Muggles/Muggle-born: what's the difference?

[bugaloo37]

No: HPFGUIDX 44366

First of all, I want to thank everyone who responded to my Sirius 
Black post-even the ones who do not like him.  It was good to find 
out that a lot of people agree with me-at least, about Sirius.  I 
want to introduce a new topic if I can.  There seems to be some 
confusion concerning the difference between a muggle and a muggle-
born. Even Tom Riddle aka Voldemort seems to interchange the two 
phrases at will.  Someone mentioned in an earlier post, that to 
someone like Voldemort, the difference between muggles and muggle-
borns is virtually non-existant.  In other words, he detests them 
both equally- as do people like the Malfoys.  IMO, the difference 
between them is small- but it is an important difference.  Have you 
ever noticed that when someone like the Weasleys' or Dumbledore 
refers to a witch or wizard with no wizard heritage, they always use 
the term "muggle-born"-in this case, it is not an insult, but merely 
a way of distinguishing.  When someone like Draco, uses the term( he 
usually uses the word, "mudblood"-which is ten times worse)-it is 
meant to be an insult.  In other words, at least in this situation, 
context is important.  The Weasleys understand there is a difference 
between being a pure-blood and a muggle-born- but the difference 
simply holds no importance to them whatsoever.  IMO, here are the 
definitions, as far as I can make out:  Muggles are non-magical 
humans-no magical abilities-no magical heritage.  Muggle-borns are 
witches and wizards-they have magical abilities-but no magical 
heritage.  In CoS, Tom Riddle refers to Lily Potter as being "muggle-
born"- a witch (most definitely!) with no magical ancestry.  In GoF, 
Voldemort compares Lily to his own hated father- a muggle.  However, 
he does use the word "almost" when comparing the two- as you can see, 
even Voldemort knows there is a difference between the two.  In other 
words, what it comes down to, IMO, is this:  Voldemort treats Muggles 
and Muggle-borns the same-even though one group is magical and the 
other is not.  Magical abilities carry no weight is his 
classification system-only heritage.  The Weasleys and those like 
them- treat everyone regardless of heritage and/or magical abilities 
with respect.

bugaloo37