[HPforGrownups] Re: Is Petunia magical?/Mrs. Figg

[Lana]

No: HPFGUIDX 160312

>Jenni wrote:
>No, I'm sorry, you're mistaken! She comes to the hearing and is an 
>EYE WITNESS in Harry's defense. She states emphatically that she saw 
>them. Two of them, one for each boy - Harry and Dudley. She also 
>describes their attack on the boys very accurately.

Lana writes:

  It is all interpretation.  A better way to say it would have been "I believe" you were mistaken.  You do not know for sure that I am wrong.  Just as I do not know that you are wrong.
  There is also a part in the book that states

"Whatever Mrs. Figg said to the contrary, it sounded to him as though the most she had ever seen was a picture of a dementor, and a picture could never convey the truth of what these beings were like."

  She described the feeling of the dementors accurately because even Muggles can feel them. So a squib would too.  Even without seeing them, she would have known right away what it was just because of the eerie feeling she got upon entering the alley way. Being from a wizarding family, she would know all about them.
  My interpretation is that the only believeable thing about her testimony was her description of the way it made her feel.

>Jenni wrote:
>If she couldn't see the dementors, >Dumbledore would never have 
>called on her to be part of the defense. Mrs. >Figg was just nervous. 
>Harry was tried by the whole court, for >goodness sakes. She didn't 
>realize how much her testimony would be >worth! Plus being in the 
>room where many prisoners had been >sentenced to Azkaban had to be 
>pretty intimidating too!

Lana Writes:

  DD would have still called her to witness.  Nothing says she didn't just add that she could see them.  It wouldn't be the first time in the book that someone has stretched the truth a bit.

"Not a very convincing witness," said Fudge loftily.
  "Oh, I don't know," said Madam Bones in her booming voice.  "She certainly described the effects of a dementor attack very accurately.  And I can't imagine why she would say they were there if they weren't---"

This in itself says that her testimony was worth everything whether she saw them or not.  So either way, DD would have had her testify. She may have felt that she needed to say that she saw them even if she didn't.  JMO.  I am not saying she definately didn't see them.  I am saying that I do not think she did.

>Jenni writes:
>So, even if Petunia were a Squib, she would still be able to see 
>dementors, see 'magical' things, beings and places. Muggles aren't 
>supposed to be able to see Hogwarts. I wonder if Petunia could?

But Petunia is not a squib.  Her parents were not magical.  A squib comes from 2 magical parents. So, she would not be able to see a dementor.  A muggle can see magical things unless they are covered by invisibility charms and such -- like they did with the Quidditich campgrounds in GOF. So, yes, if uncharmed and close enough, she would be able to see it just like anyone else.

Please understand that everyone has opinions.  We do not have any genuine proof of our theories <right or wrong>, until JK proves us right or wrong.  

Hugs,  Lana






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