[HPforGrownups] Question re: muggles and dementors

[Rick H. Kennerly]

No: HPFGUIDX 187963



  Meliss9900 at aol.com wrote:
>
>
> I don't have to explain. JKR did it quite well herself when she had Ron
> explain it to us in COS. But from JKR's web site : " A Squib is almost 
> the
> exact opposite of a Muggle-born wizard: He or she is a non-magical person
> born to at least one magical parent."
>
>
> 


I see.  I've written about this on PC's post below, but it seems by your 
example from JKR that she somewhat muddies the waters WRT squibs when 
she writes:

Squibs would not be able to attend Hogwarts as students. They are often 
doomed to a rather sad kind of half-life (yes, you should be feeling 
sorry for Filch), as their parentage often means that they will be 
exposed to, if not immersed in, the wizarding community, but can never 
truly join it. Sometimes they find a way to fit in; Filch has carved 
himself a niche at Hogwarts and Arabella Figg operates as Dumbledore's 
liaison between the magical and Muggle worlds. Neither of these 
characters can perform magic (Filch's Kwikspell course never worked), 
*but they still function within the wizarding world because they have 
access to certain magical objects and creatures that can help them* 
(Arabella Figg does a roaring trade in cross-bred cats and Kneazles, and 
if you don't know what a Kneazle is yet, shame on you). Incidentally, 
Arabella Figg never saw the Dementors that attacked Harry and Dudley, 
but she had enough magical knowledge to identify correctly the 
sensations they created in the alleyway.

So there is something "special about a squib" after all, not being a 
full magical person but having some magical access.  What's missing from 
potientcat's analysis, I think, is a term for a person in Petunia's 
state--a non-magical family that throws a wiz and a dud, not to mention 
any description of what happens in wizarding families who throw a 
dud--do you end up raising the kid like a squib in the magical community 
or give them up to a muggle family? 

If the answer is 'raise the dud kid in a magic community' there is an 
unaccounted for class of person in the magic world, a person with full 
knowledge of the magic world but without even the skills of a squib to 
"still function within the wizarding world because they have access to 
certain magical objects and creatures that can help them."

It's never really clear to me whether Petunia knows a good deal more 
about the magical world from experience or hearsay..  But it's clear she 
knows more than she tells.
-- 

Rick Kennerly
Virginia Beach, VA
www.mouseherder.com 
<http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=1213141578&ref=name>



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