Petunia and love for Lily? NOT

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 137414

Carol:
> It seems patently obvious to me that the character who performs 
> magic "quite late in life" is not the middle-aged Petunia or the 
> very young Merope but the elderly Mrs. Figg, whom we've already 
> seen in somewhat desperate circumstances defending Harry, and who, I
> think, will pick up his wand when it's been knocked out of his 
> hand and point it at a Death Eater. 

jujube:
> A well-reasoned, well-supported idea (as usual from Carol) which is 
> not entirely convincing to me.  ;-)  See, this is much too "deus ex 
> machina" for me, and IMO out of keeping with JKR's plotting style, 
> which doesn't cheat like that.  But if the option of thinking it is 
> Merope were not on the table, this is the most sensible option in 
> accordance with the canon.

Jen: I'm confused how Merope would still be an option as the late-
bloomer, from the canon we have (and please tell me if I've 
misunderstood your comment above).

First canon point is the quote you provided from JKR: 
Q: 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? 

JKR: 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.
*************

Jen again: 'Quite late in life', especially in the WW, is pretty 
definitive. We're talking about an older person who has *never* 
performed magic before the moment they do so in 'desperate 
circumstances'. When we consider Merope, she doesn't qualify in either 
way as the person JKR is talking about.

For one, we see Merope perform magic: "Merope....drew her wand from 
her wand shakily from her pocket, pointed it at the pot, and muttered 
a hasty, inaudible spell that caused the pot to shoot across the floor 
away from her, hit the opposite wall, and crack in two." (chap. 10, p. 
205, US).

Also, at the moment Merope performs this magic she is most definitely 
in an abusive circumstance which I'm sure she feels desperate about, 
but she is not in the required 'desperate circumstance' JKR mentions.  
And after the Gaunt men are carted off to Azkaban and Merope is alone, 
she blossoms into her magical powers because she is no longer in an 
abusive and degrading environment. So she is not in 'desperate 
circumstances' at that point either, nor is it her first time to 
perform magic. (I believe, and this is opinion from the way Merope and 
Marvolo behave together, that the event with the pot is probably an 
almost daily occurrence of fear and intimidation on Marvolo's part.I 
do not think that was Merope's one and only example of performing 
magic in her lifetime so far).

I feel these two events taken together are an extremely valid canon 
argument against Merope being the late-bloomer JKR referred to. Please 
help me understand where you are coming from with your theory about 
Merope.

Jen