[HPforGrownups] Re: Was Lily Potter a gorgon?

[Jennifer Boggess Ramon]

No: HPFGUIDX 32127

At 9:22 PM -0600 12/22/01, Katze wrote:
>
>Why isn't Harry considered a pure-blood? Both his parents were wizards.
>His mother was a half-blood...not Harry. If we were to get technical,
>Harry would be a 3/4 blood. But he's not a half-blood.

Tom Riddle explicitly says he and Harry are "both half-bloods" in the 
Chamber of Secrets.  Unless he's exaggerating, and I don't think he 
is, it doesn't matter whether one's non-pureblood parent is a Muggle 
or Muggle-born - either way, you're a half-blood.  (Random: is James 
Potter a pureblood?  I've been assuming he is, but that's solely 
based on Riddle's statement here.)

I suspect this works something like being Black works in the Southern 
US.  There are two common definitions as applied by the white 
establishment: the Seven-Eighths rule and the One Drop rule.  By the 
first, having one full-blooded African great-grandparent makes you 
black; by the other, any detectable Africna ancestry is sufficient. 
In the wizarding world, perhaps one is considered a Muggle-born only 
if both parents are muggles, but a half-blood under the Seven-Eighths 
rule or something similarly arcane and silly.  I would imagine the 
Malfoys hold to the One Drop rule . . . you're no pureblood, even if 
your Muggle ancestress is fourteen generations back.

-- 
  - Boggles, aka J. C. B. Ramon			boggles at earthlink.net
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