Squibs And Muggles

indyattic indyattic at earthlink.net
Sat May 10 22:58:24 UTC 2003


No: HPFGUIDX 57564

Darrin conjured up:
"We only know of two Squibs, Filch and the unnamed Weasley cousin, 
who is an accountant? (as I recall) "

me:
Yikes - I missed that. Which book is that in? We only know of two 
Squibs, but we do know that there are enough of them to warrant the 
development of the correspondence course. 

Darrin again:
"I disagree with the theory that Petunia is a Squib. I think Lily and 
Petunia's parents' reactions to Lily's witchness strongly indicate 
Muggles. (I don't dispute, however, the possibility that Petunia has 
repressed magic ability, but  that makes her a late-blooming witch, 
not a Squib.)"

me:
I think it Petunia had any magic in her, she would have received a 
letter. I think she's just jealous of her (now dead) sister's 
exciting life.  I always had the impression that the offspring of two 
magical parents would almost certainly inherit the magic "gene" and 
would therefore get the letter. In that scenario, nobody would be 
certain of one's squibness until one had failed at Hogwarts. That 
would explain how Filch ended up there.

still me:
I'm only on my second read, but are we sure that Neville isn't a 
Squib? I guess the fact that he gets some responses from his wand 
would indicate that he isn't entirely magically-impaired.

Darrin again:
"The Weasley cousin gets a Muggle job and apparently doesn't 
associate with his magic kin.  I mean, this is the Weasleys., some of 
the nicest people in the Wizard World, and there is not a place for 
this cousin? That indicates, a bit, that Squibs really aren't 
welcome, and probably are strongly encouraged to embrace their forced 
Mugglehood. But that leaves Filch. Perhaps Filch has a job in the 
magic world through the open-mindedness of Dumbledore, employer of 
werewolves and giants, payer of house elves, granter of second-
chances to Death Eaters, and generally all-around great 
guy."


Me again:
Maybe Cousin Weasely is in league with Bill and/or Gringotts, 
laundering Muggle money.I never ever got the impression that the 
magical world booted out the Squibs. I got the impression that the 
Squibs suffered from serious self-esteem issues. Filch in particular. 
I think that DD found a place for Filch where Filch desperately most 
wanted to be, and that is at Horwarts.


Darrin again:
"If Dumbledore knew -- and he probably does -- about Filch's attempts 
with the Kwikspell stuff, he'd likely say -- and may have said --
 "Argus, you really shouldn't fall for foolishness such as that. I 
have confidence that your skills, magic or no, will fit in nicely 
here at Hogwarts."

Me:
Or perhaps Dumbledore knows that the Kwikspell course isn't *all* 
nonsense after all. After all, developing magic "late in life" isn't 
apparently unheard of.

Angie, 
grammar, check!
 header, check!
 












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