Lily - Snape & Hermione

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 12031

Annette wrote:
> I'll have to look it up, but have you noticed that no one says they 
went to
> school with Lilly?  Several people remember her fondly, but I don't 
recall
> any comments about her at school, and the comment about Voldemort's 
father
> being a "muggle AND a full, very much like your mother" seems to 
through
> some indecision in the matter.

Hagrid didn't go to school with her (he was much older) but he tells 
Harry quite specifically when they first meet that James AND Lily went 
to Hogwarts (head boy and girl) and that they were a very powerful 
wizard and witch.  Lily was like Hermione:  Muggle-born, but a 
talented witch.  Muggle-born doesn't mean you start out life without 
magical talent; it means your parents are both Muggles.

Perhaps the confusion has to do with not only Voldemort & Co., but 
even the narration talking about "blood" as an explanation?  i.e. I 
think it's at the start of CS that "Muggle" is defined as "someone 
with not a drop of magical blood" (that's from memory, correct me if 
I'm miscontruing).  This can be a little confusing, since we Muggles, 
with our odd ideas about race, are in the habit of thinking of "blood" 
as something that goes by fractions, as in "she's half white, half 
black."  But the canon is quite clear on the fact that magical talent 
may be largely inherited (a matter of "blood," so to speak), but also 
pops up out of nowhere (in the case of Muggle-born witches/wizards) 
and can be totally absent in people whose ancestors are mostly magical 
(in the case of Squibs).

Here's a question:  can a wizard tell, just by looking at someone, 
whether he/she's Muggle, magical, Muggle-born, etc.?  In GF ("The 
Quidditch World Cup") Lucius knows that Hermione is Muggle-born.  How? 
 Did he learn who she was in CS, maybe in the bookshop, and I'm 
forgetting?  (I have GOT to buy the books.)  Or maybe because Draco 
has talked about her, as we know from the scene in Borgin & Burke's, 
LM assumes the girl with the Weasleys in the Top Box must be that 
Granger girl?

Re: Snape's teaching and why he hates Hermione:  maybe it hasn't much 
to do with Harry; maybe he just hates a "know-it-all" (not that I'm 
agreeing with this characterization of Hermione).  Teachers do tend to 
love hardworking students, but they can also hate the most hardworking 
and talented students; I've seen it many a time.

Amy Z 

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"I'm *not* going to be murdered," Harry said out loud.
"That's the spirit, dear," said his mirror sleepily.
                      -HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban
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