Squib!!!

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 180912

Jayne wrote:
> > 
> > What exactly is the difference between a squib and a witch/ Wizard??
<snip>
> 
Tiffany responded:
> 
> In the canon, a Squib is someone born to magical parents but doesn't
develop magical abilities.  Squibs are often encouraged to interact &
 bleng in with the Muggle world as they fit in better than in the
Wizard world.  They do share some abilities with Wizards, like being
able to  see the Dementors in HBP, but they're often sent to Muggle
schools & taught to integrate themselves into the Muggles' world.  The
canon  itself doesn't do a good job of explaining the Squibs, but what
I  mentioned above is the nutshell definition of the Squibs.

Carol adds:
I agree with Tiffany's first sentence: that is, a Squib is born to
magical parents and ought to be magical but isn't. The term appears to
be derived from "squib" meaning a wet firecracker that fails to
ignite. (It's not clear whether a child with one magical parent and
one Muggle parent would also be a Squib. I think so, but I'm not sure.)

However, a Squib isn't necessarily sent to a Muggle school and
encouraged to become part of the Muggle world (though apparently that
was done when Dumbledore and his contemporaries were young). Clearly
Mrs. Figg, who blends in with Muggles as a "batty" old neighbor has
had contact with the WW all her life. Not only does she know
Dumbledore (she was a member of the original Order of the Phoenix) and
raise cats who can communicate with her in ways that cats don't
communicate with Muggles (JKR says in an interview that Mrs. Figg
breeds half-Kneazle cats) but she uses expressions, such as "the cat's
amongst the pixies again," that reflect her magical parentage and her
immersion in the Wizarding world.

Argus Filch, the only other Squib who appears as a character, though
others are alluded to, seems to have no connection with the Muggle
world. He lives and works at Hogwarts and would like nothing better
than to be a normal wizard rather than a failed one. Both of them have
apparently tried and failed to use a wand. Filch studies KwikSpell
courses and Mrs. Figg says, "I've never so much as Transfigured a tea
cup."

Culturally and by blood, they're a witch and a wizard who never
attended Hogwarts and can't use a wand or brew a potion, so they live
on the fringes of the magical world (or, in Mrs. Figg's case, in the
Muggle world but maintianing WW contacts). But since, despite their
mutual affinity for cats, the ability to see Hogwarts, and an
awareness of Dementors (JKR says on her website that Mrs. Figg
couldn't see the Dementors; Mrs. Figg says she could. Take your pick),
they can't perform magic ("Filch was a Squib and could no more cast a
Stunning Spell than he could fly"), they can't qualify as Witches and
Wizards. They are not, however, Muggles because of their magical
parentage. By blood, they ought to be magical, but for some reason (a
mutation, a birth defect, whatever), they can't perform magic.

Ron calls them "the opposite of a Muggle-born," who is born magical
despite having (two) Muggle parents. A Squib is born nonmagical
despite having at least one and more likely two magical parents. (The
Squibs whose names are burned off the Black family tree are purebloods
who somehow fizzled out and failed to be magical.

Carol, who intended to be concise and failed