Secrets (Long) OLD POST REPOST

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 186518

Toni:
> Hi, look I'm getting really confused about the whole thing, Why is Harry called a Half-Blood when both parents are magic and Vol is Half-Blood, which is only natural as it was only his mother was a witch. Could some one explain this please!!!

Magpie:
Half-blood's used inconsistently so you're probably right to be confused! 

Basically, in Harry's case since his mother was Muggle-born (and so has Muggle blood) he's considered a half-blood by some. He's definitely not a Pureblood, which refers to Wizards whose ancestry goes back quite far without any known Muggles. Although JKR claims the split is 25/50/25 there are really probably vanishingly few Purebloods in the WW, with most people being half-bloods meaning that there's some Muggle blood in there they know about.

Snape, for instance, has a parent who was an actual Muggle, but blood-wise Lily and Tobias Snape were both born of Muggle parents.

Does that make sense? Harry's ancestry is known to be Pureblood on his father's side and pure muggle on his mother's side. 

-m