thoughts about broomsticks and potions

[estrom2000]

No: HPFGUIDX 89052

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, anneli lucas <annelilucas at y...> 
wrote:
 
> On to broomsticks:  can only witches and wizards ride
> broomsticks?  When Harry gets the firebolt (PoA) it
> automatically hovers at the right height for him.  Can
> brooms sense whether someone is innately magical, in
> other words if Filch got on one would it just fall to
> the ground?

Nellie:

My guess is as good as yours, but since we see that even innately 
magical people have to learn to fly a broomstick, and their abilities 
at it vary greatly - Neville did fall off his at his first attempt - 
so maybe the same would happen to a Muggle or a Squib.  They probably 
wouldn't even be able to make the broom hover up for them to mount 
(as even many magical students couldn't at their first attempt) or 
control it afterwards.  Harry was clearly an exception, even for a 
wizard.    
I wonder, though, could a Muggle or a Squib brew magical potions?  It 
doesn't seem to require either wands or incantations - just following 
the recipe.  Maybe that's why Snape doesn't like teaching it in spite 
of his being so good at it - because he knows that it doesn't require 
specifically magical abilities, and even a Muggle could do it, and he 
probably doesn't think much of Muggles.  Just a thought.

Nellie.