i saw a tumblr post about percy potentially being a slytherin and it reignited my motivation to post about this so take a random unstructured rant about a potential scenario in which percy gets sorted into slytherin (i refuse to believe he wasnt considered for slytherin by the hat in canon)
(i apologise that half of this is just me yapping about percy’s dynamic with the twins but they’re so fun to pick apart the complexities for..)
first and foremost: how does the family react?
i don’t ever think they’d hate him or even dislike him, but i like to believe that it further alienates percy from the family and creates distance (even if some is unintentional and borne of miscommunication) between him and his family.
this would probably be best demonstrated by the twins, who would become worse as a result. this sense of self-superiority that is attached to being a slytherin would only affirm this idea in their heads especially that percy must believe he’s better than everyone else, but i feel it would also feel like percy is making distance and percy is leaving them behind. the twins act out for attention, and when they feel wronged or deprived or are rebuffed when attempting to catch someone’s attention (such as with percy) they escalate. i doubt the twins would even want to remotely acknowledge that percy being sorted elsewhere makes them feel somewhat abandoned (and ive seen this interpretation of hogwarts causing a further shift because when percy is no longer around at home to nag them for that summer, it doesn’t sit well), and instead of picking apart the tumult of anger, sadness and confusion it would externalise in vindictive pranking instead. this further links to why i think percy leaving in the rift affected the twins the way it did — percy represents a lack of change, percy represents stability. the way in which percy is boxed into a specific role by his family and expected to stay within it (and is shamed by his siblings and peers for his openness or stepping outside of it, making him retreat further into facade) makes him predictable in their eyes to the point where even if percy demonstrates behaviour that contrasts their preconceived notions of him, they are able to completely somehow brush it off. (his siblings denying that percy cares for them when he has literally shown countless times he has only ever wanted them safe)
as a result, the twins would become crueller without meaning to toward percy, creating a further rift between them. this is only worsened in which percy’s response to this is obviously thinking the twins must hate him that much, so he distances more from them, becomes more detached and colder and suppresses parts of himself to protect his own feelings, which in turn signals to the twins that percy is acting above them again and he seems to hate them and everything they stand for (i think in some way the pranking as much as it is a shield is also part of who the twins are, and the twins don’t deal well with that being rejected because i think in some weird way they do want validation from percy because everyone is always asked why they can’t behave like him by their parents and also because percy appears so emotionally distant (which is actually just a consequence of constant mocking making any ‘vulnerable’ emotion such as showing excitement (also to avoid the mockery cutting too deep rather than into a facade that at least isn’t mocking his ‘true self’) or too much emotional investment in praise makes him suppress these reactions but also makes him feel they’re unwanted).)
this would eventually result (at least in my head) in a very antagonistic and petty relationship between the twins and percy where they genuinely bring out the worst in eachother. (i think in some way percy makes the twins feel exposed and vice versa and that unsettles them. i think in canon this is present to a lesser degree that percy’s lack of receptiveness to the twin’s antics means they cannot hide behind their humour. on percy’s side, the twins disrupt his composure and bring out the suppressed bitterness and jadedness he feels at his personality being rejected by his own family (and even peers), the twins are almost a physical representation and reminder of the constant mockery and dismissal he is subjected to in his daily life. additionally, i fully believe part of the twins and percy’s dynamic is their jealousy at eachother and their inability to fathom that it might also be the other way round at the same time.) percy becomes bitter and eventually is just as scathing back (because again, they would be much crueller). they’re constantly at eachothers throats (insults, fights, pranks and petty revenges that have a much crueller and harsher edge) but in actuality they do love eachother but both sides believe that the other must hate them. basically they’re extremely dysfunctional and refuse to admit to themselves that they care and are deeply protective of eachother.
what about everyone else?
bill — shocked at first but accepts the situation quickly without problem. he’s the oldest and i think he feels very responsible for percy and would worry about him endlessly, percy is very resistant to coddling though and it pisses bill off. definitely has threatened people here and there and would beat up anyone who tries to hurt any of his siblings.
charlie — i genuinely don’t think it would change his mind about percy in the slightest, thats still his little brother. i think he would be outwardly very supportive and tell percy so, however, after that i feel he would not quite know what to do with this and accidentally distance and avoid percy as a result (because i think charlie’s response to discomfort is honestly avoidance, akin to him moving all the way to Romania, so that response would be present here) which again makes percy think “fuucccckk charlie hates me what do i do” and eventually they solve the miscommunication relatively quickly (not before the angsting though) . percy appreciates charlie the most because his behaviour in regards to him don’t change at all (making him feel less alienated), he’s still charlie.
ron — already there’s this sense of brushing percy off and this sense of distance with percy being so much older than him and being compared to him in childhood. his slytherin prejudice is still there (he’s stubborn like that), and i think it definitely makes their relationship more distant, but ron can still rely on the fact that percy seems to care somewhat (this is in his eyes, in actuality percy cares a LOT he just appears distant). i think there would also be envy about more shoes to fill, because percy already seems to be praised by their parents and now he’s standing out by being in SLYTHERIN, making ron feel even more invisible and he’s now gravitating away from percy on instinct.
ginny — this is more difficult. i think ginny would be much too young to care, and percy already has a massive part in looking after her (and would continue to do so to be honest even though distance does happen as percy becomes more occupied with school), so i don’t think it would change her perception much. when she gets to hogwarts, i still don’t think she’d like most slytherins, but she couldnt give less of a fuck that her older brother is one. however, after the whole chamber of secrets i could definitely see it making her subconsciously suspicious or wary of her brother as a result of him being a slytherin and causing distance in some way. (which oucchhh. that would hurt percy badly even if he understands that trauma isn’t logical.)
molly — would be shocked but i don’t think she’d ever voice the short negative reaction to percy. she wouldn’t love him any less. (however, i think there would still be an element of subconscious bias that causes her to doubt her own son because she still has a negative attitude towards slytherins, and her son being one won’t magically erase that she raised her children on these ideals that she believes herself.)
arthur — this is DIFFICULT. right, i doubt it would affect his love for percy at all. however it would make him more inclined to be subconsciously distrustful of percy and his motivations ableit quietly (because lets not forget he implicitly assumed percy would agree to spy on the family when he was in sorted in Gryffindor in canon.) arthur’s distance with percy may be interpreted by percy as rejection, and i think arthur may feel inadequate and bitter because percy is around so many slytherins with a lot of money and thus may not make an effort to engage percy about them like he does with the rest of his children.
okay! now onto how i think percy would develop differently in slytherin.
first and foremost, i don’t think it would make him sympathetic to pureblood ideals even when surrounded with rhetoric. percy is a critical thinker at heart and he would never see the logic in it.
i think percy would be bullied. (honestly, i wouldn’t be surprised if he was in canon by his peers because he was unintentionally bullied by his own family in canon anyhow which is why he has so much suppressed anger.) he’s from a poorer background, and he’s from a family that outwardly seem to hate slytherins. he’s outcasted at first, and i think a lot of the bullying may come from less progressive peers in the upper years who see percy as an easy target, rather than people in his own yeargroup. i think percy would be able to more clearly see corruption in the ministry and maybe even with rules when the parentage and reputations of those who bully him seem to make them exempt from consequences for the system (which leads onto how i think slytherin percy is more likely to play in between the rules) i don’t think percy would tell bill and charlie because he wants to be able to handle himself, and it would make him feel embarrassed because his brothers are so popular at school. percy realises early that he has to take matters into his own hands. hence, percy begins to realise that the whole motto of “not getting caught” really is about, and begins to embrace it rather than reject it. percy is logical and strategic and i fully believe that applies to his revenge plots. eventually, he does prove himself among his peers and begins to make friends with housemates (it would be fun for percy to have this reputation of following the rules but also his own housemates knowing damn well that he shouldnt be underestimated or messed with), which allows him to become more confident in socialising and branch out to other houses.
percy’s personality would be a different way of shielding himself than in canon. he’s still just as nerdy, but rather than rigid and upright, he slowly becomes more sarcastic, mocking and witty in his own speech. percy is still just as or even more guarded than in canon, his bitterness and jadedness slipping out in derision masquerading as politeness, an afforded plausible deniability where he would probably rather punch someone. he works within the rules, but he is more lenient in places, but much more petty and rigid with those he dislikes. it would be fun if he smiled a lot to keep his composure, but also to play into a playful side. his reputation among his year would eventually be the charismatic prefect (or eventually head boy) who’s kind of an ass but also a funny guy— i feel he would be fairly popular.
percy would be much less trusting of the ministry (he’s seen what his peer’s parents are capable of), more jaded, even more of a hater of dumbledore (because he does not take bullshit lightly and he wants that man DEAD), more manipulative and chill with blackmail, and capable of fighting someone physically.
it would be fun if he was much more of a gossip too (blackmail material) —>maybe with gemma farley?
another thing i think would be fun is for percy to be friends with marcus. sorted into gryffindor, he’s associated to be oliver’s friend (and it’s canon in my heart), so why not on the flip side being oliver’s rival’s friend? marcus definitely messed with percy in the younger years, but their relationship is definitely strange in the sense that you can’t tell if they’re friends or if they hate eachother. percy giving marcus dazai’s chuuya treatment and calling him his dog and ragebaiting him the whole time would be funny (part of why percy had to learn how to fight physically because he has to survive tussling with marcus). they’re also pretty chill at times and protect eachother so nobody really knows.
another thing i want to float as an idea as a last little thing… percy becoming an older brother/mentor figure for draco on accident (draco lowk a tsundere about it and won’t admit that’s his older brother meanwhile percy lowk just thinks he’s an endearing but annoying brat.) the potential for weasley sibling jealousy is HELLA there too.
