THEORY: Phoenixes, Potters, and You

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 30156

Heather:"The Order of the Phoenix does *not* refer to the phoenix 
tailfeathers in anybody's wands; I believe that this is a red herring 
of sorts. The "Phoenix" of the group's title is in fact a reference to 
the Prophecy about the Heir of Gryffendor's ultimate defeat of the 
Heir of Slytherin."

I subscribed to the "Heir of Gryffindor" hypothesis, but it doesn't 
make a lot of sense to me anymore. Given that the wizarding world is 
very small, darn near everybody in it is related if you go far enough 
back. It would be practically inevitable that half the population or 
more can trace their ancestry to Slyterin, Gryffindor, both, or even 
all four of the Founders. After all, in our world, Ronald Reagan and 
Jimmy Carter are sixth cousins. (true!) 

So I can't explain the Heir of Slytherin either, unless Slytherin and 
each of his descendants had one, and only one, offspring, guaranteed 
to have, in his turn, one and only one offspring.

Heather:"The Order is a society of wizards and witches who had taken 
on the task of identifying and protecting the Heir."
 
Have you ever seen "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," by any 
chance? Or "Litte Buddha," for that matter? :)

Heather:"I believe that what Voldemort discovered was that Lily Evans' 
ancestry derives from Godric Griffendor, either through a squib 
ancestor or because Lily herself was actually an orphan as was Tom 
Riddle had been. "

Voldemort targeted James and Harry; it appears he wouldn't have 
touched Lily had she not tried to get in the way "Out of the way, 
girl!" Voldemort said she needn't have died. Lily wasn't an orphan.
Petunia:"But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and 
Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"

Trelawney's prophecy is still the big unknown. It's very possible it 
had to do with the male Potter line in some way. We'll have to wait.