Heirs of Hogwarts. Was Dorcas Medows Heir of Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff?

[Berit Jakobsen]

No: HPFGUIDX 84848

Mandy wrote:

> One last note, a title doesn't have to necessarily have to pass to 
> the offspring of the title holder.  The reigning title holder can 
> sometimes dictate just whom the title passes on to, naming that 
> person as heir.  The Roman emperors did it that way.  Occasionally 
> British monarchs in the middle ages did it.  

Me:

The problem with the question of heirs in the HP books is that 
Rowling hasn't really told us much about it. We don't know how the 
heir title is inherited in Rowling's world, it doesn't necessarily 
have to pass from parent to child in a direct line, and we don't know 
if all the four houses are supposed to have one at any given time. If 
I remember correctly the only heir ever mentioned in the books is the 
Heir of Slytherin, Voldemort. Voldemort claims to be the Heir of 
Slytherin, and Dumbledore seems to confirm it as being a rightful 
claim in CoS. The closest we get to Harry being the Gryffindor Heir 
is just a couple of "clues", like him drawing the sword of Godric out 
of the Sorting Hat, and DD telling him he is a "true" Gryffindor. But 
nothing more substantial than that.

I've been speculating myself that there may be other ways of 
inheriting an heir title other than direct lineage. What if the 
reigning title holder, not necessarily "dictates" who the next in 
line is going to be, but "accidentally" passes it on... Remember the 
prophecy in OoP? "...the Dark Lord will mark him as his EQUAL 
[capital letters by me]... and either must die at the hand of the 
other for neither can live while the other survives...". Maybe 
parseltongue wasn't the only thing Harry "inherited" from Salazar 
himself via Voldemort that fateful day... And maybe the reason either 
Harry or Voldemort must be "vanquished" is that there can only be one 
Heir of Slytherin at any given time...So one has to go. I think it 
makes sense. Sort of :-)

Berit