Petunia is a *Squib*

[jodel at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 58689

LH writes:

> The Petunia is a squib theory is widely held.  The only way it makes sense 
> though, as squibs are quite rare, and obviously Petunia takes great pains to 
> distance herself from the wizarding world, is that at least one of her and 
> Lily's parents were indeed a witch or wizard
> 

Or it depends upon one's deffinition of "Squib".   

The common deffinition is that a Squib is the non-magical offspring of 
magical parents. That is the deffinition that we are told, and the one that is 
recognized within the wizarding world. By this criterion there is no way that 
Petunia can be a Squib unless her parents were known to be magical. And such Squibs 
are indeed rare, since something has gone seriously wrong in their 
inheritance of magic in order for them to occur. (Magic, once present in a bloodline 
tends to perpetuate itself.)

But common deffinitions are not necessarily accurate in biological terms. If 
a broader deffinition of a Squib as a person without enough inherent magic to 
register as magical is also true, even if such examples cannot be readilly 
observed, then it is likely that Squibs are not rare at all. By this criterion 
there must be as many Squibs as there are wizards. But these Squibs are not the 
offspring of magical parents. They and their parents all apear to be ordinary 
Muggles. They do have magic in their bloodlines inhereted from a magical 
ancestor and passed down for generations unknown. They just do not have enough 
magic to register as magical themselves. 

If this is the case, and several thousand undocumented Muggle-born Squibs are 
living undetected among the Muggle populace, then Petunia is almost certainly 
one of them, since it is clear that both of her parents must have been 
Muggle-born Squibs, or they would be unlikely to have been able to produce a witch 
daughter. In fact if this view of the matter is true, then we have a simple 
explanation for ALL of the Muggle-born witches and wizards (25% of any average 
Hogwarts year's enrollment) who have occured in families where there is now 
known magical connection. The connection is actually there -- but too far back to 
have been noted.

The question is whether you accept the broader deffinition, which is not 
mentioned in canon, but is a fairly elementary deduction drawn from basic laws of 
inheritance as it is ovserved in Muggle science, and has yet to be 
contradicted by any canon statement from anyone who might be supposed to know what they 
are talking about.

My own supposition is that Petunia and her parents (and Dudley) are/were 
undocumented Muggle-born Squibs, but that somewhere in the previous generation or 
three there had been another Muggle-born witch or wizard, so that the Evens 
parents did *know* that magic existed (because of Auntie Rose or Great-Uncle 
Harry) and were delighted when their daughter Lily turned out to have inherited 
it, even though they knew that they and their other daughter were to all 
intents ordinary Muggles.

Much less dramatic, but a lot easier to account for all parties' reactions.

-JOdel


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