Good blood/bad blood (was Greatest Fear/greatest Hope)

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 121477


 
> Del replies:
> One problem I see is that there doesn't seem to be *one* Slytherin
> ideology. There seems to be a spectrum instead, from those who 
simply believe that purebloods are better but won't harm a 
Muggleborn, to those who recommend a genocide on all Muggles and 
Muggleborns.
snip

Potioncat:
(I've read up and down this thread and this seemed to be the best 
place to jump in with my points.)

And I think you can expand the above to all the WW.  While many are 
fully accepting of any Magic Child, how they feel about Muggles is 
different.  Even McGonagall in her comment about the Dursleys 
being "the worst sort of Muggles" indicated some distrust/dislike of 
Muggles. Or of course, Arthur's patronizing attitude towards them.



 
> Del replies to Alla's point (which I snipped):
>  
> Hum, Hagrid was talking about the Malfoys, not about the 
Slytherins in general.

Potioncat:
I may have snipped too much.  This is where Blood can have different 
meanings.  To say someone has bad Blood can mean that they have the 
same negitive traits as their parents/family.  You used to hear it 
more often before the nature/nurture battles.

I just watched a documentary on PBS about Churchill.  He was 
convinced that he had a real warrior instinct, that it was "in his 
blood" because of who his ancestors were.

It used to be said by older members of a family that "our family is 
known for __________(fill in the blank with a virtue) it's in our 
blood."  Or even, we come from good stock which is sort of the 
samething.

So, the Malfoys might be known for their bad blood because the 
entire family has been known for being rotten.

This is a little different than being Half-blood or Pure-blood, that 
has more to do with race.  (Although I used to hear someone was only 
half English because the other parent's background was something 
exotic, like German or French.)  (I grew up the in Scott-Irish 
settled foothills of SC. 

Potioncat (who is still reading Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" to my 
youngest and finds the Spirit of Christmas Future to sound quite a 
lot like a Dementor.)