Dumbledore's Magnaminity

[PJ]

No: HPFGUIDX 143135

> Roberta:
> right after the "Knew" bit you 
> quote above, she says something like:  "How could you be anything 
> else, my dratted sister being what she was?"
> In other words, *that's* how she "knew."  Her dratted sister was a 
> witch, so of course Harry would turn out to be a wizard.

PJ:
Ok, now that I can see where you're going with this it's given me a 
chance to mull over your theory. I agree it would be rational and 
logical except for a couple of factors.  The first SSSusan has 
already brought up (thankyou! :-)).  

The second arguement against (and I'm probably going to phrase it 
badly so please stay with me on this), is this:  

As it's been explained to us, magic in Muggles isn't like inheriting 
eye color.  It doesn't necessarily follow a hereditary pattern but 
bounces around a family gene pool.  For instance, the Evans' family 
were quite ordinary muggles yet Lily, out of nowhere, is a witch. 
Not even "just" a witch but a *powerful* one! Again, as far as we 
know at this moment, Petunia is not. Even if you are one of those 
who assume she's just surpressing her magic, my arguement holds 
since in that case, even with both a mother and aunt who are 
witches, Dudley (per JKR's own lips in interview)is not at all 
magical.  Same genetics, different results. Magic in Muggles does 
not follow a line of heredity and therefore can not be predicted. 

So even though Harry was Lily's son, there would be little reason 
for Petunia to "KNOW" or really even *strongly assume* that Harry 
would be a wizard in the way you suggest since she is painfully 
aware of all this - she's lived it. She's watched her son for any 
hint of "abnormality" and is probably thrilled to have found none. 
Knowing as she does that her son is free of it, why would she 
automatically assume Harry has it?  

Even adding James Potter's DNA to the mix may have left Harry 
a "squib" rather than a wizard since there could be no guarantee 
he'd inherit his mother's share of magical abilities.

So no... as I see it anyway, Petunia and Vernon could not have 
*known* (and they were very forceful about *knowing* not just 
*assuming*) Harry was a wizard simply because of who his parents 
were.  Dumbledore had to have made it clear what Harry was in that 
letter...

PJ