[HPforGrownups] Re: Harry and the riddle of Riddle/Apparate or Die Trying

[Edblanning at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 39556

Naam quibbles with my quibbles about descent:

> Eloise:
> > 
> > I have a niggle of my own here. I find it very hard to believe that 
> Slytherin can have only one living descendent. Surely the whole thing 
> with genetics and inheritance and stuff is that your descendents 
> increase with every passing generation? That's why so many people can 
> >trace themselves back to royalty. 
> 
> Naama:
> 
> Yes, but lines can also die out. In the wizarding world, I assume 
> that lines can die out not only through childnessness but also when 
> the child is a squib. 

Eloise:
Yes, lines can die out in terms of name , or inheritance rights, but not in 
terms of genetic descendents, I think.
For instance, I am an only daughter of a father who had two sisters. My 
branch of the familiy therefore comes to an and with me, but my children 
share the same genetic inheritence. They are as much descendents of  my 
grandfather as they would be if I were a man and they inhereted my maiden 
name.

> 
> Eloise:
> 
> > The only way I can see it happening (barring ruthless culling of 
> relatives) is that Slytherin and his descendents operated a strict 
> one-child policy for the last thousand years, which seems a bit 
> unlikely.
> > 
> 
> Me:
> 
> Not necessarily. One descendent may have several children, some of 
> whom die childless. 

Eloise:
For there to be only one descendent, all but one in each generation would 
have to die childless.


Eloise


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