To the Extreme

[snow15145]

No: HPFGUIDX 165111



Ken snipped:

We do not need to consider that Merope "chose" to do anything of the
sort in her final days. There likely was no choosing involved if the
idea has any merit. It could have been just a random accident quite
beyond her control, possibly it happened at her death. These things
appear to be quite mysterious after all. Tom get his power from
Merope? Certainly not directly, and he certainly did not get his
intellect from any recent Gaunt! Whatever gave Tom his unusual ability
might never be explained. It would be quite ironic if the true source
of his power (but not his Slytherin connection of course) came from a
latent magical streak in the Riddles. It seems nearly certain that he
owes them his intelligence. We don't know enough to assert or refute
dictums on why Lily was a witch or why Tom was so powerful. All we 
can 
do is float theories and wait to watch them sink, swim, or drift from
view in DH.

Snow:

I had given this subject point some consideration in the past 
wondering whether a muggleborn witch is more powerful than a 
pureblood one.

If you look at the characters that possess the greatest powers in the 
books so far they seem to be the ones who have at least one parent 
who was a muggle:

•	Hermione (said to be "the cleverest witch" of her age Lupin 
had ever met) 
•	Lily ("One of the brightest students" Slughorn ever taught) 
•	Snape (who was "Brilliant" according to Hermione for using 
Logic rather than magic for his part in protecting the stone) 
•	Dumbledore? ("is an extremely powerful wizard" according to 
Snape but we don't know what his parentage is) 
•	Voldemort (who Snape felt was "highly skilled at Legilimency" 
in fact young Tom was using a raw version of it on the orphanage kids 
before he was eleven years old.)
•	Myrtle (who was bound to the Castle, after following Olive 
around harassing her, but was found outside in the lake)  

On the other hand we have a few purebloods we know are not very 
gifted:

•	Neville (who's "family thought...was all–Muggle for ages")
•	Ron (who has never dazzled anyone with his magical skills, he 
had trouble making a feather fly)
•	Crabbe and Goyle (lucky the school even let them in)
•	Draco (questionable)

Then we have the product of purebloods gone bad, which is a Squib. 
For being said to be rare, we have two that we are aware of and one 
off-screen character that is questionable:

•	Filtch (who doesn't seem to have any particular strong point 
at all even for a squib)
•	Mrs. Figg's (who also does not appear to have any special 
aptitude)
•	Perkins? (who Arthur Weasley borrowed the tent from for the 
Quidditch World Cup was furnished and smelled exactly like Mrs. 
Figg's... coincidence or clue) 


It appears that the strongest wizards are those who have muggle 
heritage. Could it be that Salazar Slytherin not only disliked anyone 
that was not of pure blood heritage but went to the extreme where 
muggle-borns were concerned (when he kept a creature in the Chamber 
who's main objective was to seek out and destroy muggle-borns) 
because he feared how powerful they are? 

Ken snipped again:

Why is it that Tom seems to have no good side, seems never to have had
one? Why *did* he choose Harry instead of Neville? Is is *possible*
that there is a deeper link between them that no one has suspected
yet? Maybe it goes nowhere, yet there seems to be material here to
while away a few hours on.

Snow:

Ken you are amazing! This fits so nicely with what I am saying. 
Dumbledore said that the reason Voldemort chose Harry was not because 
he was a pureblood but that he was half-blood like himself.  

Snow - who feels Ken and a few others can appreciate how even a far-
fetched theory can spawn a new avenue of exploration that could 
actually lead us to a usable puzzle piece ... all theories are 
important if only for this reason