Petunia why care? (spoilers)

[Holly Golightly]

A Squib is the oppisite of a Muggle born witch/wizard... ie witch and wizard parents, and a non-magical child. The know about the magical world though, and can see stuff, like Mrs Figg with the dementor... but they have no magical powers...

I dotn' think that if Dudley turned out to have magical powers that he woudl go to Hogwarts, maybe he woudl jsut cause accidental magic, like Harry used to... ie dissapearing glass etc!

Maybe it's Filtch, and he goes around blasting the students with magic when they mis-behave!!!

[Nacht]

I don't understand why people think it's so strange that Petunia knows about Dementors.

Let's imagine how things are while Lily is attending Hogwarts...

For seven years Lily leaves each september from platform 9 3/4. Each summer (and probably each christmas) she's at home telling stories about all the wonderful things happening there. Unless Petunia is completly ignoring Lily from the very beginning, of course she knows about wands, charms, Dumbledore, quidditch etc...
But even if she ignores Lily surely the proud parents will talk about these things while Lily is away... There simply no way she can be ignorant about these matters or deny their existance.

Petunia envies Lily (a quite natural response if you ask me) and that builds up to hate (understandable also). But there must be a third feeling towards the magical world from Petunia, a sense of awe about this apperantly quite powerful shadowworld most people know nothing about at all. This awe of course fuels the envy and hate even more.

Now Petunia desides to channel her hate by completely ignoring the wizard world and marries the biggest mugglehead in town. But turning your back to something and denying it in public doesn't make your knowledge about it go away.

Then one day she finds her sisters baby on het doorstep with a note. The note is from Dumbledore and she knows he is a powerful wizard. We don't know what the note said exactly but we can be sure that Dumbledore makes it clear that he expects her to keep the child and keep it save.

I think it's very understandable that she won't dare to throw Harry out of the house fearing the wrath of Dumbledore and the Wizard world.

[Dink Meeker]

I am of two minds on this subject. I have seen two references in the stories that make me think that Harry is Muggle Born. Book 2 and 5.

I'm a little confused by all this. If Harry is not pure blood, how could the sorting hat even consider him for Slytherin. I thought Slytherin would only accept pure bloods.

[zledm007]

i thiught harry was half blood, because when DD told harry about the prophesy he said voldy had to choose between him and neville, and he chose the half blood harry, half blood like himself. oh, and i'm pretty sure tom riddle was in slytherin being his heir and all, and he is only half blood, not pure.

[Meg Boyd]

the story is better with Harry being a half-blood. So is LV and it makes them equal, and even better when there is an underlying theme of racisim...

[zledm007]

arg. it sounds way too much like WWII. i mean, Hitlers targets were jews, and in his own definition of a jew, he was one himself. and, well, that's racism too. anyway, voldy wants only purebloods etc. the visions of salazar slytherin, and he's not one. arg!

[Nacht]

... and in his own definition of a jew, he was one himself.

The stories about Hitler being a half jew are unfounded... but this gets a little off-topic...

[Meg Boyd]

What? You don't like learning about WWII? Don't you wish Danny and Jane were here?

sorry... ...back to the topic...

[Meg Boyd]

sorry for the double post, but my last one is directed towards zledm007...Nacht just posted like five seconds before me so my post looks weird after his...sorry...

[Marcus Baker]

I just have some comments to make. Harry is a pure blood. If both of your parents have magical blood, your pure. The term by JKR, "Pure blood" is a term used by JKR to indicate only wizzarding families, but you cant have half-blood and have weaker magical abilities. Its wizzarding blood that runs thorugh you, and muggle-borns, half bloods and pure bloods all posses it. Now for the biological part: Its like your blood type (for all thoes who studied biology). Squibs can occur off small chances in the hybrids, probally if you arnt a pureblood. If you are a pureblood, you CANT give birth to a squib. Since Harry is a son of a muggle born, through her generation, he has a chance of giving birth to a squib if he marries another muggle born or a muggle. Just theories and mixed opinoions.

[Holly Golightly]

Well, sorry to say, but I kinda disagree with most of what you have just said there marcus...

Harry is a pure blood.

DD tells Harry that he is a half-blood at the end of OOTP... Also,t he way I see it fromthe book is, once you have a muggle in your family, that section is then classed as half-bloods. Im using the Black family tree for this... Tonks for example. her mum married a muggle, so she is obv half-blood, but from your definition, if she was to marry a wizard, any childern woudl then be pure-bloods? I cant' see this as being right, or mrs Black wouldnt' have blasted her off the family tree?

If you are a pureblood, you CANT give birth to a squib

The Longbottom family is a pure-blood family, and yet they thought that Neville was a squib, so pure-bloods must be able to give birth to squibs, or they wouldn't have thoguh that...

Anyways, these are just my opinions, and please tell me if you think taht I have interpreted anything wrong!

Holly

[Meg Boyd]

i agree with you!!! Hear Hear!!!!

[gecko]

Yeah I agree with Holly. Harry is a half-blood, I'm pretty sure I read it in CoS this afternoon too.
Anyhow, as for Dudley getting magic powers suddenly, I don't think that'll be. Because those little knacks of magic begin at a much younger age. I mean, Harry has done weird things all through primary school (his hair, jumping on the roof of the school, the snake)! If Dudley was a bit magical, he'd have shown signs of it. Of course is Petunia is squib, an idea I quite like, she might give birth to a wizard son. However, if he is treated without any knowledge whatsoever on magic, and is told that magic is bad, he'll grow up disliking magic in such a way, that even when he suddenly may get his magic powers, he wouldn't want to use them, maybe even hate himself.

Pretty scary stuff, a bit propaganda-like. They force him to belief certain things, and later he thinks that are the right ideas..

[Holly Golightly]

Hrmm, but what if Harry did so much stuff because he is a very powerful wizard (ie he could produce a partonus at the age of 13) and Dudley not so powerful?

Also, another point, Neville didnt' show any signs of magic for ages like Harry did (which is why his family thought he was a squib)... so what if Dudley's like that, justmuch more stupid thatn Neville!!!

Another thing, I think that if he was to get powers later on in life, he' wouldnt' reject them... he's abully after all, and anything to increase his ability to pick on people smaller/weaker tham him would be seen as as asset, no???

[gecko]

Yeah true, he could be a neville-like person, but I don't know, he loathes wizards and magic (remember the pigtail Hagrid gave him), and I don't think he'll like it if he'd find out that he has magic abilities, because he's so scared of magic and wizards. When they didn't know that Harry is not allowed to perform magic when not at school, they were soo scared of him. There's that great part about saying the 'magic' word (please!:P) !

Though I could see him using it for his bullying (if he were to accept that he has magic abilities). How would Vernon and Petunia react to it? They certainly will notice it, don't you think? Will they throw him out of the house or something like that?