Petunia and love for Lily? NOT

[jjjjjuliep]

No: HPFGUIDX 137272

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "hickengruendler" 
<hickengruendler at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jjjjjuliep" <jjjjjulie at a...> 
> wrote:
>  
> > -----------------
> > http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/news_view.cfm?id=80
> > J K Rowling at the Edinburgh Book Festival
> > Sunday 15 August 2004
> > 
> > Is Aunt Petunia a Squib?
> > 
> > Good question. No, she is not, but—[Laughter]. No, she is not a 
> > Squib. She is a Muggle, but—[Laughter]. You will have to read the 
> > other books. You might have got the impression that there is a 
> > little bit more to Aunt Petunia than meets the eye, and you will 
> > find out what it is. She is not a squib, although that is a very 
> > good guess. Oh, I am giving a lot away here. I am being 
> > shockingly indiscreet.
> > -----------------
> > 
> > JKR has made it abundantly clear that 1.  Muggles cannot do 
> > magic, and 2.  Petunia is a Muggle. 
> 
> Hickengruendler:
> 
> I do not think that Petunia is the one who will do magic late in 
> life. However, whoever it is (even if it was Merope, who was
> thought to be a Squib), their status has to change. I mean, it is
> either a muggle or a squib, who does magic late in life, and once
> they have done it, they aren't a muggle or a Squib anymore.
> Therefore I wouldn't rule Petunia out.

???  Muggles cannot become witches or wizards.  JKR has also made 
that clear if you reread the quote below which I supplied in my 
previous post--adults do not learn magic, so adult Muggles are always 
going to be non-magical.  Also Squibbs cannot do magic.  They are the 
counterpart to Muggle born witches like Hermione.  On one hand you 
have magical people coming from completely non-magical families, and 
on the other hand, to provide a literary/structural/thematic parallel 
and balance, you have non-magical people coming from magical 
families.  Either way, it the bottom line is the same:  you can 
either do magic from birth or you cannot.

With respect to Merope:  there is a signficant distinction between 
appearing to be a Squibb and being a Squibb.  We know, from HBP, that 
people who are very upset or very sad or depressed can reduced 
magical abilities--that's the reason for the "Tonks is miserable" 
subplot.  That is not the same as being a Squibb.
 
> > Second, I think it's pretty clear with Book 6 that Merope is the 
> > person how uses magic late in life.  The magic late in life
> > comment goes back to 1999:
> > 
> > ----------------------------------
> > http://www.quick-quote-quill.org/articles/1999/0399-
> > barnesandnoble.html
> > Barnes and Noble interview, March 19, 1999
> > 
> > Will there be, or have there been, any "late blooming" students
> > in the school who come into their magic potential as adults,
> > rather than as children? By the way, I loved meeting you, and
> > hearing you speak, when you came to Anderson's in Naperville. I 
> > can hardly wait until you tour again. 
> > 
> > Ahhh! I loved the event at Anderson's. It was one of my
> > favorites.  That is completely true. No, is the answer. In my 
> > books, magic almost always shows itself in a person before age
> > 11; however, there is a character who does manage in desperate
> > circumstances to do magic quite late in life, but that is very 
> > rare in the world I am writing about. 
> > ----------------------------
> > 
> > Merope was thought to be a Squibb; we learn she is not.  It is
> > the magic she does which is the pivotal point for the entire
> > book; without her late magic there is no Tom Riddle/Voldemort,
> > and without Tom Riddle/Voldemort, there is no series.
> 
> 
> Hickengruendler:
> 
> But would you call Merope's situation desperate circumstances? You 
> could say that she was in desperate circumstances, when she was 
> abused by her family. And she was also in desperate circumstances 
> after Tom left her and she was pregnant with his child. However, 
> those were the times when she did not do any magic. She only did 
> manage some magic to bewitch Tom, and however madly she might have 
> been in love, I wouldn't count her situation in this point as 
> desperate. 

Living in a disgusting hovel, a virtual slave to an abusive and 
possibly insane father, with a brother who is insane and tortures and 
kills animals and possibly humans as well, with no hope of escape, 
sounds pretty desperate to me.

> To me, it sounds as if someone is doing magic to protect themselves 
> from a great danger.

It may be so; I don't know what is in JKR's head.  But it won't be 
Petunia who does so.

jujube