Magical Genes and Wands

[Alfredo Ramírez]

No: HPFGUIDX 24153

 Genes

We supposedly suffer mutations every ten generations. Magical ability is
likely the result of some mutation that appeared a long time ago. As is the
case with mutations, it would only appear in a small amount of people. In
fact, it’s quite likely that all magical people can be traced back to a
small group of people. Perhaps a village or something like that. It doesn’t
make wizards inhuman; they simply possess a different gene. This is quite
common; some people have a mutated gene in their fourth chromosome that
causes Huntington’s disease. I couldn’t begin to imagine which gene would
receive the mutation; perhaps one in the second chromosome. It would simply
be a different sequence of letters in the gene’s DNA.

Of course, if everyone comes from a limited stock of original wizards, then
having wizards breed purely with wizards would end up causing a whole lot of
genetic anomalies. Wizards have to breed with muggles. I can’t really
explain mudbloods (pardon the term) or squibs.

Another possibility is that there is a ‘magic gene’. It would be an inactive
gene mostly but that in certain people would activate. If your parents had
it as an active gene, you have a larger chance of it being active as well,
though there’s also a possibility that it won’t be.

Wands

In Mage: The Ascension from White Wolf Games, Mages need ‘foci’. Magic is
divided into nine spheres and each mage has a certain affinity with each
sphere of magic. Depending on the mage’s magical ability, he/she needs a
focus for each sphere. This focus can be pretty much anything, a wand, a
crystal, a mirror, etc. It’s a way of channeling and focusing your magic
power for use. As you become more powerful, you stop needing foci.

I would think that wands in HP serve a similar purpose. The core of the wand
is a powerful substance that can draw magic from the user in order to
manifest itself in different effects. Perhaps the core attunes itself to a
particular wizard’s magical ‘frequency’ or whatever, explaining why wands
can’t really be shared effectively. As the wizard grows in power, wands are
needed less for trivial charms and such. I don’t recall seeing Dumbledore
use a wand, though I can be mistaken.

As for the length of a wand
 I don’t really see a long wand as being more
powerful than a shorter one. I think each wizard simply has a certain wood,
length and core through which he/she can best channel magical energy.
Perhaps there is in fact some sort of frequency, and certain woods can
absorb pre-determined frequencies better.

JB


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]