Wizards, Muggles, and Genetics (long)

[charme]

No: HPFGUIDX 119723

I've been a very vocal (and probably annoying) advocate that the books and 
JKR's statements about bloodline classifications like half-blood, 
Muggleborn/mudblood, pureblood and the like are relative to a 
genetics/bloodline/genealogy plan JKR has defined and has not been 
completely revealed to us readers. Harry discovers in CoS the racial 
inequality of blood heritage in the WW, and the more I read and the more she 
alludes on her website, the more I am convinced HPB is going to explain in 
depth what the WW society believes about blood heritage, and what's really 
TRUE about it.  Sure, prior to this month, JKR gives us snippets about this 
with regard to her observation that her criteria for blood purity is eerily 
similiar to Hitler's, however some readers may not theorize the details she 
might have developed to support it as I do. The response she gave to the 
question of Squibs recently contains a reference to a dominant gene for 
magic, which means there is also a recessive gene which precludes magic 
ability. To put this in context for us Muggle types, this is similiar to 
blood type genetics you learned in Biology:  A, B, AB, & O blood types. A & 
B genes are dominant over O, and a person's O blood type means that both 
parents gave the recessive gene together to their offspring.  O blood type 
genes are recessive, as is Squibness (hey! I made a new word!!!) :)  I think 
you might get the jist of where I'm going with this, but if you apply the 
same principle to Muggleborns - for instance, take Hermione and Lily.  Each 
had 2 parents who gave them the dominant magic gene . How does THAT happen? 
Here's a thought:  wizards in Hermione & Lily's parents' lineage way back 
when?

In my mind, here's the real question:  is the recessive nonmagical gene a 
MUGGLE influence, or did pureblood wizards have it all along? If wizards 
didn't have it and it was introduced by interracial marriages between 
wizards and muggles...well, a Muggle entering the mix of, say........ the 
pristine holier-than-thou pureblood Malfoy's lineage wouldn't be something 
they would want advertised, would they? Note that back in the Hogwarts 
Founders' days muggleborn wizards were being admitted to Hogwarts too, and 
you could think the marrying and cavorting about with muggles by wizards has 
been happening for a *long* time; perhaps most of these pureblood families 
aren't as pureblood as they think, no matter what they believe. On a related 
topic in CoS, Ron makes reference to "wizards would have died out" if they 
hadn't married muggles and I don't believe that statement means just in the 
recent past.   If you ponder along those lines, one could submit that the 
reality may be that of those families who can be considered purebloods 
generation after generation, there are *very* few of them. This could 
explain the appearance of Squibs in wizard families and while not common, 
we've already met 2 of them in the WW: Argus Filch and Arabella Figg. Other 
than the fact Filch and Arabella grew up in the wizard community, what 
*really* distinguishes them from muggleborns? With the same upbringing as 
Filch and Arabella, could a Muggle perform the same types of activities they 
do? It's conceivable a Muggle could. Muggle, BTW, is defined by LV in GoF as 
"not a wizard."  Ok, so the only difference in definition between Muggle and 
Squib is what community (WW or Muggle) you were born in? Interesting those 
possibilities, hm?

There's also another another tantilizing comment Hermione makes in CoS when 
responding to Harry's worries about his abilities to speak Parseltongue; she 
tells Harry that Slytherin lives thousands of years ago, and for all they 
know, he could be related in some way to him. Siruis too makes reference in 
OoP, when looking at the Black family tree with Harry, how "pureblood" 
families like his, the Malfoys, and the Weasleys are all related: if you're 
going to maintain the purity of blood by marrying into only what you 
consider pureblood families, some rather unlikely cousins (like the 
Lestranges) you as an Order member are going to have. Mind you, I understand 
DD's statements about Tom Riddle being the last descendent of Slytherin - 
however one wonders if this means a "direct" descendent of Slytherin; James 
Potter was considered a pureblood and we've seen how easily pureblood 
families can be related by cousins removed and such as depicted by the Black 
family tree.

Add to the foreshadowing the title of the book Siruis uses in OoP to smash 
the silvery instrument which scuttled up Harry's arm and tried to "puncture" 
his skin:  Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy. Blood might be thicker 
than water, but water can mix with blood. The question is when and how much, 
eh? Maybe we'll find out in HBP.

charme