Petunia not the latebloomer, but magic nonetheless

[Eustace_Scrubb]

No: HPFGUIDX 101443

"Susan" (teilani) wrote:
<snip>
> And if she was a squib, well, I'm not recalling anything anywhere
in 
> canon that says that Hogwarts is selective in who they invite to 
> school.  I always assumed that people like Filch and Mrs. Figg went 
> to Hogwarts, and _that's_ how they discovered that they were
squibs, 
> b/c they were horrible at magic.

Eustace_Scrubb:
But hasn't JKR said that there's a magic quill at Hogwarts that writes
down the name of each _magic_ child when they are born?  Not, I think,
all children of magical parents, but only those who are themselves
able to do magic?  I would guess that the scroll doesn't write down
the names of squibs and therefore Arabella Figg and Argus Filch did
not receive Hogwarts letters.  (And as an aside--isn't it odd that the
two definite squibs we know by name have the same initials?)

"Susan" (teilani) again:
> As for Dudders, the same applies, really.  If Dudders had any magic 
> in that plump body of his, where's _his_ invitation?

Eustace_Scrubb:
I think it is possible that parents of magical children can prevent
those children from going to Hogwarts...I don't think that the school
and its owls are as relentless in going after every student as they
were with Harry Potter.  That said, I can't see that Petunia's parents
would have done any such thing in her case, as they were proud to have
one witch in the family.  But I think in the case of Dudley, Vernon
and Petunia clearly would have done all they could to keep him away
from the WW.  

Now, has Dudley shown one iota of evidence of having any magic in him?
 Not that I'm aware of.  On the other hand, Neville hadn't until Uncle
Algie finally dropped him out of the window.  We don't hear that from
that day on, Neville was always happily doing accidental childhood
magic.  Had he not been put in a situation where magic was the only
thing that would save his life, he wouldn't have known he was a wizard
until his letter arrived.

Dudley's been kept out of such situations all his life--until the
Dementor attack.  Now, do his reactions there help us decide whether
he's magical or not?  Not really.  He _is_ blinded by the Dementors,
but so is Harry at first.  Harry sees the Dementors once he gets his
wand back; Dudley apparently doesn't.  On the other hand, this is one
situation that I can't see accidental magic helping in.  He doesn't
know any more about Dementors than Harry did on the train in POA and
his reaction isn't that much different.  The only thing that can turn
the Dementors back is the Patronus charm.  Harry is one of the
youngest people able to do it properly and he had a lot of practice. 
It's not likely to be something that can occur spontaneously.

Anyway, I think that we can come close to ruling out squibs from the
"late bloomers."  I highly doubt that Petunia is magical.  And while I
find it hard to imagine Dudley in that role, he's the best candidate I
can find at the moment...the only question is, is 16 or 17 "late in
life" enough to qualify according to JKR's pronouncement?

Cheers,

Eustace_Scrubb, whose namesake was nearly as much of a git as Dudley
until he woke up as a dragon one morning.