Weasleys as heirs of Slytherin? Was: Why put the entrance to the Cos in a girls'

[Berit Jakobsen]

No: HPFGUIDX 88366

Carol: 
> They [the Weasleys] can't be heirs of Slytherin because Tom Riddle 
was the last descendant (through his muggle-born mother). Also, as 
you say, the Weasleys are purebloods. If they were descended from 
Salazar Slytherin through another branch of the Slytherin family that 
didn't intermarry with Muggles, that descent would be reflected in 
their genealogical records and known to all the pureblood families. 
Dumbledore would know it as well. Since he doesn't have any such 
information, we can safely assume that Voldemort is the last of the 
Slytherin line.

Berit replies:

You're basing this on the assumption that that the Heir of Slytherin 
title is inherited from parent to child in a straight line. Canon-
wise we don't know exactly how the title is inherited, do we? Maybe 
it hasn't only got to do with (direct) blood lineage? Also, there 
could be several branches of Slytherin descendants all distantly 
related to him, so even if Voldemort is the present heir, it doesn't 
have to rule out other relatives should Voldie die. By the way; I 
don't believe the Weasleys will turn out as heirs of Slytherin, but 
we can't really rule that out based on the fact that we don't know 
how the title is inherited.

I have a theory someone else other than Voldie is or is going to be 
the heir of Slytherin, ether by blood lineage or by "accident" or 
possibly both (Voldemort made him his /equal/ when trying to kill 
him...). Well, I just think that inheriting the heir of Slytherin 
title might not be just a simple matter of direct lineage.

Sorry; don't have the books with me, but can't recall Tom Riddle's 
mom being muggle-born? Wasn't she a pure-blooded witch? His father 
was muggleborn though (and a muggle).

Berit
http://home.no.net/berjakob/snape.html