Hermione, and then: Re: young Dumbledore (was: was he like Luna Lovegood?)

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

I feel quite guilty about not replying to Barb's reply to me, but in 
all this time, I can't think of anything to add to what she said, 
except about her aside of not having liked the 'fandom response' of 
OoP including an explanation of why Hermione isn't in Ravenclaw, and 
all I can say to that is "I disagree. I enjoyed the fandom response 
in OoP. But I keep thinking that the Hat should have suggested 
Slytherin first, rather than Ravenclaw, because she has shown Slythie 
style unscrupulousness in some of her conspiracies, such as the 
Polyjuice Impersonation in CoS and the zit-curse parchment in OoP. 
Btw, who thinks that a person good enough at magic to make the 
zit-curse parchment is good enough to make the Marauder's Map or the 
Riddle Diary? 

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady_de_Los_Angeles" wrote:

> But endlessly curious. Pureblood enough for ordinary purposes, he 
> took Muggle Studies, then sneaked out of school to mingle with 
> Muggles and check whether what he learned in class was true. 
> Playing magical practical jokes on Muggles until he noticed how 
> *very* much it upset them, and had an attack of compassion. 
> (Wizards were merely  embarrassed at having been discomforted, but
> poor Muggles went into a total panic: they thought they were going 
> mad or had been attacked by the Devil.)

Going on with my fantasy: he learned his way around 19th century 
British Muggle society and had Muggle friends and lovers. He was from 
a poor wizarding family (like the Weasleys but not as many children), 
so he had to make a living. Instead of seeking a job from some wizard 
employer, he started his own import-export business, importing 
Muggle-made products into the wizarding world, and got rich from it 
(and probably other investments). He may have been involved with 
various exemplars of Muggle idealism, such as the Anti-Slavery League 
or the societies against cruelty to animals and cruelty to children. 
He may have been attracted to Theosophy, as a possible bridge between 
wizards and Muggles. As a Yank among Brits, I hesitate to mention 
Ireland Home Rule...

He may have married a Muggle. Maybe *two* Muggles, one after the 
first one died -- but losing two spouses to old age might well 
motivate a person to stop marrying Muggles, to withdraw a bit from 
Muggle society and take a job teaching Transfiguration at Hogwarts. 
I'm inclined, for no reason, to believe that when Dumbledore was the 
Transfiguration Professor, his (second or third, and witch) wife (the 
one who knit the horrible socks -- her death is a bigger wound 
because it was a Surprise) was the DADA Professor, and a very good 
one, but killed when she fought Grindelwald ... I try to figure out 
the plot of a fanfic in which Tom Riddle, McGonagall, and an older 
sister of Arthur Weasley who gets killed figure in the story of Mr 
and Mrs Dumbledore versus Grindelwald.

**IF** Harry is a great-great-grand-son of Dumbledore, I figure it 
would be through Lily (both auburn hair -- that's a Clue, not 
evidence): one of her grand-parents (born ca. 1900, when Dumbledore 
was a young man of 60) was Dumbledore's half-Muggle Squib child. 
Considering that Dumbledore was born ca. 1840, all that genealogy 
could be pushed back another generation, and Dumbledore *could* have 
involved himself in the USA Muggle Civil War.) Lily having ONE 
wizarding GREAT-grand-parent would be little enough that it wouldn't 
offend my sense that Lily HAS to be pure Muggleborn to make JKR's 
point against judging people by their pedigrees. (Hermione has to be 
pure Muggleborn for the same reason.)