Heir of whom???

[urghiggi]

No: HPFGUIDX 78607

Re the whole 'HP as heir of Slytherin' theory -- it would be fun -- really, it's a 
charming theory, esp if Harry could be heir to both Slytherin and Griffyndor 
and then have to make some kind of choice, as previously proposed here. But 
I don't see how it can be correct. In the famous scholastic.com online interview 
of 10/16/2000, someone from HPfG and JKR had this exchange:

Q. Harry Potter for grownups again! Is Voldemort the last remaining ancestor 
of Slytherin, or the last remaining descendent of Slytherin?
A. Ah, you spotted the deliberate error. Yes, it should read "descendent." 
That's been changed in subsequent editions. (Keep hold of the "ancestor" 
one, maybe it'll be valuable one day!)

(here's the link to the interview -- it's also the one in which she confirmed that 
Lily P was in Griffyndor, not Slytherin, green eyes not withstanding: http://
www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/author/transcript2.htm)

I think in her answer on the descendant/ancestor question, above, you have 
to read the phrase "deliberate error" as ironic -- the wry acknowledgement of 
a writer that there's been a screwup. The rest of the quote, IMHO, doesn't 
mean the "ancestor" idea is valuable -- it means the defective COPIES might 
be valuable, as defective postage stamps and coins can be valuable. In other 
words, it's a joke.

I know we all pore over every word of JKR's published work as gospel, 
looking for clues to her intentions -- but as a writer and editor, I also posess 
painful firsthand knowledge that no matter how smart the source and how 
thorough the editing, mistakes DO happen. The HPvFAQ stops a bit short of 
labeling this one as a FLINT, apparently since some editions do not appear to 
have been corrected. But I just can't see JKR letting publishers correct this in 
ANY later editions if it was not, truly, an error. And since the corrected quote 
calls LV the "last remaining descendant" of Slytherin. I don't see how Harry, 
too, could be a descendant. This seems to me to blow all the fun theories 
about a blood relationship between Salazar Slytherin & HP (and by 
extension, LV and HP) out of the water -- unless you're interpreting 
"descendant" in a strictly psychological (as opposed to geneological/
biological) fashion. But that's stretching it if you ask me. Re the "how could he 
open the chamber question" -- Harry didn't unseal the chamber; it was already 
opened by Ginny as possessed by LV. All he did was find the entrance, as far 
as I can tell, and then use his 'inoculated" Parseltongue skills to work the 
mechanism. Dumbledore does explain these issues pretty well at the end of 
CoS; I don't really see any reason not to buy his explanation.

Now, the possibility of a blood relationship between Harry & Goderic 
Griffyndor does remain wide open, given the murkiness of the available info 
we have about James Potter's family, and Lily Evans' family as well. This 
seems not only possible but also plausible -- in part because JKR loves these 
"pairing" plot devices so much that it seems inevitable that the Heir of 
Slytherin will be balanced by an Heir of Gryffindor. But again, it's all 
conjecture in light of our lack of info at present. (Ah, lovely conjecture ... 
without it what would we all be doing w/our spare time :-)

urghiggi, Chgo