Dudder Late Magic (WAS Re: Some questions)

[annemehr]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Jen Reese" <stevejjen at e...> wrote:
> See I'm thinking we're all supposed to be gaping along with Harry at 
> the person who performs magic later in life. For that reason Petunia 
> was my first choice up until the ruination, so now I'm reading 
> Talisman's arguments for Dudley with interest. He would be BIG, unlike 
> Filch or Figgy, not to mention the equivocation-in-interviews issue 
> again: On her website JKR said that Squibs are "non-magical people" 
> and about Filch and Figgy specifically, "neither of these characters 
> can perform magic." One of the interviews can't be taken at face-
> value, whether it's this one or the one about Dudley OR either Filch 
> or Figgy aren't really a Squib. I don't see another way around all 
> these interviews unless it's someone else entirely.

Anne:

This phrase from JKR: "however, there is a
character who does manage in desperate circumstances to do
magic quite late in life" still makes me think of someone well into
adulthood.  Dudley doing magic at seventeen would be relatively late,
yes, but "quite?"

In my mental image, *if* it's Filch or Figg who do the magic, it'd be
like the proverbial mother who manages with her bare hands to lift a
car off her child.  "In desperate circumstances" tells me it's a
one-off -- the mother in the example does not suddenly hire herself
out as a jack, and Filch or Figg (or Dudley) are not suddenly a witch
or wizard.  Then this bit of desperate magic falls into the same
category as a Muggle having a premonition about the future or seeing a
ghost.

It might be fun if it's Filch; he wouldn't necessarily be doing it for
Harry's sake, would he?

I'd like it if it were Dudders, I'm just not sure.

Anne

P.S. Was anyone else thoroughly surprised to find out that only
witches or wizards can choose to become ghosts?  For one thing, I had
expected death to be more of a difference-eraser; now I get a sneaky
doubt that dead muggles and magicals don't mingle at all. For another
thing, it messes with the way the potterverse fits in with the real
world -- now all the ghosts we "know" of are perforce dead magicals.