Neville's family

[greatlit2003]

No: HPFGUIDX 87412

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "meriaugust" <meriaugust at y...> 
wrote:
> I was just rereading my copy of SS (I am on vacation now and can 
> thankfully read whatewver I want!) and I came across this line in 
> the Sorting Hat chapeter, page 125, American edition where all the 
> new Gryffindors are talking about their families. "Well, my gran 
> brought me up, and she's a witch," said Neville, "but the family 
> thought I was all Muggle for ages." Neville then goes on to 
describe 
> the Blackpool Pier incident and how he almost drowned. My question 
> is this: why would the Longbottoms think that Neville was all 
> Muggle? Was his mother from a Muggle family? Or are the 
Longbottoms 
> not all wizards and witches as I thought? I always assumed that 
the 
> Longbottoms were an old wizarding family (ala the Weaslys and the 
> Malfoys) but maybe Gran and Frank were the only ones to have any 
> magical powers. Maybe that's why the majority of the Longbottom 
> family emerged unscathed from the first war: they weren't magical 
> enough for LV to care about killing them. Any thoughts? 
> Meri


Neville is a pure-blood, so his mother and father would have to be 
from wizarding families. I'm not sure what the exact definition of 
pure-blood is, but I'm assuming that both sides of the person's 
family would have to be all magical for several generations. Harry's 
parents are both magical, but he is still considered a half-blood 
because his mother's family were Muggles. I think Neville's family 
thought he was a Squib, but JKR did not want to introduce that term 
in the first book because it would get too complicated for the 
reader. 

greatlit2003