[HPforGrownups] Why do Muggles have Wizard Children

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 69918

>Mai wrote:

>>Ceef wrote:
>> On the other hand, parent C (let's call him Lucius) with a
>>genotype of
>> m m, and parent D (Narcissa) also m m, would have nothing but m m
>> children, with nothing to override the recessive genes.

>What about Squibs? Despite the claims of the Kwikspell course, i
>dont think anyone who is *truly* a squib can do magic. (or else I'm
>sure Ms. Figg would have learnt some).
>
>Maybe Squibs are just random mutations. (as some muggle-born
>children might be).

The original post was a simplification of something that is a lot more
complicated!

To know how many Ms and ms there are (and in the absence of a Wizard Genome
Project!) we would need to know things like

- how often Squibs are born to pureblood parents
- how often wizards are born to pure Muggle parents
- what happens if the pairing is somewhere in between
- do pure blood wizards ever have pure Muggle (as opposed to Squib) children

I think that in the Potterverse Stone Age there would have been no awareness
that wizards and muggles were separate and there would have been regular
genetic mixing (presumably those with the wizard gene would have normally
found a role as the tribal shaman or equivalent - though there could have
been cultural differences depending on whether the shaman was expected to be
celibate, seen as prime breeding stock, or somewhere in the middle!)

Later, and I'm thinking that it was when humans began living in larger
settlements, the concept emerged that wizards had things in common, and that
if two wizards were to have children, the children were more likely to have
wizard powers. Gradually this became more common. Possibly because of the
common abilities of wizards, they would have developed a culture that began
to separate from Muggle culture - as Muggles relied more on technology and
as more wizarding lore was collected and shared.

At some point between then and the Founders, this attitude would have
hardened into a recognition that it was in some way "unworthy" of a pure
blooded wizard to marry a Muggle, because there was a greater likelihood of
having children without the wizardly abilities. The formal separation of the
WW from Muggledom in the 17th century would have strengthened that attitude,
if only because wizards were now far less likely to meet Muggles socially
and therefore more likely to marry within the community.

But the wizard gene is still "out there" in the Muggle world, perhaps passed
on by the Muggle descendants of mixed blood marriages so that it can still
crop up at random.

Cheers

Ffred

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Cymru yn unfryd gerhyd Wrion
Gwret dy Cymry yghymeiri