Lily's Family

[huntergreen_3]

No: HPFGUIDX 107833

Justine wrote:
>> - <snip>This is, of course, further evidence that Petunia is a 
squib, but
- does it have any further impact on the story? Petunia's potential
- squibness (and her potential acquisition of magical powers later in
- life) have been discussed long before this... is there something
- we're missing?<snip> <<

Amey replied:
>> Wait a bit, this also solves one more mystery

"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! How 
could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? [snip] But 
for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they 
were proud of having a witch in the family!"
This solves the mystery how Lily could easily do magic at home in 
vacation, if her family was magic. But the second sentence 
contradicts it, or is this Petunia who is afraid that Vernon will 
find out she has magical blood (though a squib)??? <<

HunterGreen:
Couldn't it have just been that Mr. and Mrs. Evans *knew* a family 
who happened to have a muggle-born wizard child and became very 
jealous? Obviously, not all muggles are going to have a horrible 
reaction to magic like Vernon and Petunia. Imagine if some friend of 
the family with a child older than Petunia and Lily got a Hogwarts 
letter and told the Evans' about it (I know there are rules of 
secrecy and all that, but who says that *muggles* always follow it?). 
The Evans' could have got all excited by the idea and thus would have 
been thrilled to death when (by amazing concidence) one of their 
daughters ended up getting a Hogwarts letter too. Which would explain 
the 'proud to have a witch in the family' sentiment. 

Although I like the idea of the Evans family being actually wizard or 
related to wizards somewhere in their bloodline, OTOH it would seem 
like sort of a cheat. Somewhere along the lines of if we found out 
Hermione had a wizard hidden in her family. The fact that Lily is a 
muggle-born wizard (and thus Harry is a half-blood), has been made 
such a point in the series, that it would seem odd if it was suddenly 
negated. ESPECIALLY if it wasn't even something that was a huge 
secret (if Petunia was referring to that in her speech, then it can't 
be much of a secret...we knew she is much better at keeping a secret 
than that).