Fenrir Greyback a Muggle-born?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 166470

Goddlefrood wrote:
<snip>
> > [JKR answers a question:]
> > "Snape's ancestry is hinted at. He was a Death Eater, so clearly
he is no Muggle born, because Muggle borns are not allowed to be Death
Eaters, except in rare circumstances."
> >
Goddlefrood continued:
> > The bit that interested me was the last line suggesting that there
may be a Muggle-born Death Eater among the ranks of those degenerates.
> >
> > My view is that due to the description of werewolves in Fantastic
Beasts & Where to Find Them <snip>: "Humans turn into werewolves only
when bitten"
> >
> > It is a fair possiblility that Fenrir Greyback was originally
either a human himself, or if not a Muggle-born wizard.

Carol responds:
Quick question at this point. By "human," do you mean Muggle? Wizards,
Muggle-born or otherwise, are human. Just asking for clarification.
> 
Kemper wrote:
> I get the impression that Fennir was/is a Squib.  He hates Wizards
so  much.  To experience that kind of hate, one is usually familiar
with the object of hate either directly (victim of racism) or
indirectly (reared/taught by racists).
> 
<snip> I think it is Wormtail who is the Mudblood Death Eater.  He
alone had the 'rare circumstance' of being close to the Order and the
Potters.

Carol responds:
I think Kemper is probably right that Wormtail is the "Mudblood" Death
Eater, not only because of the "rare circumstances" but because his
being Muggleborn would balance out MWPP (two pure-bloods, Prongs and
Padfoot; a half-blood, Lupin, so identified in an interview; and a
Muggleborn, which would closely match the Trio, which consists of one
of each, erm, blood type). It would also give us an evil Muggleborn to
go with the evil Half-Blood, Voldemort, and the evil Pure-blood,
Bellatrix Lestrange, speaking only of major villains. The Malfoy
family are also Pure-bloods, but they're being set up for something
resembling a change of heart, and Snape, IMHO, is not a villain.
(Antagonist, yes; villain, no.) Anyway, I think that having PP be a
Muggleborn would fit the patterns JKR has established elsewhere, and
would also show that he's willing to sell out his own "blood" to save
his scabby skin.

Regarding Fenrir, I'm wondering if possibly "Newt Scamander" (JKR's
pseudonym but also in a sense a character himself) could be mistaken
with regard to humans (both Muggles and Wizards) becoming werewolves
only when bitten. JKR wrote FB, too, so it can contain Flints in the
sense of inconsistencies with the primary canon established in the HP
books (which are not themselves entirely consistent, in any case).

We know that Lupin, a wizard, became a werewolf when he was bitten as
a child (without ceasing to be either human or a werewolf except at
the full moon). SS/PS, however, suggests that werewolves may live in
the Forbidden Forest and Diary!Tom insinuates that young Hagrid kept
werewolf cubs under his bed. (Granted, JKR says in an interview that
this remark is a "slanderous rumor," but interviews are not canon.)
Film!Snape (not canon, either, but not edited out at JKR's request)
informs the students in his DADA-for-a-day class that "there are
several ways to become a werewolf," with being born a werewolf as one
of them. (Don't jump on me; I'm only speculating.)

I wonder, for example, if the children of two werewolves would be
werewolves themselves, even actual "werewolf cubs" if they were born
at the full moon. (I can't see young Hagrid keeping werewolf cubs that
transform into human babies under his bed.) Those could be the
werewolves in the Forbidden Forest--again, only if Diary!Tom was
telling the truth (or JKR isn't covering up a Flint by accusing him of
spreading false rumors).

"Werewolf cubs" or not, the notion that werewolves are "part human"
(as opposed to fully human for all but a few weeks each year) suggests
that two werewolves could have a werewolf child if the child is born
at the full moon when his mother is in werewolf form. *If* that's the
case, then perhaps that's what makes Fenrir different from "normal"
werewolves like the infelicitously named Remus Lupin. (Was Remus
destined to be bitten? Were his parents courting disaster? Was JKR
more concerned with hints to her readers than with logic? Don't answer.)

The mythical Remus was *raised* by wolves (and eventually killed by
his own twin brother, but I'll let that pass). The mythical Fenrir, in
contrast, was the monstous son of the Norse god Loki, a gigantic wolf
prophesied to kill Odin. Given his name and his werewolfish tendencies
even in human form (pointed teeth; long, yellowish nails; raspy,
barklike voice), I wonder whether Fenrir (unlike Lupin) was born into
a family of werewolves, the suggestively named Greybacks. If so,
perhaps his own father or mother bit him as a child. But why name him
Fenrir if he wasn't already wolflike? (By the same token, why name
your daughter Alecto ["unceasing in anger," after one of the three
Furies] if you're not a Dark witch yourself? What are these people
thinking? Just name your daughter "Ginny" and your son "George"!) I
realize there's no canon for this sort of thing and it contradicts FB,
but it's the only explanation I can come up with for Fenrir Greyback,
who is clearly not a "normal" werewolf.

At any rate, Fenrir Greyback--Wizard, Squib, or Muggle, or Werewolf
born--is still technically human except on full-moon nights despite
his pointed teeth and his cannibalism and everything else that's
loathsome about him. It's unclear how or why he became a Death Eater,
however. I don't think that werewolves in general would do so,
primarily because the DEs would look down on them and they, like
Fenrir, would hate and resent normal wizards, Dark or otherwise.
Certainly, I can't see a Muggle or Muggle-born werewolf joining the
DEs, who would have further reason to despise him and nothing in
common with him. And I can't see LV letting a Squib or a Muggle-born
join without the "rare circumstances" we see with Peter Pettigrew,
especially if that Squib or Muggle-born is a werewolf. A Muggle, of
course, couldn't and wouldn't join at all. So, whether Greyback's
parents were werewolves themselves or not, I think at least one of hem
was a wizard.

I can see where Kemper's Squib suggestion came from, though. Greyback
does seem to have something in common with Squibs: he's an outsider
living in a world of normal wizards. (He's wreaking havoc on the WW,
not on the Muggle world, and the only victims of his that we've seen
are wizards.) We don't know whether he has a wand or not since he
prefers to use his teeth. I don't think he does, not because he's a
Squib (or a Muggle somehow living in the WW and somehow allowed to
become a DE) but because, like Lupin, he's been a werewolf since early
childhood. But as a werewolf who was an adult when Lupin was a child,
Fenrir would have been denied a Hogwarts education, presumably by
Armando Dippet, another reason to hate fully qualified (or normal)
wizards. 

At any rate, Greyback's name and his unusual tendencies, including an
appetite for human flesh and the capacity to create not infected but
*cursed* wounds when he's in human form, make me wonder whether he
wasn't born a werewolf to werewolf parents who passed on to him their
own hatred of normal wizards. (I can't call it racism; it's a fierce
hatred or enmity against those who shun them as evil and dirty and
unnatural. And, if the parents are anything like the child, the WW's
attitude can't be called racism, either. It's a very understandable
fear and loathing.) 

Carol, wishing Draco weren't so willing to threaten others with
something or someone he fears and loathes himself