OOP: :SPOILERS :Petunia

[gabnai1]

No: HPFGUIDX 63660

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "emmamariebee" 
<emmamarieb at h...> wrote:
> <snip from "a_fabrefr"> . . . so  . . . is Petunia a repressed 
> witch, and squid ?
> 
> <snip from David Paterson> Hmm.  I've never thought of her as a 
> squid.  A squib, perhaps... But seriously, looking at PS Hagrid 
> implies Lily is from a Muggle  family.  On page 61 (Canadian / UK 
> edition) Hagrid says "...some o'the best I ever saw were the only 
> ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles - look at yer 
mum!  
> Look at what she had fer a  sister!"  I'd say Lilyand Petunia's 
> Muggle credentials are pretty well established.
> 
> Me:  
> Further evidence of Lily & Petunia's muggle parentage: At the end 
of 
> OoP as Dumbledore is explaining the prophecy to Harry, he say to 
> him:  "He [Voldemort] chose the boy he thought most likely to be a 
> danger to him  . . And notice this, Harry. He chose, not the 
> pureblood (which according to his creed, is the only kind of wizard 
> worth being or knowing), but the half-blood, like himself."  (Ch 
37, 
> p. 842, US edition)
> 
> So . . . looks to me like Harry's got to have some serious muggle 
in 
> his blood, and given everything that we know, it seems a lot more 
> likely to be coming from Lily's side than James's. I think Lily's 
> parents (Harry's maternal grandparents) are muggle. Since squibs 
are 
> the non-magical offspring of wizarding parents, that means Pentunia 
> is not likely to be a squib.  
> 
> However, I definitely agree that JKR has left a lot of room here 
for 
> us to speculate about what ELSE Petunia might know, what else she 
> might end up telling Harry, and . . . I do wonder if perhaps in 
some 
> cases magical inclinations might lay dormant & undetected for 
> years . . . before being provoked by some horrible situation . . . ?

I love the Petunia scene at the beginning - yet another character we 
thought was flat turns around having a lot more to them.  Petunia in 
the first book explains that she was always very jelous of her 
sister, and her parents thought it was really great to have a witch 
in the family, while Petunia thought she was a freak.  Which is also 
proof that Lily's family was Muggle.  

JKR hints that Petunia is trying to repress something really hard, 
which may explain her obsession with cleanliness and trying to avoid 
anything remotely out of the ordinary.  Lily being a witch and her 
family being accepting to it would at least make Petunia know a lot 
of things about the wizarding world.  One would assume that Lily 
would have told lots of stories while being home during the summer in 
her Hogwarts years.

Marta