Question about Pure Bloods and House of Slytherin

[kkersey_austin]

Random wrote:
>
> > Take "enemies of the heir" apart instead of analyzing it as a set 
> 
>  phrase. He [reasonably, if incorrectly] believes the 'heir' to be 
> 
>  someone who is currently a student. He [again, reasonably] believes
that 
> 
>  all the students at Hogwarts see him as their enemy (though he 
> 
>  apparently believes this to be due to prejudice against him as a
squib, 
> 
>  rather than, say, his winning personality) . And his cat has just
been, 
> 
>  so far as anyone knows, deliberately attacked.


Kemper replied:
> But the phase suggests more than one, 'enemies', and there are not
> two or more Mr. Filches.  Unless you are saying that it is Mr. Filch
> and Mrs. Norris who are the 'enemies'... which honestly, doesn't 
> sound very reasonable even for Filch.  Plus, the cat was already 
> taken out, so the phrase would have to change to 'enemy' of the
> heir.

Elisabet jumps in:

Not necessarily - surely the heir can have a number of enemies who are
enemies for a variety of reasons. Filch, because he is bound to be on
every student (including the heir's) "enemies" list (that is how I
understood Random's point); muggle-borns, because they aren't
pure-blood; and who knows who else for who knows what reason.

In any case I think that Filch can be worried because he feels
targeted due to a number of factors, e.g. all the students (including
the heir) hate him, AND he is a squib who is at risk of being "pruned"
by pureblood purists if they get their way, AND he is generally
paranoid.  

Kemper again: 
> I think it is more reasonable for Mr. Filch to have heard of the
Chamber of Secrets and what had happened 50 years earlier to a
Muggleborn witch in the girl's bathroom.

Not to mention he lived through VoldyWar I and surely knows what it
means to squib for pureblood ideology to be on the loose. 

Elisabet