"Late Bloomer" Magic

[Kelly the Yarn Junkie]

No: HPFGUIDX 22092

--- Melanie Brackney wrote:

>The only reason I say that it can't
>be Neville is that she said if they
>haven't shown magical skills by the
>time they are 11 then they usually
>don't...well, I mean Neville showed
>it before the time he was 11 am I
>correct?  

Neville **was** 8 (PS--The Sorting Hat Chapter) so I agree he doesn't
qualify as 'late-bloomer'.

Melanie again:

>I was thinking that she was saying
>that this particular person showed
>his magical abilities after age 11. I
>could be reading too much into it
>though

I think you're reading it correctly.

Here's the quote again:

>In my books, magic almost always
>shows itself in a person before age
>11; however, there is a character who
>does manage in desperate
>circumstances to do magic quite late
>in life, but that is very rare in the
>world I am writing about.

The 'quite' in front of 'late in life' instead of 'relatively' makes it
sound like this character will be/was an adult when the ability
manifested itself.

The fact JKR's statement is in the past tense -- and is from a 03/99
chat -- should mean we **already** see the person doing magic. 
Otherwise she would've said 'there will be a character who...' Of
course, if she had already written the scene but it's not in the
published works, she might still use the past tense.  If we *haven't*
seen this person do magic yet, this would be an awfully big
out-of-character hint from Ms Tightlip.

So, if it's in the past who could she mean?  We only see one adult with
limited magical abilities:  Hagrid.  But since he attended Hogwarts, he
doesn't meet the 'late-bloomer' criteria.

I'm at a loss.  Any ideas?

Kelly the Yarn Junkie

=====
There are all kinds of courage.  It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/