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

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 88393

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Berit Jakobsen" <belijako at o...>
wrote:
> 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


Oops. You're right. Witch mother, muggle father. But the rest of the
argument still holds, IMO. In fact, if his mother was a pureblood, her
descent from Salazar Slytherin would also be well-known among the
purebloods, who go in for genealogy if only to determine who is a
suitable marriage partner. And Dumbledore (presumably a pureblood
himself) states unconditionally that Tom Riddle is the last descendant
of Slytherin. So unless he's wrong, the Weasleys can't be heirs of
Slytherin, and if Harry is, it's only via the transferred powers of
Voldemort. But note that *he* didn't unlock the Chamber of Secrets. He
was able to open it only because Diary!Tom had already unlocked it
using Ginny's body.

Carol