Who came to magic late in life?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 173030

Annemehr wrote:
> Nuts.  The first bit of magic we see her do is shooting a cooking pot 
> across the room with her wand.  And being embarrased by her father in 
> front of Bob Ogden hardly counts as "desperate circumstances."

Carol responds:
I agree with Annemehr. Merope was never a Squib. She knew how to brew
a powerful love potion without ever having attended Hogwarts. (How
that's possible, I don't know.) And she had a wand, which means that
she was magical enough for a wand to choose her. As for eighteen being
"very late in life," not even a ten-year-old would think that.

Maybe JKR originally planned a different escape for Harry, one
involving a battle of Privet Drive (George's ear and all), with Mrs.
Figg doing magic "under desperate circumstances." And then she
realized that with DD dead and the Floo network watched, Mrs. Figg
(despite her half-Kneazle cats) would have had no way to summon the
Order. That being the case, JKR had to invent a different escape plan
that didn't involve Mrs. Figg. (If she had intended the person to be
Filch, she still had the opportunity to do so.) I missed Figgy, by the
way, and I hope we do find out what happened to her. I half-expected
her to be DD's sister until I found out that the sister died.)

At any rate, until JKR says differently (probably on Monday's chat),
I'll hold to my current opinion. And if the person turns out to be
Merope, I'll just wonder about the way JKR's mind works.

Carol, who thinks that the book got out of JKR's control in some
respects and she couldn't fit in all aspects of the original plan