Something New near Bottom and RE: Voldie's Wand - Genetics & Magical Ability - Chapter Summary

Rita Winston catlady at wicca.net
Tue Aug 14 06:00:25 UTC 2001


No: HPFGUIDX 24135

The Frequently Asked and Never Decisively Answered Question was:
Where was Voldemort's wand between the back-firing attach on the Potters
and the first chapter of GoF?

My theory is:
Wormtail accompanied Voldemort to the Potter's home. Perhaps Voldemort
insisted on that as a preventative of Wormtail sending him into an
ambush. When Voldemort was vaporized, Wormtail grabbed up his fallen
wand before fleeing. It was in Peter's pocket when he was confronted by
Sirius. It was with Scabbers all those years, as part of my theory is a
belief that not only all the clothing and jewelry that the Animagus is
wearing in human form, but also everything in hiser pockets, transforms
into bits of fur and skin when the Animagus transforms into beast. As
long as I'm asserting things that are not stated in canon, I made up a
theory that when a werewolf transforms, only hiser clothing, eyeglasses
& such-like prostheses & medical devices, and marriage rings transform
with himer -- everything else, including wand, just falls down. There IS
canon evidence for the clothes transforming along with the person: the
cat on the corner of Privet Drive is not wearing nor carrying clothing,
but McGonagall is not nude is her human form. When Lupin turns into a
wolf at the worst possible time, JKR didn't say anything about the wolf
clawing his way out of a pile of human clothes.

There is also a question as to how the Death Eaters in Azkaban could
have known that Peter was the one who had led Voldemort to the Potters:
(as per the PoA quote below) without MoM or at least Dumbledore getting
word of it, such as by one of the imprisoned prisoners who tried to give
information in exchange for release, like Karkaroff.  

"You haven't been hiding from me for twelve years," said Black. "You've
been hiding from Voldemort's old supporters. I heard things in Azkaban,
Peter... They all think you're dead, or you'd have to answer to them....
I've heard them screaming all sorts of things in their sleep. Sounds
like they think the double-crosser double-crossed them. Voldemort went
to the Potters' on your information... and Voldemort met his downfall
there. And not all Voldemort's supporters ended up in Azkaban, did they?
There are still plenty out here, biding their time, pretending they've
seen the error of their ways."

Lisa Inman wrote:

> This would suggest that the wizarding talent gene
> is dominant, if apparently magic-less people 
> produce a wizard and wizards rarely produce 
> anything but more wizards. 

That was a really good post, about the philosophical basis of magic,
becoming a good person, and the opposition of magic versus astrology,
and all I can comment is a stupid little nitpick: you typed 'dominant'
when you meant to type 'recessive' gene. 

As you know, but in case someone else doesn't, if the trait is a
recessive allele ('allele' is a version of a gene, like in the cliche
oversimplified example, the gene is eye color and the two alleles are
blue and brown), then the person only has the trait if both of their
copies of that gene (the one from father and the one from mother) are
the recessive allele. 

If the person has one recessive and one dominant allele (which is called
heterozygous), they do not have the recessive trait, they have the
dominant trait, but they can pass the recessive gene on to their
children. If both parents are heterozygous for the magic gene, both
parents are Muggles but their child can inherit the recessive from both
of them and be a wizard or witch. 

The generalization is that in critters who have ten thousand offspring,
one quarter of the offspring of two heterozygotes will be double
recessive, one quarter will be double dominant, and one half will be
heterozygous. Statistical generalizations like that don't hold for small
samples like two or even twelve children in a family, so it is perfectly
plausible that the Muggle Creevey parents have two wizard sons. 

But the wizard father and the witch mother are both double-recessive, so
both of them can pass only the recessive allele, so all their children
will be double-recessive, so being a Squib is either some kind of injury
or disease affecting a child who genetically has the trait, or else a
sign that Mama was cheating with a Muggle.

Kristin wrote:

> 2)Why would Hogwarts allow Draco to buy his way
> onto the Slytherin Quidditch team? Are they that 
> afraid of Lucius Malfoy?

I agree with what Alfredo said ("I think it would be more of a House
thing. If the team captain (Flint) or house head (Snape) allowed it, I
think it'd be allowed. Flint would certainly appreciate having a bunch
of new brooms and we know that Draco is Snape's favorite student"), but
in addition I think that Draco is a good Seeker. I am convinced that in
the big match in PoA, Harry only won because he had a better broom.

My friend Lee has been forwarding e-mail to me, including one Potter
filk and at least two theories about Snape:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: New Filk:  That Drip Potter
Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2001 00:33:37 -0400
From: Sherman Dorn <sdorn at tempest.coedu.usf.edu>
Organization: University of South Florida
Newsgroups: rec.music.filk

Raise your hands if you love Harry Potter ... or hate him.  This one's
for you from the perspective of the one character who has constantly
been picked on throughout the series thus far in a way that distorts all
the good in the man: Severus Snape.

(Warning:  minor hints of spoilers below.)


"That Drip Potter" words and music by Sherman Dorn, 2001
(I capo up half a step, but YMMV.)

      Am            F                    G             Am
Harry Potter is the "boy who lived," the famous one we know.
    Am               F          G          E   E7
But few have seen as I have his oversized ego.
    Am                   F                  G                Amsus2
The rules he breaks, the risks he takes, as Dumbledore looks past.
     Am          C                 E                    Am
Only I among his teachers sees the charming spells he's cast.

Chorus:

Am                               Em            Am
(beat) That drip Potter, of whom everyone's so fond.
                             F      G          E      E7
(beat) That drip Potter, the headmaster's been conned by
Am               F            G                  Am
(beat) that drip Potter, I'll save his skin once more.
                  Dm                F           G   G7
He's not the only one who wants the end of Voldemort,
    Am              C            E                       Am
and I'll endure his hatred as he walks through Hogwart's doors.

Verse 2:
His friends are all the favored ones, absolved for all their sins.
They cannot see the good that comes from building discipline.
But students cannot be so weak when to the world they go.
Only I among his teachers see how much he needs to know.

Verse 3:
When I was just a young lad, I went to Hogwarts, too,
and met his dad and his gang, and I learned to hate that crew.
With Potter now, he takes a bow, as if we have no sense.
Only I among his teachers see beyond the twit's pretense ... to

Verse 4:
The boy has gone too far too many times, as I have said.
It's only through my efforts that he still has his pretty head.
It's my business that young wizards will not die from vanity.
Only Dumbledore and I know just how much that means to me.  Not ...


I'll work on getting a score to Brenda for the Gafilk book this year.

Sherman Dorn
------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary McGath wrote:
> Having read the first three books (to be exact, half of the first in
> American, the second in the original English, and the third in German),
> I find Snape to be mostly a shallow caricature of the strict teacher
> that all the students dislike.  Your Snape is quite a bit more
> interesting than the one I've seen in Rowling, even if everything he
> says in the song is rationalization.

I find Snape to be fascinating -- a thoroughly nasty man who, by all
indications and for all the reasons we've got, *should* be on the side 
of Voldemort, but instead is trusted to be on the good side.

I have some theories about this.  Spoilers...


Dumbledore explains at the end of _Prisoner of Azkaban_ that when one
wizard saves another wizard's life -- as Harry did for Wormtail, and
as James Potter did for Snape -- it "creates a certain bond between
them ... [...] This is magic at its deepest, its most impenetrable."
I think that in the confrontation between Voldemort and Harry's parents,
Snape was constrained to act against Voldemort.  (Note that when the
spells from Voldemort's wand are "played back" near the end of
_Goblet of Fire_, his attempt to kill Harry isn't seen.  Though also
note that the killings of Harry's parents seem to be in the wrong
order...)  This would answer the mystery of how Harry survived a
supposedly unblockable curse: he was never struck by it.  ("Since
the seal is in fact unbeatable, thinking about the seal simply leads
to frustration." -- Clark Fries, in Heinlein's _Podkayne of Mars_)

So Snape sees Harry taking the credit for something Snape was
responsible for.  Something Snape never wanted to do in the first
place.  But he can't talk about it, must keep it a secret... because
if any of Voldemort's remaining supporters found out, Snape would
be a target for all kinds of revenge.  So he has to let Harry take
that credit, while still being constrained to protect him.  Any
plans that Snape may have had for his own power, as an associate
of Voldemort, got completely trashed, and he has to keep dealing
with that over and over again.


Further thoughts, from way too early on a Saturday morning...


Voldemort had cast his skin as part of his last transformation.  The
Potters had obtained the cast skin, probably via Snape, and were
working on it to try to use it against Voldemort; this may have
included magic to keep it as "part of Voldemort" or that might have
been intrinsic to it.  While Voldemort attacked James, Lily stuffed 
Harry into the skin to protect him.  When Voldemort sent the death
curse at Harry, Harry was shielded by the skin until Voldemort's 
curse, which was essentially directed at part of himself, destroyed 
his own power... except where there was a jagged tear in the skin,
over Harry's forehead, and a bit of the power leaked through.  Some
of Voldemort's power/abilities, which were still connected to the
skin, became attached to Harry as the skin was destroyed.

Professor Trelawney's one previous real prediction, of course,
involved Voldemort's downfall because of Harry and/or his parents.

-- 
Joel Polowin  jpolowinXYZZy at sympatico.ca but delete "XYZZy" from address
The Rohirrim honoured their families and their horses.  But 
even there, it was possible to take things too far; and 
Eohippus son of Eomund is omitted from most of the genealogies.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Another friend forwarded the following, and it made me LOL:

I found this among the disclaimers on a story on
alt.sex.stories.moderated:

If you are offended by pornography, for god s sake stop reading
alt.sex.stories, you idiot.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Pepperwood, thunderbird down, seven inches 
------------------------------------------------------------------
R ighteous
A ttractive
V ictorious
E ager
N atural
C lassy
L egendary
A mazing
W ise
------------------------------------------------------------------

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