Squib or Muggle?

[jodel at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 50812

Harriet states;

>>I think that squibs are witches and wizards with possibly 'dormant' magical 
abilities.  I guess a muggle can be born from a wizard and a witch but I 
don't really think that that's what a squib is.  I don't think Filch is a 
muggle, for example.<<

And Dumbledore also makes a statement to that effect, doesn't he? Or am I 
getting misled by fanon? 

I think that Squibs are wizards with some sort of genetic mutation or other 
damage to their genome which keeps them from being able to express magic. But 
they appear to be able to operate normally within a magical world in every 
particular which does not require actual spellcasting. Filtch has no 
difficulty seeing or communicating with the Hogwarts ghosts, for example. And 
it is most probable that what he sees is the castle once he steps outside it, 
rather than the ruin which is all that a Muggle would see. It is also likely 
that he would be able to see the Leaky Cauldron from a London street, use the 
floo network or portkey (brooms are rather more iffy), and go through the 
barrier at Platform 9 3/4, although none of thoise postulations has yet been 
established in canon. It is doubtful whether Muggle repeling charms would 
deflect him, either. (Otherwise one rather suspects that the students would 
have tried it.) It is uncertain whether he would be able to brew an effective 
potion, since it seems likely from the sort of havoc that goes on in Potions 
class that magic *is* being used, but without the control that is provided by 
focusing it through a wand.

>From the other end, there may very well be Muggles who are "near misses" 
where it comes to regestering as being magical. It is probable that these are 
the Muggles who occasionally do manifest as ghosts after death, or the people 
who actually manage to see them. Such "near misses" are the people who found 
and operate psychical research societies out in the Muggle world. Some of 
them may be the decendents of Squibs, or the non-magical children of 
magical-Muggle crosses which carry an incomplete or otherwise inactive set of 
magical genes. It is uncertain whether these "near misses" could also operate 
within the magical world as effectively as Squibs do. If they can, it is 
possible that these "almost wizards" are the equivalent of Muggle-born 
Squibs. (And Petunia, and even Dudley Dursley could concievably be among 
them. There is magic in their family, after all.) But I doubt that this is a 
point which Rowling will find it necessary to establish in the series.

-JOdel