[HPforGrownups] Evans a Wizarding Family? (Was: Vernon a squib??)

[Kathryn Cawte]

No: HPFGUIDX 52738

 
 
-------Original Message-------
 
From: HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com
Date: 23 February 2003 14:10:53
To: HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [HPforGrownups] Evans a Wizarding Family? (Was: Vernon a squib??)
 
<snipped>
 
Fred also pointed out that Petunia says: 
> "I was the only one who 
> saw her for what she was - a freak! But for my mother and father, 
oh 
> no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a 
witch 
> in the family!" 
> No where in here so far is there anything about all the Evans 
> being "muggles"
 
<snipped>
Then Aisling said -
As well as this, she says "they were proud of having *a* witch in the 
family", which gives the impression her parents hadn't expected to 
have any witches, and surely would have if they were magical - Ron 
tells us in CoS Ch. 9 that squibs are quite unusual, more so than 
Muggle-born wizards.
 

Me -

I think another thing to back up the idea that the Evans are mainly muggles
is that the adults' reactions to Lily being a witch are very like what we've
seen of Hermione's parents. They also seem quite proud that they have 'a
witch in the family'. Petunia's reaction is after all though not that
difficult to understand - her parents suddenly making a big fuss over Lily,
making her the centre of attention over something that she (Lily) had no
control over and a thing that Petunia could never emulate. After all if they
had been proud that Lily could (for example) dance then Petunia could have
begged for lessons in an attempt to get the attention back on her, nothing
she can do about being a witch. Plus not only is Lily suddeny the centre of
attention but she's (presumably) suddenly having a lot of money spent on her
(all the new magical paraphenalia needed to study at Hogwarts). Petunia is
jealous - which as I say isn't surprising.

Another possibility which just occured to me is that one of Lily & Petunia's
parents is a squib and the other a muggle. Excluded from wizarding society
(either deliberately or by their own choice because they feel so different)
they become part of the muggle world, and marry a mugglr. They have two
children, neither of whom appear to have magical powers (maybe Lily like
neville never demonstrated any odd abilities when she was young) and then
suddenly they get a letter from Hogwarts. Now if the Squib had been badly
treated by the magical world then maybe they wouldn't be proud of this fact
(or maybe they would, if they feel no matter how subconsciously that the
wizarding world is superior then maybe they do want a better option, as they
see it, for their child) but if they've merely absented themself voluntarily
from the wizarding world then they're over the moon that Lily is magical.

Hmmm - that wasn't the point I set out to make but I think it's an
interesting idea so I'll leave it at that.

K