[HPforGrownups] Re: Harry Junior

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 171300

From: colwilrin <colwilrin at yahoo.com>
>As a parent of a 4 year old daughter...and knowing that JKR is a 
>mother as well, I would find it surprising if JKR would write a 
>script for a 16 year old girl to become pregnant.  As a parent 
>yourself, Jim, I shouldn't have to explain why.  When does Ginny 
>turn 16, and what are the Statutory laws in UK anyway?

Bart:
Well, in Great Britain the age of consent is 16 (it used to be 13, but it got raised in the 1880's due to concern about child prostitution, and confirmed as recently as 2003). Note that the, during feudal times, a young nobleman became a page at 7, a squire at 14, and a knight at 21, with the ages taken out of Aristotle. In Scotland, one becomes an adult for purposes of signing contracts at 20 (perhaps if Lily had been Scottish, Harry would have been protected a few years more). 

Now, age of consent generally has more to do with criminal law than torts (therefore, you get the paradox in some states in the United States where someone can get married below the age of consent). This is the age where someone is considered to be capable of giving informed consent. This refers to sexual activity, although it also has to do with legal culpability in criminal actions (someone who commits a crime on the orders of someone else is considered to be less culpable than someone above the age of consent; this is why it is an all too common practice among drug dealers in the United States to use children as couriers). The age of consent for homosexual relations is 18 for homosexual acts, which means that Ginny had better be careful in Transfiguration class (I hope I'm not giving any ideas to fanfic shippers). 

However (getting MUCH more on topic), age of consent does not seem to be as strong in the WW. For example, it APPEARS (Ron's account in HBP is canon, but it IS coming from Ron's memory of his childhood), that even young children who have no idea what they're doing can be bound by it, and children who may not fully understand the implications can cast the spell (F&G were, and are, only one year older than Ron). There is no canon on birth control (either pregnancy prevention or fertility enhancement), although the apparent lack of sexual activity above snogging at Hogwarts may either be an omission by the author of the emissions of the characters, or it may be that the lack of population growth in the WW causes a prejudice against birth control, or there may be magical venereal diseases we don't know about. One wonders if the WW even has sperm banks, or the equivalent thereof.

Which brings us back to Harry, Jr. Based on past performance, I doubt seriously that JKR would allow Harry to have children without getting married, or even some form of artificial insemination if he dies (considering the importance some people in the WW place on eugenics, if such a thing were possible, then there would be a rush for essence of Dumbledore). So, from the limited information shown, I don't expect there to be a Harry, Jr. unless Harry survives the final fight with Morty, and then after he gets married to the mother. 

Bart