Book Two Discoveries!

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 119143


Antosha:"I'm leery of the 'Heir of Gryffindor vs. Heir of Slytherin"
setup mostly because it seems very... I don't know... unsubtle and
schematic. White Hat vs. Black Hat. The world JKR is building up seems
to beg more moral complexity than that."

I hear you on this. JKR has danced around the idea already, though,
"...it takes a true Gryffindor...", says Dumbledore, so in a way Harry
is already emblematic of the spirit of Gryffindor, whether or not he's
the Heir.

Antosha:"I do want to point out, however, that while the WW may be
(literally) littered with DESCENDANTS of the Founders, each would have
at most a single HEIR. In the same way, Queen Victoria has many living
descendants, peers and royals all. But only one of them currently sits
on the throne of England. Elizabeth II is Victoria's sole heir."

Point well taken, but VR's official heirs were determined by a complex
set of rules - in other words, somewhat artificial. The concept of an
heir in the Wizard World might be harder to figure out.

Antosha:"In CoS, it is made clear that Tom Riddle is not only Salazar
Slytherin's HEIR, he is SS's only remaining DESCENDANT, which is
pretty wild. Not terribly good breeding stock, that family. Though,
given their disposition, this is perhaps not terribly surprising."

<eg> Question: "What does the Slytherin family use for birth control?"
Answer:"Their personalities."

Jim Ferer