4Houses/Lily'sEyes/DiagonMuggles/TwinsMap/SevDeceivesLuciu/Warlocks/Genetics

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 89087

Kneasy, I *adore* the phrase 'Nice Sphinxy!'   

My nominee for favorite line in the whole series so far: ""Or maybe,"
said a very cold voice right behind them, "he's waiting to hear why
you two didn't arrive on the school train."

New vampire theory: Snape is not a vampire, but Harry & Co will be
misled into thinking he is one. I haven't figured out yet how that is
relevant to the plot.

LizVega2 wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/88629 :

<< Assuming the Marauders were all in the same house, and assuming,
that each house has five boys/girls (Sorting Hat has to 'quarter'
them all when they get sorted- OOP) who was their roommate, as yet
unmentioned? Harry, Ron, Dean, Seamus, and Neville. That's five.
James, Sirius, Remus, uugh-Peter (I really can't stand even thinking
about that horrible -yuch-anyway), that's still just four. >>

Are there Gryffindor boys in the twins' year besides the twins
themselves and Lee Jordan? Are there Gryffindor girls in Harry's year
besides Hermione, Parvati, and Lavender? Either there aren't always
five boys and five girls, or some characters go unmentioned for five
books so far.

Sachmet96 wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/88631 :

<< silver is a very soft material and just not suited for weapons of
any kind as it would dent as soon as it hit/was hit by most other
weapons/things. So it is actually quite
useless. >>

Not if you made the weapon out of silver and THEN cast a spell on it
to make it harder than diamond but not brittle. (As Arya said in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/88689 )

<< But what's interesting is that the house colours of Slytherin,
Ravenclaw and Gryffindor have silver, gold and bronze in them. As far
as I can remember gold is the softest of the three, bronze the
strongest. Hufflepuff doesn't have any metallic colour. >>

Hufflepuff is yellow and black. In heraldry, gold, bronze, and yellow
are all the same tincture, the 'metal' named Or (gold). I kind of like
the three Or against one Argent (silver) symbolism of the exclusion of
Slytherin, altho' I much dislike the win-place-show-nothing of gold
(medal), silver (medal), bronze (medal), and no (medal).

There must be some (non-heraldic) connection between the metal iron
and the color black, as ironsmiths are called blacksmiths, as
tinsmiths are called whitesmiths.

Julie Howard wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/88691 :

<< I have been looking for a connection between the deaths of James
and Lily and the continuous emphasis on Lily/Harry's eyes. Lily
excelled at charms. Can this be done through eyes, without wand? >>

BBC Newsround interview (Newsround is Lizo, yes?)
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/quickquotes/arti
cles/2000/fall00-bbc-newsround.html
<< Q: Now, can I ask you: are there any special wizarding powers in
your world that depend on the wizard using their eyes to do something?
Bit like --
A: Why do you want to know this?
Q: I just vaguely wondered.
A: Why?
Q: Well because everyone always goes on about how Harry's got Lilly
Potter's eyes?
A: Aren't you smart? There is something, maybe, coming about that. I'm
going to say no more. Very clever. >>

Julie Howard wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/88692 :

<< How are Hermione's parents able to go to Diagon Alley? >>

As Muggles, they can't *see* The Leaky Cauldron, but presumably they
can close their eyes and allow their daughter to take them by the hand
and lead them through it. (Oh, that's what Berit said in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/88697 ) 

Julie Howard wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/88845 :

<< I know where they got the map, but does anyone know how they
learned to use it? That is what I find intriguing. >>

I bet there are ways to reverse-engineer magic spells and artifacts --
I bet part of what Bill does as a curse-breaker is to reverse-engineer
the curse on an object, to find out how it was made and what it's
supposed to do, so he can figure out how to remove it or inactivate
its trigger. There may be classes in sixth and seventh year about
basic methods of reverse-engineering magic, but I think Fred and
George learned how to reverse-engineer on their own, and they
reverse-engineered the Map. My beta-reader said that 'reverse-
engineer' (I had used the term in a fic) is too Muggle a phrase, but I
haven't been able to figure out what phrase the wizards would use
instead. 
 
Meri August wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/88909 :

<< what really interests me in this situation is how someone as
influential in the ministry as Lucius Malfoy could not have known
about Snape being a traitor of the DEs. >>

Speculation: Snape told Lucius: "We all did what we had to do to save
ourselves. You claimed to have been under the Imperius Curse and
Karkaroff named names. And *I* talked old Dumbledore into believing
that I was on his side."

Carol wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPfor
Grownups/message/88774 :

<< The narrator (or one of the Weasleys?) keeps referring to Perkins,
the wizard who works with Arthur in the Muggle Artifacts office, as an
"old warlock." No other character, IIRC, is referred to by that term.
I always thought a warlock was just a male witch, but JKR seems to use
"wizard" in that sense. So what is a warlock by JKR's definition and
how is he different from other wizards? >>

I long held that 'warlock' was a title meaning an elected
representative to a wizarding legislature council. If Perkins was a
politician who retired or was voted out of office, his old colleagues
still in office might well give him a job that didn't require him to
work very hard, and where his nominal supervisor would be unable to
give him a bad annual review, which could explain why he isn't much
help to Arthur. Also, if the various 'warlocks' whom Harry sees
rowdily drinking Firewhiskey and arguing about Transfiguration were
current or retired legislators, they could have immunity from being
arrested for little things like public drunkenness or disturbing the
peace. I said, the Saxon meaning of "warlock = oath breaker" would
apply quite well to the wizarding equivalent of a Congressman or M.P. 

However, I'm not clear on Ernie saying in CoS: "I might tell you that
you can trace my family back through nine generations of witches and
warlocks and my blood's as pure as anyone's, so -". He might be
bragging that ALL his male ancestors were legislators, but one would
have thought that some of the female ancestors would have been as
well.   

More on my theory that 'warlock' was a title meaning an elected
representative to a wizarding legislature council (so that the
medieval Wizards' Council, precursor to the Ministry of Magic as we
were told in the schoolbooks, could perfectly well be called the
Warlocks' Council). There would be representatives to the
International Warlock Convention of 1289 (mentioned in CoS), and to
the International [Con]Federation of Wizards/Warlocks, making the term
'Warlock' as part of their name appropriate.

("International [Con]Federation of Wizards/Warlocks" -- I think all
those names have appeared in canon, and I think they all mean the same
organization:
International Federation of Wizards, pages 90 and 120 of UK OoP 
International Federation of Warlocks, pages 30 and 128 of UK OoP 
International Confederation of Wizards, on DD's letterhead in SS and
GoF ch.17
International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy in Mafalda
Hopkirk's letter in CoS.)

While I was at it, I proposed that the Wizards' Council was earlier
named the Witchingameet, based on the name 'Witangamot' of the Saxon
parliament before the Norman Conquest. Wizengamot clearly is named
from the same source, so I patted myself on the back for an "almost
right" prediction. Even tho' the Wizengamot seems to function more as
judiaciary than legislature.

There's a bit in OoP where Lupin says: "Dumbledore's 'been voted out
of the Chairmanship of the International Confederation of Wizards...
they've demoted him from chief Warlock on the Wizengamot... and
they're talking about taking away his Order of Merlin, First Class,
too.'

If you remember Dumbledore's official Headmaster letterhead in PS/SS,
his name was followed by "Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc.,
Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards".
There has long been discussion of what those titles could possibly
mean. So now I think Supreme Mugwump is the title of the 'chairman' of
the International [Con]federation of Wizards/Warlocks. And Warlock
means 'member of the Wizengamot', and 'Chief Warlock' means Chairman
of the Wizengamot.

Tigerpatronus (I love that name!)  wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/88919 :

<<  There are three alleles (form of a gene, like blue or brown eyes)
that you can have for the ApoE gene. The most common allele for the
ApoE gene in the US and globally is ApoE3. The "3" is the important
part. A less common but seemingly protective allele is ApoE2. (snip)
he ApoE4 gene is the "bad" one. >>

Where is ApoE1?

Pippin wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/88595 :

<< However Slytherins may boast that they restrict themselves to the
pureblood as partners, it is hardly canon that they actually do so.
There are many indications that they do not. Riddle's ancestry is
mixed, there are all those inconvenient relatives not listed on the
Black family tree, and all those Slytherins who seem to resemble hags
or trolls. >>

I believe that the purebloodist snobs don't have an objection to
crossing with respectable magical beings. Pure magic 'blood' is far
more important to them than pure human 'blood'. However, I don't
understand how trolls can be respectable when giants aren't.

Julie Howard wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/88693 :

<< 3. At what point is a wizard a pureblood? >>

In CoS, Ernie Macmillan said: "I might tell you that you can trace my
family back through nine generations of witches and warlocks and my
blood's as pure as anyone's, so -" which suggests that nine
generations without a Muggle could be the definition of 'pureblood'.

I suspect JKR's simple term 'Halfblood' covers a big collection of
words like 'mulatto', 'quadroon', and 'octaroon', with words
distinguishing between ancestors who were born to two Muggles and
those born to one Muggle and one witch/wizard. I suspect that someone
who can trace back three generations (parents, grand-parents,
great-grand-parents) without a Muggle (some listies have suggested the
word 'full-blood') are socially acceptable to purebloods as long as
they stay OUT of the UPPER CLASS.

<<  How is magic passed down genetically?
1. It cannot be Dominant, given that there are squibs and mudbloods.
2. It cannot be complete recessive, given that there are halfbloods.
4. Is magic genetic at all? >>

Here comes my usual rant on that subject:

Any purely genetic system would have some Muggle siblings of magic
children. If magic was a dominant gene M, many wizards and witches
would be Mm and if they had children with a Muggle mm, half the
children would be Mm and half mm, so half the children would be
Muggles. That includes Ksnidget's suggestion that the dominant gene M
is one that was created by the number of repeating elements becoming
greater each generation until first it becomes long enough that the
phenotype is somewhat abnormal and then keeps getting longer, making
the condition worse every generation.

We can account for magic children being more than the predicted
percentage by assuming non-genetic mechanisms ... maybe a non-magic
embryo cannot implant in a magic womb, so only wizards but not witches
could have non-magic children ... that would work with magic being
either m or M; mm womb rejects mM embryo because of its alien M gene
or Mm womb and MM womb reject mm embryo because it lacks M gene ... if
magic is m, it could be that mm only marries Mm, never MM, become MM
just 'smell wrong' to be attracted to, or m is partially expressed by
Mm being more open-minded and whimsical and thus more compatible to
magic person. 

****

In my theory, the inheritance of magic is partly genetic and partly
magical. I suggest that in general, there are a whole bunch of pairs
of recessive genes that usually combine to make a person magical. How
many of these pairs a person is double-recessive for, and which ones,
would influence or control how strong their magic power is, and what
forms of magic they are most talented at. 

I think it is more likely that if magic were one gene-pair, that magic
would be the RECESSIVE allele. Thus, any magic person must be
double-recessive, thus any child of two magical parents would be magic
(mm * mm = mm, as you know). The exception, non-magic children of two
magic parents, Squibs, are extremely rare; to me, extremely rare MIGHT
mean once in a generation. Rare enough that they could all be the
result of a birth defect or mistaken paternity. 

Heterozygous people (Mm) would be Muggles, but two heterozygous people
would have children in the famous pattern 25% MM, 25% Mm, 25% Mm,
25%mm = 75% Muggle and 25% Magic. That would account for there being
quite a few magic children of Muggle parents, and some of them being
siblings.
 
***

I agree with those who say that the wizarding world had a 'birth
dearth' during the Voldemort Reign of Terror (which I like to call The
Bad Years), but not that that caused Hogwarts to have fewer students
born in those years. In fact, the classes born in those years might
have been LARGER than usual This is because of a theory of inheritance
of magic which I came up with in a thread on that subject. 

In my theory, the inheritance of magic is partly genetic and partly
magical. I suggest that in general, there are a whole bunch of pairs
of recessive genes that usually combine to make a person magical. How
many of these pairs a person is double-recessive for, and which ones,
would influence or control how strong their magic power is, and what
forms of magic they are most talented at. 

But I also suggest that there is also a Magic that keeps the total
number of wizarding people constant. When a wizard or witch dies,
their magic goes to the next suitable child born in their area.
Suitability would be a combination of the genes and of being
surrounded by magic at the time. (A fetus in a witch's womb is the
most possible surrounded by magic! So the child of a witch and a
Muggle is almost as likely to be magic as the child of a witch and a
wizard) The longer the magic goes searching for a suitable host, the
geographically wider an area it searches, and also it becomes less
picky about suitabilty, such as choosing Muggle-born children who at
least have SOME of the right genes, even tho' there is no magic around
them at all. 

This theory also explains Squibs, as children of a wizard and a witch
who were born at a moment when more wizarding babies were being born
than wizarding folk were dying. THEREFORE, if two Squibs marry, their
children would have the right genes, and if the Squib couple lived
(unhappily and in poverty) in the wizarding world, their children
would have been somewhat surrounded by magic, and therefore children
of Squibs who remain in the wizarding world are likely to be
non-Squib. Squibs who move to the Muggle world, make a life there and
marry a Muggle, would probably have children who were Muggles, but
with the genes to be very attractive to magic looking for a
Muggle-born person to reside in.

This theory also implies that there would be more Muggle-borns than
usual during The Bad Years. That would be an ironic result of
Voldemort's attempt to eliminate Muggle-borns! But, as you said, more
wizarding folk than usual were dying during The Bad Years, because of
all the murders, and fewer were being born than usual, because of
parents reluctant to bring children into such a dreadful world. Thus,
quite a number of witches and wizards died with no wizarding child
being born at their death-time, so their magic went looking for a
Muggle-born host. Thus, more 'Mudbloods'. That could explain why
wizarding folk from Bill Weasley's age on down are more familiar with
Muggle things than their parents are, and take it for granted to wear
Muggle-style clothes: they learned it from their classmates.

A further implication is that a post-Harry Potter Day wizarding baby
boom may have resulted in an epidemic of Squibs.