Neville's family

[ghinghapuss]

No: HPFGUIDX 87634

> > Meri wrote:
> I was just rereading my copy of SS <snip> 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? 


> Carol wrote:
> The line *is* confusing. maybe JKR hadn't invented the term "squib"
> yet when she wrote PS/SS. In any case, they're definitely a 
wizarding
> family. Since Uncle Algie drops Neville out of a window to see if
> he'll bounce and buys him a toad, I'm pretty sure he's a wizard, and
> Neville's mother was obviously a witch or she wouldn't have been an
> auror (or in St. Mungo's now). But the clincher for me is 
Dumbledore's reference to Neville as a "pureblood" in OoP (842 Am. 
ed.). I can't see Dumbledore being mistaken on such an important 
point. It was the Muggle blood on Harry's mother's side that caused 
Voldemort to go after him rather than Neville.

Mandy here:
The only thought that just popped into my head was perhaps Neville 
was adopted?  Perhaps his parents did not want to bring a magical 
child into the freighting WW at that time and adopted a muggle baby.  
However unbeknownst to Frank and Alice, Dumbledore switched babies 
substituting a magical one in its place to fulfill his grand master 
plan.  The Grandparents knew this and worked to bring out his magical 
ability. Perhaps his pure blood status comes from another family?

Far fetched, I know, and needs a lot more thinking about.  I'm most 
likely completely wrong.  But when I read that passage again it 
really was the first thing that came to mind.

Mandy