[HPforGrownups] Off the wall character question

[Lady Macbeth]

No: HPFGUIDX 101690

moonmyyst  said:

Mark Evans.  Isn't he the little kid that Dudley beat up?  10 years old,
correct?  It makes you wonder if this is a relative.  Interesting age.
Would this be a cousin on the father's side?  I wonder how distantly related
one would have to be to still be considered part of the blood spell?
Immediate family?  3rd cousin??

Lady Macbeth replied:

Yes and yes for the first two questions. :)

Cousin on his mother's father's side - Lily's maiden name was Evans, so that
was HER father's name.

It depends on how closely this particular society ties genetics and
decendancy to blood.  Thus far, "pureblood" families have been distinguished
largely by name (surname).  The wizarding world is clearly patrilineal - the
father is the mode of inheritance and descent.  This is seen (and shown the
importance of) in the Black family tree.  When Andromeda, Bellatrix and
Narcissa married, they were no longer Blacks - they belonged in their
husbands' lineages.  Bellatrix and Narcissa married into pureblood families
and thus were acceptable as being related to the Black family as well -
Andromeda did not, and therefore was not.

IF this Evans boy were a relation to Lily, he would not be in Harry's family
line, as that is the Potter line.  Mark Evans would belong to an Evans line
that ran through a son - probably an uncle of Lily's (her father's brother),
since there is no reference to Lily and Petunia having any other siblings.
The connection in that case to Harry would be through Lily's grandfather,
which would technically make them "blood" relatives, but would put them in
two separate family lines.

If the protection spell truly did go by "blood", it may well involve Mark.
If it goes by "blood" in the sense of lineage, however, it would not.

AND, if you want to be MORE complicated, it would depend on what family
structure the wizarding world goes by.  We know that they marry cousins,
otherwise the pureblood families wouldn't all be related.  However, marriage
traditions vary from culture to culture.  In some, cross cousins are
marriageable partners, while parallel cousins are not.  In others, the
reverse is true.  In some cultures, no one from Father's direct line is
marriageable, but anyone from Mother's is, &etc.

MY guess, however, is that Mark Evans was not just a "throw away" character,
that he IS related, and that "blood" refers to genetics, throwing a nice
pipe-wrench into Dumbledore's carefully-laid plan involving keeping Harry
protected.

-Lady Macbeth


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