Half Blood or Part Blood (was: How Rare are Muggle-borns?)

[sevenhundredandthirteen]

No: HPFGUIDX 104703

karenoc1 wrote:
> James Potter – Pureblood.  Harry is called a halfblood by
> Dumbledore on p. 842 of Scholastic OoP, so James must have been a 
> pureblood--assuming Lily was Muggle-born. (Dead prior to PS/SS)

I don't agree that just because Harry is a half blood, it means we 
can infere that James is a pure blood.

I think half blood stands for 'part blood,' not 'exactly half- one 
pure blood parent and one muggle or muggle-born.'

I only raise this possibility because we have never heard the 
terms `quarter blood' or `three quarter blood.' 

What would a child born to Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley be called? 
If Harry's half and Ginny is pure, would it be a three quarter
blood?

What would a child born to Harry Potter and Britney Spears be 
called? If Harry's half and Britney is a muggle, would it be a 
quarter blood?

If such distinctions existed, I would expect that we would have 
encountered them by now. The very fact that we haven't suggests
to me that you only count your immediate parents' blood, except on
the occasion that one of them is muggle-born (the prejudiced 
exception to the rule). For instance, Seamus says he is half blood 
because his mother is a witch, and his Dad is a muggle. He
doesn't say his mother is pure blood and his Dad's a muggle.
He just says`witch.' 

Hagrid says `most wizards these days are half blood anyway'
in CoS (Chapter 7 "Mudbloods and Murmurs"), and `yer
don'have ter be pure blood ter do it' in GoF (Chapter 24
"Rita Skeeter's Scoop".) .
 
Notice he counts *most* wizards as `half blood' not `half
blood or less' like the movie. Maybe this proves that the
wizarding world, like JKR, is awful at counting fractions and 
just uses `half blood' to stand for `part blood.'
Anyone who is partwizard and part muggle/muggle-born 
counts as part. That would make the pure blood exceedingly 
rare, but it would also allow James Potter to be `part blood' 
(or half blood) and still have a part blood (half blood) son.

In other words, I think Harry and Ginny's hypothetical child
would be half blood and Harry and Britney's hypothetical child
would be half blood.

The fact that wizards count muggle-borns as `all muggle' when
it comes to their offspring (That is, James and Lily's son is
half, even though they are both wizards) is demonstrative of 
prejudice against muggles. In fact, the very fact that Lily's
child can still only be `half' even though she is a witch 
proves that wizards have warped ways of calculating blood 
lineage- a child born to wizard and muggle is the same as one 
born to wizard and muggle-born.

The question of what offspring of muggle-born wizards is an issue in 
itself.

What would a child born to Hermione Granger and Prince William be 
called? Would it be a half blood? Or would it be a muggle-born, 
simply because Hermione is discriminated against?

What would a child born to Hermione and Harry Potter be called? Is 
it half? We know a full blood and a muggle-born produce a half (Lily-
James), but what about a half blood and a muggle-born? It can't
be muggle-born, it's definitely not full, but if it was quarter,
you'd think we'd have heard someone mention it as a
possibility.

The reason I'm bringing this up is simply because- I wonder
whether just because Harry is half blood does that automatically 
make his father pure blood. The answer would obviously be
`yes' if we had encountered quarter bloods and three quarter 
bloods and seven-eighths bloods and one-sixteenths bloods, 
or whatever. But because the wizarding world seems to be 
divided into full, half, or zero bloods, it seems to suggest more 
distant ancestors (grand parents and beyond) plays no part in 
determining `bloodiness,' as it were.

That would make Harry and Hermione's hypothetical child a half-
blood, even though Harry is not pure blood.
Hermione and Prince Wills would be muggle-born. (Harsh, I know.)

I think this idea *has* to be true- or else that means Hagrid, 
Lupin, Dean Thoms, Seamus Finnigan and "most wizards these days" all 
have one parent on the Black Family tree. This seems *very* unlikely.

This opens up the door for more Half Blood Prince speculation, 
because it means the only characters who couldn't be considered
half blood are those on the Black Family Tree who we are convinced
don't have alternate parents.

If you don't agree with what I've said, please give me some 
alternatives- What would you call Harry and Hermione's hypothetical 
child?

Then there's the idea that maybe pure blood and full blood are not 
the same thing, but that's another post...

~<(Laurasia)>~