Re: Wizzarding-muggles blood. I still don´t get it! Help!

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 125626


<pollynesbitt at y...> wrote:
> 
> Ok, This is a long question about how a muggle goes about becoming a 
> wizard.
> First question : are wizards-witches part of the human race? A race 
> that has both muggles and wizards in it´s geneology?
> Or are wizards a different species alltogether? <snip>
> 
> Which brings me to my most important question: How does a full 
> blooded muggle (like Hermy) become a witch?
> Is it a gene thing or a state of mind? <snip>
> And if she is a wizard from birth, why isn´t she pure blood? I would 
> think that anyone born a witch or wizard would be of pure blood...
> 
> And lets say for instance that she were to marry someone like
Neville or Draco ( of pure wizard blood), would their children be pure
bloods or " mud bloods" because of their grandparents?

> So how many generations would it take before they would actually be 
> pure bloods? <snip> Or is Harry considered a pure blood, even though
his mother´s parents were ( I think) muggles? Or would he be a
half-blood and thus could not be called a mud-blood? <snip>


Carol responds:
I've read the other responses but am going to write my own anyway,
with the intention of simplifying matters.

Yes, witches and wizards are human, the same species as Muggles. (The
people who talk about "racism" in this forum may consider them to be
members of different races, but I think they simply have an ability or
gift that Muggles lack--magic. The human race, of course, is not a
race at all but a species.)

Yes, magic appears to be genetically inherited from the parents.
Evidently a Muggleborn either has some remote magically ancestor whose
magical gene has been dormant for a long time or is the result of a
spontaneous mutation. (However, JKR seems to be as confused about
genetics as she is about math, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.)

No, a half-blood is not a "mudblood." That term is used by purebloods
only to refer to Muggleborns. We don't know how many generations it
takes for a person to be considered a pureblood (maybe nine, as in
Ernie MacMillan's case?). But a halfblood can be of two types--one
Muggle parent and one Wizard parent, as in the case of Tom Riddle and
Seamus ("I'm half and half") Finnigan or one pureblood parent and one
Muggleborn parent, as in Harry's case. 

How can the child of a witch and a wizard (Harry) be a halfblood?
Because two of his grandparents were Muggles and therefore, according
to the Slytherin ethic, which is not based on science but on
genealogy, their Muggleborn parent has no wizard blood. (Notice that
Lucius Malfoy refers to Muggleborn Hermione as "a girl of no wizard
family.") 

Even though Hermione is a Muggleborn (born of Muggle parents and
therefore having no wizard blood), she was born magical and her name,
like Harry's, was probably "down for Hogwarts" (inscribed in the
Hogwarts records with the magical quill) from the moment she was born.
If Muggleborn Hermione were to marry pureblood Ron (much more likely
than marrying Neville or Draco), their children would be halfbloods
like Harry. They would not be "mudbloods" even by Lucius Malfoy's
standards.

Carol, who really thought this was going to be a short, simple
yes-yes-no-type post when she began it!