[the_old_crowd]Dudder Late Magic (WAS Re: Some questions)

[Rebecca Bowen]

Kneasy said:

>OK.
>So the late bloomer ain't Petunia or Dudders.

>Who's left?
>The squibs - Filch or Figg.
>Place your bets...

Rebecca now:

Hmph. Found these on JKR's site:

"Squibs are rare; magic is a dominant and resilient gene."

One way to interpret this is to surmise that genetically, Squibs wouldn't 
have the genetic ability to perform magic.  And then there's this in the 
same snippet regarding Filch and Figg:

"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."

Certain magical objects....certainly a wand could be called that. Don't 
recall the mention of either of them having a wand, but that's probably 
irrelevant? Could pick up another wizard's wand, I suppose....

The whole hubbub behind the character who will manage to perform magic late 
in life comes from a 1999 Barnes and Noble Chat with JKR where she was asked 
if student or adult would be a "late bloomer" in the magical sense :

"No, is the answer. In my books, magic almost always shows itself in a 
person before age 11; however, there is a character who does manage in 
desperate circumstances to do magic quite late in life, but that is very 
rare in the world I am writing about."

Have we perhaps seen this character's magic already?  Or perhaps JKR tossed 
the concept in her writing of the books as it didn't "fit"?  1999 is rather 
a bit ago...I'd also submit that Madame "I See The Future Thru My Alcoholic 
Haze" Trelawney might be a candidate, unless someone has seen in the books 
where she has performed some kind of magic with a wand...

Rebecca

Rebecca