Muggle/Magical genetic theories

[jodel at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 42459

In a message dated 8/10/02 midgiecat (Brenda) writes:

<< I also have a thought or two about muggles/magic folk.  How does a child 

become a witch or wizard with two muggle parents, like Hermione [and Lily], 

unless somewhere way back in their ancestry someone was married to a witch or 

wizard and it turns up in a later generation, like a recessive gene.  >>

My own suspicion is that there is a whole little group of gene combinations 
which can produce wizards. Also that a few rare branches of magic may require 
 that a genetic component be present in order to truly master (true 
Divination as an example). 

But you have to inherit all, or most of the genes in one of these groups 
before the ability to produce and direct magic occurs. Every squib who ever 
left the wizarding community to make his fortune among the Muggles has 
contributed incomplete sets of wizarding genes to the general population. 
Every young wizard out sowing wild oats among the barmaids, every 
unidentified Muggle-born. Since wizards began. And, once the infant mortality 
rate began dropping in the 19th century, more of these "carriers" have been 
surviving to reproduce. And even more to the point, ever since the enclosure 
acts started forcing thousands of rural families off the land and into the 
towns, more sets of people who share the same incomplete genetic group with 
everyone in a ten mile radius in the country has a vastly higher chance of 
meeting up and pairing off with someone who may have the missing components 
to complete the set. By this time, there are probably thousands of what 
amount to Muggle-born squibs out there, and with the rising population in 
general, the result is that the births of Muggle-born wizards are becomming 
progressively more common. Malfoy's faction has some grounds for feeling 
under threat. (one or other of the interviews with Rowling, one that looked 
over some of her background notes, showed that she imagines the wizarding 
world to be about one quarter "purebloods", about one quarter Muggle-born and 
the rest of mixed ancestry.

-JOdel