Explain This Passage

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 180448

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Bob Connors <bobjtc at ...> wrote:
>
> lesley/wrappedinharry:
> 'And I am sure it is Hagrid who tells Harry that there is no such thing as a pure-blood 
anymore because there were just not enough of them around and if they hadn't bred with 
Muggles somewhere in the past, wizards would have died out.
> 
> Just recollections I am afraid.'
> 
> 
> Bob Connors:
> It was Hagrid, I think it was in POA, and while you are very close to what he said, I just 
don't think he was so strong in his wording.  Like the saying goes, never say never, always, 
etc.  There will often be an exception.  While we lack a true definition of what is a mud 
blood (in POA I thought that was anyone who was not pure, therefore their heritage was 
muddied).  So there COULD be some pure bloods left.  We just do not know how much 
'mud' is needed.  
>

Pippin:
I believe you're thinking of  Ron, in CoS.
"It's ridiculous. Most wizards these days are half-blood anyway. If we hadn't
married Muggles we'd have died out." -CoS ch 7
Ron, though he comes from a pureblood family, clearly hasn't been taught
to think himself superior on account of it. 

It's useless, IMO, to try to apply scientific classification to a distinction made
on unscientific grounds.  AFAWK,  there is no physical difference between 
the Muggleborn and other wizards. Calling someone Half-blood is a
matter of pattern-matching and association rather than taxonomy,
so of course logic can't account for it. There is no characteristic which all
wizards who are called Half-bloods share which distinguishes them from 
all thel wizards who aren't called Half-bloods -- except being called
Half-blood. 

Pippin