Another Flint? (Was: When?)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 119210


charme wrote:
> While I can understand your point, Carol, I've a huge interest in
genetics and genealogy - and I don't think we've heard the last of
what constitutes Muggle parentage. For example, canon in both CoS and
OoP refers to the concepts of half-blood, pureblood, creature (like
elves and goblins) and Muggle, yet to my warped way of thinking the
only clearly defined definitions of that list are the first three. For
example, what if 2 Squibs marry and generations pass with no wizard
children? Do they become Muggle at some point after moving away from
the wizarding world thru the generations and lo and behold, a wizard
child is born to 2 seemingly Muggle parents? 

Carol responds:
Well, JKR has said in an interview that Squibs are the nonmagical
children of magical parents and Muggleborns are the magical children
of nonmagical parents, mirror images, in other words. And Muggles are
nonmagical people who aren't Squibs. So if two Squibs (both
nonmagical) have a nonmagical child, he or she would be a Muggle. And
yet he or she would have wizard blood (or genes) that could show up in
a later generation, resulting in a Muggleborn witch or wizard. And of
course if they have a magical child, he or she will be a witch or
wizard, but not a Muggleborn because the Squibs, though not magical
themselves, have wizard blood on one or both sides.

I'm thoroughly confused as to what the child of a halfblood and a
Muggleborn would be called, but the child of two halfbloods would
probably be another halfblood. And it's unclear whether Muggle
"contamination" can ever be removed from the bloodline. Surely even
the Malfoys and the Blacks have some Muggle in them somewhere?

It's all very confusing and JKR's website isn't much help.

charme again:
> Having been exposed to the US Holocaust Memorial Musuem as I have
(it's in my proximity) and seen/read how bloodline purity was defined,
I don't know that part wizard, elf, giant or goblin blood being
introduced by some means in a family genealogy can be completely
eliminated.

Carol again:
I don't think that nonhuman blood fits into the equation here. The
person involved becomes (pardon the language) a half*breed* in the
eyes of the purebloods rather than a half*blood.* There's a completely
different form of prejudice here, one that doesn't occur for us in our
world because different species can't interbreed as they do in the WW.
I very much doubt that a wizard with (known) giant or goblin ancestors
could ever regain pureblood status, but that wouldn't make him a
Muggleborn. Giants, elfs, goblins, etc. are magical creatures. The
stigma against them is that they're *nonhuman*. Muggles, in contrast,
are human (I think even Draco Malfoy would concede that, though I
could be wrong). The stigma against them is that they're *not magical*.

So I very much doubt that someone like Hagrid, the child of two
magical beings, one of whom was nonhuman, would be referred to as a
Muggleborn, any more than Grawp would be called by that term. There
are no Muggles involved. So if the Creeveys were the highly unlikely
product of a marriage between a house-elf and a Muggle, they would be
"halfbreeds" in the sense that one parent was human and one was a
nonhuman magical being, and half*bloods* in the sense that one parent
was magical and the other wasn't. In any case, they would not be
Muggleborns because only one parent was a Muggle. The other, though
nonhuman, would be magical.

But as I said in another post, it's most unlikely that a house-elf
would enter the Muggle world under any circumstances and more unlikely
still that she (or he) would marry a Muggle. Nor is there any trace of
house-elf ancestry in the appearance and behavior of the Creevey
brothers. The genes for shortness exist in the Muggle population and
that, IMO, is where they came from. I'm virtually certain that no
witch or wizard born in the WW, including Ginny Weasley, would mistake
the child of a wizard and a house-elf for a Muggleborn.

Carol