Colin Creevy

Hannah hannahmarder at yahoo.co.uk
Mon Sep 13 16:35:09 UTC 2004


No: HPFGUIDX 112859

I apologise if this has been posted on before (couldn't find any), 
but I really wanted to get people's opinions on a pet theory of 
mine.  It concerns Colin Creevy (and his brother) and the possible 
role of this character in later books.

I think there is a lot more to Colin than meets the eye.  He is 
mentioned in all of the books from CoS onwards, even when he doesn't 
have much part to play in the story.  It's like JKR wants us to 
remember that he's there.  She even gives him a little brother (a 
sort of Colin#2) in GoF.  Whatever narrative functions Colin's 
character might perform, it doesn't seem necessary to have two 
similar characters just to tell Harry he's great and stare at things 
open-mouthed with wonder.

There's also precedent set in the stories so far for seemingly 
pathetic characters to surprise us and play important parts.  Look 
at Ginny - at first she seems to be Ron's dear, shy little sister, 
then she turns out to have been opening the chamber of secrets all 
along (and has become quite feisty in books 4 and 5).  Neville's 
another example - his character has become a lot deeper than an 
anxious bumbler who keeps losing his toad.

>From the few descriptions we've had of Peter Pettigrew, he reminds 
me of Colin.  He has same tendency towards near-obsessive hero 
worship, and everyone dismisses him as harmless and a bit stupid.  I 
don't know if Colin will end up acting as Peter did (a traitor), but 
it does suggest that Colin-ish characters can do surprising things.

I also believe that Colin Creevy may be a half-blood.  Although he 
is attacked by the Slytherin monster, I think one muggle parent 
would be enough to justify a basilisk attack in the eyes of the pure-
blood fanatics. 

Colin seems to come from a close family, yet he only mentions his 
Dad, not his Mum.  He says he is sending pictures to his Dad, and 
even volunteers that he is muggle milkman.  Why isn't he including 
his Mum in this? Even the first time I read this, I took it that his 
Mum was dead/ had left them.  And missing parents in Potterverse 
always flag up warning signs.  She could well have been a witch.

My supporting evidence for this is the existence of wizard!Dennis.  
A wizard child born to two muggle parents is fairly unusual.  Lily's 
sister (Petunia) is not magical, neither is Hermione's younger 
sister (from JKR website/ chats), so it doesn't seem that siblings 
of muggle born wizards are usually magical too.  But here are the 
Creevys with two wizard sons.  This would be (be my reasoning), 
extremely unusual for two muggles, but normal for a witch and a 
muggle.  

So... could Colin Creevy be the half blood prince?  I know it sounds 
far fetched, but then, so does Ron's pet rat turning out to be 
disguised dark wizard, and *that* happened.  I can just imagine JKR 
going 'ha! and you thought he was just a mousy sycophant with a 
passion for photography.'  Even if he's not, I still think he's 
going to be important somehow.

I would love to hear what people think about this, and apologise 
again if I've just unwittingly paraphrased someone else's theory.  

Hannah






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