Was Eileen a Slytherin? (Was: The Irma/Eileen Theory & Snape's Return)

[wynnleaf]

No: HPFGUIDX 164299


> >
> justcarol167:
> 
> Another point in favor of the Princes *possibly* having a Slytherin
> family tradition is the fact that Severus came to school knowing 
more
> hexes than half the seventh years. Since kids don't normally have
> their own wands until they're eleven and someone must have taught 
him
> most of those hexes (he can't have invented all of them at that 
age,
> surely?) I think we're seeing a parent or grandparent (not
> Muggle!Tobias, who must be out of the picture) ignoring the
> restriction on underage sorcery, which sounds like part of a Dark
> wizard/Slytherin tradition to me. Draco, for example, knows
> Serpensortia (and a number of other hexes) as a second-year though 
I
> suppose he could have learned them at school from the older 
Slytherins
> rather than from DE!Daddy at home.
>snip<

I don't think, given Snape's apparent youthful precocious 
achievement, there's any necessity to explain that through the 
teaching of someone at home.  Highly advanced children *often* learn 
a great deal on their own and arrive at school with skills already 
well beyond their years.  Teachers often assume they were "taught" 
at home, but in fact, many times they learned on their own.  All it 
would take is having the books on magic around, and young Severus 
having been allowed access to them (perhaps only "allowed" by the 
inattention of the adults).  And you're right, he'd probably have to 
have been allowed a wand as well -- although even the Weasleys seem 
to have allowed that.  

... all of which suggests a rather loose
> attitude toward underage magic (possibly including potions 
experiments
> a bit later on) on the part of his mother or grandparents, which
> again, to me, suggests a Slytherin background. 

I don't know that it necessarily suggests a Slytherin background.  I 
think the Weasleys had a somewhat loose attitude as well -- look at 
all that Fred and George managed to do before Hogwarts!  They would 
need to have had access to a wand at early ages, as well.  

wynnleaf