Half-blood Squibs? / Weasley cousin

[alhewison]

No: HPFGUIDX 40388

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "mullsym255" <tracym255 at a...> wrote:
> 
> And another thing that has always bothered me.. forgive me, because 
I lent my books to a friend, but I believe Molly or perhaps Ron makes 
reference to a cousin who was a squib and ends up being an 
> accountant? And that the family "doesn't speak of him". Why is 
this? 
> The Weasleys strike me as incredibly tolerant and accepting people 
> and Arthur obviously seems to have a fondness for muggles. So why 
> would they shun a member of the family who happened to be a squib? 
Or 
> is it that this cousin chose to exclude himself from the family? 

I think that there are many possible interpretations of this 
sentence, but heres one which would mean that Ron/JKR wasn't having a 
joke, but equally that the Weasleys weren't being intolerant:-

If that cousin was actually a wizard but had done something 
considered to be bad (but not enough to go to Azkaban), they could 
have had their wand snapped in half, and forced to live as a muggle. 
The Weasley family seem not to speak about quite a few things, so 
isn't it possible that they are so ashamed of this cousin that they 
don't "speak of him"

Ali