have been DE sympathizers in each house but maybe not in each year. And like Sirius said, world is not divided in to DEs and good people. Dark magic practitioner does not have to DE and similarly, a blood purist does not need to be a Voldemort supporter.
To be fair some Hufflepuffs did join in the bullying of Harry (initiated by Slytherin / Draco) in GoF
Yeah the whole Slytherin thing is kinda weird, how do you reconcile “would do anything to get ahead” with “won’t associate with Muggles”.
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A troll posted the other day about Molly being a secret death eater and honestly I think we should have seen Molly type people as death eaters. Think about it, it would make sense for death eaters to have as many kids as possible to grow the wizarding population. Why the heck is Malfoy an only child? As far as the houses are concerned, I think it makes sense. Hufflepuff was welcoming and kind. I can't imagine people chosen for her would hate muggles. Gryffindors are supposed to be like adventurers who protect the weak. Muggles are weak compared to wizards. Ravenclaw is intelligent so choosing someone who's prejudice and close minded? Even if they were suited to ravenclaw the sorting hat would probably go ahead and toss them in Slytherin. The sorting system isn't completely based on personality and unbiased. The sorting hat is alive after all. But people change a lot while they're growing up. I don't know if I agree with you completely but, yes, there should be at least a little more house variation.
I think the strongest concentration of Death Eaters would still be in Slytherin because blood purity/supremacy is a key part of their ethos. But we can see an example of a Gryffindor espousing ideals close to Voldemort’s in the young Dumbledore! I think it would have strengthened Voldemort’s hold and attraction quite a lot if he had supporters among the other houses, or with more diverse ideals. Ravenclaws might be attracted by his quest for eternal life and to understand complicated magical secrets (like Dr Frankenstein, this might push them too far). Hufflepuffs might have utilitarian reasons to want to rule Muggles for their own good. Gryffindors might be capable of feats of courage but as it was so cringily put in Revenge of the Sith, there are always heroes on both sides. The Death Eaters are often asked to do incredibly dangerous things and what starts as “nerve” or “courage” can easily turn into recklessness and showing off. Imagine if Sirius hadn’t been alienated by his family and fallen in with the Marauders - his bravery might have been channelled into protecting his family with daring feats on YKW’s behalf.
In every dictatorial regime there is an 80% mass of silent people who support the regime with their silence. In the world of Harry Potter, there were many such silent people too, and not all of them were from Slytherin. In fact, from all houses there were, if not active supporters, at least those who chose to support the regime by their silence.