Harry and the Phoenix

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 43532

Jeff wrote:
> "emma_look_alike" wrote:
> > I am a *huge* fan that Harry is the heir of Gryffindor. I sincerly 
> > think that that is the reason Voldemort tried to kill him; ie The 
> > rivalry of Salazar and Godric. Harry is the last remaining 
> descendant 
> > of Gryffindor and Voldemort/Tom Riddle is the last remaining 
> > descendant of Slytherin. Though highly unlikely as many other posts 
> > have said, anything's possible in fantasy books.
> 
> Why is this unlikely? Has there ever been mention, I don't remember 
> it if there was, of how many wizards were killed during Voldemorts 
> last reign of terror? Could he not been purposely going AFTER the 
> Heir of Gryffindor? Maybe James and Harry Potter were the last ones? 
> Maybe he had killed all the others.
> 
> -Jeff

It's unlikely because "descendent" is a very generic term. To put it 
mathematically: if Godric had two sons, and they had two sons each, 
etc., there would be in our days 2^40 descendants of Godric Gryffindor 
(that's 1 million million, a thousand billion (trillion?), for 
Americans). It's not such a stretch of the mind that they had two sons 
each; in fact, the average number of sons is probably bigger. 
Obviously, there aren't that many people in the WW (or the world, for 
that matter), but that is because some die childless, others leave the 
country, and others simply don't make it. However, the fact is that 
"descendency" is a very general concept, and after 40 generations, 
almost everyone in the country could be a theorical descendant of 
Gryffindor.

If Voldemort was going for descendents, he would've had to eliminate 
everyone. Besides, after 40 generations it's normally very difficult to 
know exactly who is a dscendant and who isn't.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf