a different mrs. figg theory

[Amon Rê]

Athena wrote:

"Lily" is most likely her full first name.

I agree that Lily is most likely her full name, but it could be a shortened form of Lillian or Lillibeth(that may just be a name I know). Don't know, just had to throw out that there are some names that Lily could be shortened from, but since Petunia is her sister, it is more than likely just Lily...

Athena wrote:

Since being a squib is supposedly really rare, it does almost make sense that the two we know are in the same family... like, the only people I have ever known who had multiple sclerosis were brothers... same kinda deal.... ???

Isn't this prooved wrong by Ron when he says he thinks they have a relative who is an accountant(can't remember which book wanna say CoS) I mean if that were the case, wouldn't we expect more in the Weasley family???

[paintballdecoy]

Not if Mrs Figgs parents weren't pureblood. If the were muggleborn of half blood then they would have some muggle in them. Maybe a squib from a pure blood is more uncommon then from a muggle born or half-blood.

[Amon Rê]

Paintballdecoy wrote:

Not if Mrs Figgs parents weren't pureblood. If the were muggleborn of half blood then they would have some muggle in them. Maybe a squib from a pure blood is more uncommon then from a muggle born or half-blood.

I can see this but it's adding another assumption into the mass...

[Nobby]

its quite possible that mrs figg was arabella filch. yet again i still haven't seen any similarities. however they are the right age to be brother and sisiter

[Athena Appleton]

Well, it's not really disproven... and we dont' really know for sure that second-cousin-the-accountant is a squib... for all we know, he/she could be a wizard, only a wizard accountant. Ron certainly doesn't seem too sure of his facts here.

But even if he/she is a squib, having it run in one family doesn't mean it would run in another.

I really got to thinking about this when we were waiting for some lab tests done on my youngest son, for cystic fibrosis. I did some looking around and found out that in order for a child to have cf (which is one of the more common rare diseases), both of the parents have to be carriers. Being a carrier means that you have one good gene and one cf gene. So each time the couple has a child, each child has a chance of getting cf. If one parent is a carrier and the other isn't, the children don't have any chance of having cf. And each time a child is conceived, you do the toss-up again. Therefore, if two people get together and have one child with cf, they know they have a much higher chance than most couples of having another child with cf. It's this way with a lot of diseases. Not to call squibbiness a disease, but it could work the same.

So that could explain why there would only be one squib in the Weasley family. It doesn't "run in families" the way curly hair or long eyelashes does, it depends only on the parents of each child.

If Arabella and Argus are brother and sister, it's really more believable that these two "rare" squibs were siblings, rather than no relation, if squibs work the way cf does (which it may very well not work this way)

[Amon Rê]

I'm gonna go against the grain...I personally don't think magic as JK wrote it is genetic...I mean unless it's just a random mutation i.e. Hermione from two muggles...you know...I understand the carriers(3 yrs of Bio) and I know all about hereditary diseases, I think there's more to it, just not too sure...

[Athena Appleton]

Yeah, I really do pretty much agree with you... and I don't like the bio stuff (failed it in high school)

I do think, though, that if squibs are really really rare, that that would kind of hold up my theory of Mrs. Figg and Filch being brother and sister.

THAT'S MY STORY AND I'M STICKIN TO IT!!!!