[HPforGrownups] Re: Petunia's Eyes/Snape, Snape, Snape

[random832 at fastmail.us]

No: HPFGUIDX 169970


On Thu, 07 Jun 2007 19:29:24 -0000, "sistermagpie"
<sistermagpie at earthlink.net> said:
> > > Magpie:
> > > I wasn't skating up to any guess, actually. I was just saying 
> that 
> > > since Rowling doesn't flat-out lie in interviews I thought if 
> she 
> > > said Petunia was a Muggle I should assume she was a Muggle as 
> we've 
> > > always been given to understood the term in canon.
> 
> Random:
> > 
> > It's not clear that our understanding of the term exactly matches 
> what
> > she intends by it in corner cases such as these. (also, she did 
> lie in
> > an interview at least once - in agreeing that her statements about
> > Harry's grandparents tended to shut down Heir of Gryffindor 
> theories
> > when clearly they do nothing of the sort whether such theories are 
> false
> > or not.)
> 
> Magpie:
> I think she's been pretty clear about what these terms mean since 
> they are important terms in canon, though.

I agree that the bulk of cases are perfectly clear. But, any of the
theories given here, really _anything_ that she could have said after
the "but", are edge cases. We have _no_ information in canon on whether
such individuals could or could not be called "muggles", because there
are no examples. And don't forget that we have one piece of evidence
that "muggle" can apply to a 'squib' born even of a pureblood family.
Fanon tends to ignore that. (I really think "Fanon" should be a TBAY
character) This alone indicates that our understanding of the word
"muggle" is in conflict with JKR's.

The "she knows things" angle for that statement isn't credible. OF
COURSE she knows more about the wizarding world than the average muggle
- her sister was a witch, she's the reluctant guardian of Harry Potter,
etc. That would be utterly unsurprising and certainly not worth "I'm
being shockingly indiscreet" for hinting at that, if that were indeed
the "but". There has to be something.

Regarding the Heir of Gryffindor thing - can you just answer one thing?
If he _is_ the Heir of Gryffindor, and it's supposed to be a surprise,
what else could she have said?
-- 
Random832