Petunia and love for Lily? NOT

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 137299

Vmonte:
> > Petunia is definitely the witch that will show powers late in 
> > life.

jujube: 
> JKR has said, quite directly and distinctly, that this is not 
> the case.  
> 
> -----------------
> 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. 

Jen: All true. What's the "but" in there about, though? I'm not 
saying you're wrong, it's just that there's something related to 
Petunia, more than meets the eye, and while she's not a Squib that's 
a 'good guess'. It's not very speculative to assume the 'bit more 
than meets the eye' has something to do with her relationship to the 
magical world.

jujube: 
> Second, I think it's pretty clear with Book 6 that Merope is the 
> person how uses magic late in life. <Partial JKR quote>: 

> "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." 

Jen: I had to laugh a little about this. Being almost 40, "quite 
late in life" doesn't equate with Merope using magic at age 20 or 
however old she was at the time! And she wasn't a Squib, either, her 
powers were merely diminished because of her abusive father. When 
she cast an 'inaudible' spell at the pot she dropped, it sped across 
the floor. A Squib couldn't do that. And Merope was not 
in 'desperate circumstances' when she started performing magic, 
either---that was the best time of her short life when the Gaunt men 
went to jail!

I'm pretty certain we haven't seen the event JKR describes above.

Jen