[HPforGrownups] Re: some revalations while re-reading goblet of fire

[Susan Hall]

No: HPFGUIDX 22112

Joywitch asked, in response to an earlier posting by Barb

>How exactly did you obtain these definitions, Barb, particularly for
Half-muggle and mudblood?  If this is your opinion, that is fine, but
>you should say so.  If it is based on something it says in the book,
I think that most people on this list would like to know more detail
-- for example, exactly where does it say what the difference between
>a mudblood and a half blood is?

In case Barb does not have her copies of canon to hand, perhaps I can assist
in filling out some of the points in what I thought was a very useful set of
definitions.

Cos English pb edition, p89

"'Malfoy called her Mudblood, Hagrid'

<slugs and indignation snipped>

'it's a really foul name for someone who was Muggle born - you know,
non-magic parents. There are some wizards - like Malfoy's family -who think
they're better than everyone else because they're what people call
pureblood'

<more slugs snipped>

'Most wizards these days are half-blood anyway.  if we hadn't married
muggles we'd've died out"

At p182 of CoS Tom Riddle, when asked if he is Muggle born says
"Half-blood, sir.  Muggle father, witch mother" .

This is not the first time "half blood" has been referred to:-
On p.93 of PS  Seumas decribes himself as

"Half and half .  Me dad's a muggle.  Mam didn't tell him she was a witch
until after they married".

Neville, on the same page, states that "the family thought I was all Muggle
for ages" and in CoS, on the same page as the above comments Ron says "look
at Neville Longbottom - he's pure blood and he can hardly stand a cauldron
the right way up."  On p. 110 of CoS Ron states

" A Squib is someone who was born into a wizarding family but hasn't get any
magical powers.  Kind of the opposite of muggle born wizards."

So, slightly refining Barb's classification, we can confidently state as
follows:-

There are two factors at play here: wizarding talent and wizarding family.
Owing to snobbery and the sloppy use of the term "-blood" which implies
genetic inheritance (Barb's term "half muggle" , for which I have not yet
found support, would in fact be clearer, since it would imply talent not
breeding)  the two get conflated but the rules which can be derived from the
canon are as follows:-


To be referred to as a witch or wizard one has to show talent, irrespective
of family.  A person without talent born into a wizard family would be a
muggle (Neville's evidence) and would be impolitely referred to as a Squib
(Ron's evidence; Neville also uses it to describe himself ("everyone knows
I'm almost a Squib") later in CoS).
Witches and wizards who only marry within Wizarding families are
"pure-blood" (evidence of Ernie, Ron (speaking of Neville though it seems
equally true of himself), Malfoy etc).

However, there seems to be a difference of opinion within "pureblood"
families as to whether one continues to be "pureblood" if you marry people
of wizarding talent from muggle backgrounds.  Given Ron's comment that "one
of our  second cousin's is an accountant but we don't talk about him much"
Ron's family is certainly full of wizarding talent, and  his earlier comment
about "if we hadn't married muggles" etc may either imply that some of the
talent is of muggle extraction or might be simply a gesture of support to
Hermione, even though he comes from a background which is as "pure" as that
of the person who offended her.

 A person with talent from an entirely muggle background is offensively
termed "a mudblood"  but is still usually regarded as a witch or wizard,
even if the Malfoys of this world wouldn't want their sons or daughter to
marry one.  Oddly, Tom Riddle, for example, refers to himself and Harry as
"both half-bloods" CoS p.233.  However, a key distinction is that Lily
Potter is a witch (Riddle also refers to her as a mudblood) whereas Tom
Riddle senior has no apparent magical talent at all.  Most people including
Malfoy seem to treat Harry as though he were from a pureblood family .

Strictly speaking, therefore, "half blood" should imply one parent with
talent, one without, mudblood should imply talent with no ancestry, and
muggle should imply no taelent, irrespective of ancestry, but the characters
in canon clearly shift the definitions around to support their own
snobberies, and what's more human than that?

Susan