#12/half-blood Voldy/Karen Lyall's Questions/DE children in DA/Snape die4 HP

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 67879

Scott Santangelo wrote in 67746:

<< But there's Phineas Nigellus - theoretically, he could tell anyone 
who comes into DD's office . . . and didn't Kreacher "leave" #12 when 
Sirius said "get out?" (bandaged hands?). I'm not convinced it's as 
safe as it was . . . >>

As long as the Fidelius Charm is in effect, anyone who is told about 
#12 by Phineas Nigellus or Kreachur still won't be able to find #12 
in between #11 and #13, just as Harry saw not even a space between 
them until he read the parchment written by Dumbledore the Secret 
Keeper.

Suzy - Prisoner of Little Whinging wrote in 67749:

<< Someone please remind me why Voldemort feels so superior to 
"half-breeds" when he himself has a muggle father?  I know the 
whole story about how his father abandoned him and that's why he 
hates muggles, blah blah blah.... but how did he get all of these 
followers behind him when they must know he's not a pure blood 
wizard? Wouldn't he be on the hit list himself? >>

Voldemort's followers mostly DON'T know that he's a half-blood: in 
CoS, Dumbledore told Harry that very few people knew that Lord 
Voldemort used to be Tom Riddle. As for why Voldemort hates what he 
is: he's insane.

Suzy - Priz of Little Whinging wrote in 67765:

<< (Trying very hard to convince herself that ordering a wand from 
Alivan's online is not the mature thing to do at this juncture in her 
life) >>

The price is lower at http://www.thewandshop.com/

Karen Lyall wrote in 67774:

<< SQUIBS>>

and I know that other people have already answered this questions; I 
didn't overlook you-uns's posts.

<< 1- Do Squibs get magical schooling? >>

Surely not. Remember Neville's relatives worrying that he wasn't 
magical enough to go to Hogwarts? And JKR said in an interview that 
Hogwarts is the only school of witchcraft and wizardry in Britain.

<< 2- To be a Squib must you have two magical parents? >>

If "Squib" is just a word, I suppose the wizarding folk would say 
he's a Muggle just like his Muggle parent. If "Squib" is a person who 
doesn't have magic despite having inherited the genes for it AND the 
genes are double-recessive, then all non-magic children of two magic 
parents and SOME non-magic childred of mixed parentage would be 
Squibs, but I don't know whether the wizards have any kind of genetic 
testing. I will put my theory of Magical Genetics at the end of this 
post.
 
<< 3-Do Sqibs get wands? (ie Filch's Quick Spell Course is that all 
non-wand magic?) >>.

Kwikspel uses wands: "Harry was just reading "Lesson One: Holding 
Your Wand (Some Useful Tips)" when shuffling footsteps outside 
told him Filch was coming back." However, I think Kwikspel was not 
INTENDED for Squibs, but for wizards who left Hogwarts after getting 
only one or two OWLs. I don't know if it would be legal for a Squib 
like Filch to buy himself a wand for his wishful thinking.

<< 4-And if they don't get wands how do they know they're a Squib? >>

Their families suspect when they're babies and toddlers and children 
and no Strange Things happen around them (uncontrolled magic) but 
only know for sure when they don't get a Hogwarts letter (per 
Neville).

Kathryn Cawte wrote in 67776:

<< maybe Ollivander has the same privacy policy as the Gringotts 
Goblins seem to have and just doesn't bother the ministry with petty 
details like - I just sold a wand to an escaped criminal. >>

Yes, but here's the canon:
---
"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again.... Oak, sixteen 
inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"

"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid.

"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you 
got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.

"Er -- yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've 
still got the pieces, though," he added brightly.

"But you don't use them?" said Mr. Ollivander sharply.

"Oh, no, sit," said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink 
umbrella very tightly as he spoke.
---

Cheryl the Lynx wrote in 67841:

<< Admitting Sytherins would also add some interesting interactions, 
especially if some of the DE kids apply. How would, say, Neville [or 
Harry], handle a child of Bella's applying to join the club? >>

We haven't seen any signs of saintly dear Neville blaming children 
for their parents before. Do you think he has imprinted enough on 
Bellatrix's face that the family resemblance would unnerve him?

Darrin wrote in 67844:

<< Put it this way, if your father is a DE, I wouldn't count on 
getting in to the club. >> 

As people have said, Harry has the same responsibility as Severus to 
learn that people are not always their fathers. I suppose there could 
be an incident of Theodore Nott -- I suppose Theodore Nott could be 
the Slytherin boy who saw the thestrals -- wanting to join DA and 
Harry says "He's a Dark Side spy! His father was at that meeting!" 
and Ron reminds Harry that Sirius was also son of a dark wizard.  

Denise Maclaughlin wrote:

<< if it came down to Snape's neck or Harry's - I wonder what Snape 
would do? He is after all a Slytherin. >>

I think Snape would welcome the chance to die to save Harry. First, 
he is a very unhappy person and I think he would welcome death as a 
release from his life. Second, he would LOVE the thought of making 
Harry feeling guilty and indebted forever.

MAGIC AND GENETICS
I agree with those who say that the wizarding world had a 'birth 
dearth' during the Voldemort Reign of Terror (which I like to call The 
Bad Years), but not that that caused Hogwarts to have fewer students 
born in those years. In fact, the classes born in those years might 
have been LARGER than usual This is because of a theory of inheritance 
of magic which I came up with in a thread on that subject. 

In my theory, the inheritance of magic is partly genetic and partly 
magical. I suggest that in general, there are a whole bunch of pairs 
of recessive genes that usually combine to make a person magical. How 
many of these pairs a person is double-recessive for, and which ones, 
would influence or control how strong their magic power is, and what 
forms of magic they are most talented at. 

But I also suggest that there is also a Magic that keeps the total 
number of wizarding people constant. When a wizard or witch dies, 
their magic goes to the next suitable child born in their area. 
Suitability would be a combination of the genes and of being 
surrounded by magic at the time. (A fetus in a witch's womb is the 
most possible surrounded by magic! So the child of a witch and a 
Muggle is almost as likely to be magic as the child of a witch and a 
wizard) The longer the magic goes searching for a suitable host, the 
geographically wider an area it searches, and also it becomes less 
picky about suitabilty, such as choosing Muggle-born children who at 
least have SOME of the right genes, even tho' there is no magic around 
them at all. 

This theory also explains Squibs, as children of a wizard and a witch 
who were born at a moment when more wizarding babies were being born 
than wizarding folk were dying. THEREFORE, if two Squibs marry, their 
children would have the right genes, and if the Squib couple lived 
(unhappily and in poverty) in the wizarding world, their children 
would have been somewhat surrounded by magic, and therefore children 
of Squibs who remain in the wizarding world are likely to be 
non-Squib. Squibs who move to the Muggle world, make a life there and 
marry a Muggle, would probably have children who were Muggles, but 
with the genes to be very attractive to magic looking for a 
Muggle-born person to reside in.

This theory also implies that there would be more Muggle-borns than 
usual during The Bad Years. That would be an ironic result of 
Voldemort's attempt to eliminate Muggle-borns! But, as you said, more 
wizarding folk than usual were dying during The Bad Years, because of 
all the murders, and fewer were being born than usual, because of 
parents reluctant to bring children into such a dreadful world. Thus, 
quite a number of witches and wizards died with no wizarding child 
being born at their death-time, so their magic went looking for a 
Muggle-born host. Thus, more 'Mudbloods'. That could explain why 
wizarding folk from Bill Weasley's age on down are more familiar with 
Muggle things than their parents are, and take it for granted to wear 
Muggle-style clothes: they learned it from their classmates.

A further implication is that a post-Harry Potter Day wizarding baby 
boom may have resulted in an epidemic of Squibs.

****

I think it is more likely that if magic were one gene-pair, that magic 
would be the RECESSIVE allele. Thus, any magic person must be 
double-recessive, thus any child of two magical parents would be magic 
(mm * mm = mm, as you know). The exception, non-magic children of two 
magic parents, Squibs, are extremely rare; to me, extremely rare MIGHT 
mean once in a generation. Rare enough that they could all be the 
result of a birth defect or mistaken paternity. 

Heterozygous people (Mm) would be Muggles, but two heterozygous people 
would have children in the famous pattern 25% MM, 25% Mm, 25% Mm, 
25%mm = 75% Muggle and 25% Magic. That would account for there being 
quite a few magic children of Muggle parents, and some of them being 
siblings.

***

Any purely genetic system would have some Muggle siblings of magic 
children. If magic was a dominant gene M, many wizards and witches 
would be Mm and if they had children with a 
Muggle mm, half the children would be Mm and half mm, so half the 
children would be Muggles. That includes Ksnidget's suggestion that 
the dominant gene M is one that was created by the number of repeating 
elements becoming greater each generation until first it becomes long 
enough that the phenotype is somewhat abnormal and then keeps getting 
longer, making the condition worse every generation.

We can account for magic children being more than the predicted 
percentage by assuming non-genetic mechanisms ... maybe a non-magic 
embryo cannot implant in a magic womb, so only wizards but not witches 
could have non-magic children ... that would work with magic being 
either m or M; mm womb rejects mM embryo because of its alien M gene 
or Mm womb and MM womb reject mm embryo because it lacks M gene ... if 
magic is m, it could be that mm only marries Mm, never MM, become MM 
just 'smell wrong' to be attracted to, or m is partially expressed by 
Mm being more open-minded and whimsical and thus more compatible to 
magic person.