'Filch is failed wizard' quote

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 152675

katssirius wrote:
>
> POA Chapter seven "Filch was the Hogwarts caretaker, a bad-tempered, 
> failed wizard who waged a constant war against the students and, 
> indeed, Peeves."
> 
> This has definitely been through the Harry filter and cannot be
trusted as evidence for whether or not Filch is a Squib.

Thanks. I knew I hadn't invented that quote! I was looking for it
because it matched or backed up Hermione's comment in HBP.


We do have other evidence that Filch is a Squib, as previously noted,
including Filch's own testimony and JKR's remarks on Squibs on her
website, neither of which has "been through the Harry filter." (Even
though he hears the words "I'm a Squib," he's not interpreting them.
He doesn't even know at that point what a Squib is. Also, they're
spoken in front of Snape, McGonagall, Dumbledore and a number of other
people who almost certainly already know this information.)

My question was whether "failed wizard" was synonymous with "Squib."
Potioncat thinks (if I'm reading her post correctly) that Squibs are
wholly nonmagical (see Ron's definition in CoS, which I quoted
upthread) and that Hermione's remark about Filch not being a very good
wizard is incompatible with his being a Squib. I'm suggesting that
Squibs (the only two we know are Filch and Mrs. Figg) may have some
residual magical ability (communicating with cats, for example) and
that one of them (Figgy, I hope) will be the person who performs magic
at an advanced age under perilous circumstances. If so, "failed
wizard" (or "failed witch," since Figgy has clearly attempted
Transfiguration and failed to Transfigure so much as a teabag) could
be another way of describing a Squib--born of magical parents but with
only a trace of magical ability.

At any rate, the chronological evidence pretty much eliminates the
possibility that Filch could be Tobias Snape, if that's what you're
arguing. He was already caretaker when Severus Snape was still in
school. Also, I doubt that any Muggle could have an apparently psychic
relationship with a cat, and yet we see that both Filch and Figgy have
this ability. (It reminds me of Sirius Black's ability to communicate
with Crookshanks when he's in dog form. "The cat told me . . . .")

Thanks again for finding the quote. PoA is probably the last place I
would have looked for it.

Carol, glad to know that she didn't imagine that quote and trying to
clarify her reason for wanting it