Petunia's Eyes

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 169912

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sistermagpie"
<sistermagpie at ...> wrote:
>

> Ken:
> 
> Not so fast. "She is a Muggle, but—[Laughter]." What *was* JKR
> laughing about???
> 
> We do have the example that Merope gave up her powers at the end or
> lost them to traumatic shock. I have to agree with Debi, 
> Deeoblockedo. and some others that it is at least possible that 
> Petunia too was a witch. Her dislike of witchcraft seems intense and 
> deep. It might be a native personality trait, not a reaction to 
> Lily. 
> 
> Magpie:
> How can it be possible that she was a witch when she is a Muggle? 
> Never has and never will do magic. If she is a witch she has done 
> magic and she is not a Muggle. Refusing to go to school does not 
> make you a Muggle or take away your magic. Harry (and all the kids) 
> did magic before they went to school. Hagrid can do magic despite 
> being expelled.
> 

Ken:

At the time she gave birth to Tom Riddle, Merope was a Muggle. Neither
I nor the author would be cheating very much to claim that a Petunia
who was so frightened by her first accidental "magical emission" that
she blocked her magical talent forever after "never has and never will
do magic". It is only a slight stretch of the truth and there is canon
precedent for a self induced loss of magical power. It certainly would
be in character for Petunia to do this!

> JKR: (Ken again, actually):
> So where's the indiscretion? Is it hiding behind that pair of buts?
> 
> Magpie:
> Well, she could be "squib-like" in that she knows stuff about the WW 
> despite not being able to do magic. At least I think that fits what 
> she says without flat-out saying she's lying, which is what she is 
> doing if she's saying Petunia is a Muggle when what she really means 
> is that she's a Witch.
> 

I don't think it is any sense lying to say that a Petunia who shut
down her magical gift as a child is a Muggle now. She is a Muggle now
and in this scenario she never would have done and can no longer do
any intentional magic. One could argue semantically whether the
definition of Muggle legitimately covers such a person, I suppose. But
that is a finer point than I am interested in. On the same line one
could argue that once a witch, always a witch. Even if you assert that
in the case of Merope this postulated Petunia would never have
consciously used her power and would have developed no skill at magic.
It is much harder to call her a witch in that case.

The thing is that Rowling seems to be dancing around something in that
quote and for now all we can do is guess about what it might be.
Another idea entirely, and one I mentioned yesterday in a post that
Yahoo sent as private email instead of a group post, is that the
spectrum of Witch/Wizard, Squib, and Muggle is not complete. There may
be other possibilities too but one plausible possibility that
intrigues me is that some people are transparent to magic. Magic
spells don't affect them directly, they pass through them without
effect as light passes through glass. Such a person could see the
Leaky Cauldron, # 12 Grimmauld, or Hogwarts plain as day. You could
kill them by crushing them with a big rock you levitated but you could
not AK them. Could Petunia be ... probably not because if Rowling were
going to include such people in the Potterverse she probably would
have foreshadowed it by now and since I've had this notion for quite a
while I probably would have picked up on any clues. Perhaps there are
other options yet that someone might see and that might apply to Petunia.

And now here is my wacky theory of the day, excuse me if someone else
has already mentioned it. Petunia really, really hates magic for some
reason. What if Lily and Snape never had a romance but were friends
and she had him over occasionally on the summer holiday? What if "that
awful boy" then was Snape and the reason Petunia hates him so is that
he was her (Petunia's!!!) boyfriend for a while and the parting was
not amicable?? It is another possible reason for a Petunia who clearly
hates magic with a passion now to have become quite familiar with it
earlier in her life.

Ken