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 Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 8:57 pm
I posted some of this in the something you imagined about characters thread, but it doesn't really fit since it's not about a specific character, but I think it's interesting so I'm posting it again.
So, why are there Squibs?
It's genetics, and sort of... evolution. Like the mutants in X-Men, sort of.
Squibs, I think, are a result of genetic inbreeding. Because pretty much all of the purebloods are inbred somewhere along the line. And the squibs always seem to be from lines of old wizarding families. Think about it, obviously Merope Gaunt was from a very interbred family, her father and brother were both messed up. And Filch is decidedly unpleasant, so I think it stands to reason that he was raised by parents who didn't appreciate him, which would stand to reason with his parents being muggle hating purebloods. Ms. Figg is the only one I'm not sure about, but maybe her family had gotten past hating muggles but still only married other purebloods. And squibs only seem to come from pureblood/pureblood pairings. There aren't any mentions of muggleborn/pureblood pairings, or muggleborn/muggleborn pairings.
Remember the Egyptians? They interbred and interbred and interbred until they had run out of DNA, and it started corrupting them and they were all deformed and had all sorts of birth defects. So maybe the same thing happened to the wizards. The purebloods interbred and their DNA corrupted and some of them were born without magic.
Of course, this creates the idea that magic is genetic, which means that muggleborns would have to have a gene for it. So maybe they do. Maybe it's a gene, but it's recessive, so two muggles who have it have to get together to have a magical child.
Any thoughts?
*cough* Join Dueling Club at the Haven *cough*
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 9:27 pm
Thats a very interesting theory on it and I like it! It makes sense. This is theory I had thought of:
That maybe somewhere, back in the ancestors of pure-bloods, there was a muggle involved (making them not so pure)and passed a "muggle" gene along and a long time after, it reaches a kid and its mixed with the magic gene and one can't quite trump the other so the kid can't do magic but can see it and is a part of the society. I know it doesn't make much sense, but it makes more sense in my head!
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Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:51 am
Hmm... interesting.
I like the whole idea of interbreeding to make squibs. Though, based on your muggleborn theory, it could be something different. Perhaps, if you have magic, that magic gene is dominant. Then there would be a possibility of having a non-magical recessive gene. So if a certain family mates together over and over and they have the recessive gene, that could produce a squib. We never heard of any muggleborn/pureblood squibs from JKR but we don't know if it's completely impossible. If so, then the birth defect thing goes out the window. I guess we'd need more information to be conclusive, but both theories are realistic.
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Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 10:12 am
I remember a line in a book that said if a magical child is born to a muggle family you can trace the parentage back to a witch or wizard in the line. So I can understand it being something of a gene. As for squibs, a squib is a term used for unmagical children born to magical couples. So it can't apply to muggle children as they are all squibs in since of the word, and half blood couples would just think the child took after the non-magical parent, so the pure bloods are the one the term is most used and applied.
I remember there being notes for a girl cousin of the Weasleys. She was to be a half blood that was a near squib, from the Perwett side. She was suppose to be the girl Harry fell for, not Ginny. Even though she was weak with magic she excelled at all she set her mind to. But she was never written in. Her character was suppose to explore the squib subject.
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Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 12:55 pm
They do say somewhere in the series that if you look at a muggleborn's family tree, then you will always find a witch or a wizard somewhere among the family. It could just be that the gene for being magical kept getting passed down, but was then masked by the gene for being a muggle until finally the magical gene dominated over the other, therefore making the person a witch or wizard. As for squibs, it can sometimes come from inbreeding too much that the blood sort of gets too pure (if that makes sense), and then they simply don't have any problems. And I also think that somewhere in the series (I think), someone said that if you look at a pureblood family tree, you will usually find a witch or wizard that married a muggle, therefore passing down the gene to be non-magical. But the gene to be able to perform magic keeps masking the non-magical gene until finally the non-magical gene dominates over the magical gene for whatever reason. Sort of the opposite of what happens with muggleborns. And Katie, I also have heard about the Weasley cousin that was supposed to be in the books but then JKR decided to write her out.
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Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 1:18 pm
I definitely agree that it is something genetic, but I'm not sure if it is just contributed to inbreeding since they do say that Merope wasn't a Squib, so much a victim of magical trauma. I could definitely see Filch being unpleasant perhaps being a member of a rich/snooty pure bred family, but I see it more along the lines of how Petunia was around a witch and the jealousy involved. I really hope she explains it when she comes out with the encyclopedia. What I don't really understand is the Squib/cat connection.
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Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 4:58 pm
TricksterChoice I definitely agree that it is something genetic, but I'm not sure if it is just contributed to inbreeding since they do say that Merope wasn't a Squib, so much a victim of magical trauma. I could definitely see Filch being unpleasant perhaps being a member of a rich/snooty pure bred family, but I see it more along the lines of how Petunia was around a witch and the jealousy involved. I really hope she explains it when she comes out with the encyclopedia. What I don't really understand is the Squib/cat connection. Miss Norris was a magical cat and thus had the ability to see things that Flitch couldn't. She could she Harry when wearing the invisibility cloak, she knew when the Baslilsk was roaming the school and so on. She could since magic like a wizard or witch when Flitch couldn't. So In a way Miss Norris was Flitch's magical seeing eye cat.
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Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 10:33 pm
I just want to say that I'm personally glad Squibs exist in the Harry Potter Universe.
We can all agree that they are a sort of counter-balance of muggle-born witches/wizards.
What I don't quite understand is how it seemed more common for a muggle-born witch/wizard to be produced than a Squib. Squibs seem extraordinarily rare, or perhaps they are just not worthy of 'our' attention.
However, there appear to be many 'types' of Squibs.
1. There are genetic Squibs, and the punnett squares simply didn't come out in their favour. This has to be a load of shame, much like a serious birth defect, to the family who was expecting to have a magickal child.
2. There are also those who tread the border, and may cross from magickal to squib, or vice versa, at a point in their lifetime. Merope Gaunt Riddle became a Squib by Trauma and/or Depression. The counter-balance of this is seen in Neville. For example, he mentioned that for years his family feared that he wouldn't be 'magick enough' to go to Hogwarts, and they kept introducing him to more and more dangerous situations (holding him upside down out of a window by his ankles? Eventually dropping him?) trying to 'shock' magickal self defense into him.
On a side note, I would be interested in Squibs places in Magickal society. We know that Filch has Mrs. Norris, a cat with more magick than him. Also, Mrs. Figg's testimony as a witness was valid when she saw Harry use the Patronus charm to defend himself and Dudley against Dementors. After as cruel as Dudley has been to him, Harry saved him, and was still blamed by his own family. It was only Dumbledore and (with the help of Mrs. Figg's validation) that righted things in the end.
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Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:45 am
TricksterChoice I definitely agree that it is something genetic, but I'm not sure if it is just contributed to inbreeding since they do say that Merope wasn't a Squib, so much a victim of magical trauma. Merope was a squib, that's why her family rejected her. Dumbledore's sister was the one who was a victim of magicla trauma.
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Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2009 3:15 pm
Excellent conversation going on in here! 5 points to everyone that participipated!
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Minerva the Bookwyrm Crew
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Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:35 am
I think squibs are the unlucky souls who didn't gain magical abilities because of muggle blood in them. (Now I really sound like a Slytherin.)
It could also skip generations with the blood. It may also be the condition of the mother when she was pregnent. Who's to say she didn't do something that harmed the baby? Like how muggle's shouldn't smoke or drink. Genetic mutations are also questioned on the theroy of Squibs; how is it posable for a witch and a wizard to have a squib, while maybe the next child is a witch?
I say it lies in genes, muggle blood. Muggles natrually don't have any magic, so theres a 50/50 chance a half blooded child could have become a squib, if my blood theory is correct. But old interbred famies, like muggle families, have mutations when close relitives interbreed to stay full blooded, they can make a mutated squib. But how do two muggles get a wizard? The world may never know.
Further study is needed.
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Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:39 am
I think inbreeding makes sense.
But, also, maybe magic is a gene, and not all genes are passed on, I have my great great grandfather's nose, so maybe it just didn't make it.
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 12:09 am
No, Merope was originally a witch who BECAME a squib. Her Father and Brother were both cruel and insane. In the memory where she was cooking for them and she used her hands her father would berrate her and call her a "squib". Then she used her wand and ended up sending the pot flying across the room and breaking. She had magic, they just got on her nerves. She also had the knowledge/ability to make a love potion... one that was effective for some time. It was with a broken heart she gave up on magic (potentially because of the immense lack of returned sentiments from Tom Riddle Sr.) I also believe there was a quote concerning her sad end about how "she wouldn't raise her wand to save her own life"... Her abilities may have been 'shaky' but that was due to the verbal/emotional abuse by her real family, and then the trauma of being left by someone she thought would stay with her... I still can't believe she let the Slytherin pendant go for only 10 galleons... she had to realise it was worth more than that ;_; Greedy Borkin or Burke or whoever bought it from her. ScottieBears MiaKitty TricksterChoice I definitely agree that it is something genetic, but I'm not sure if it is just contributed to inbreeding since they do say that Merope wasn't a Squib, so much a victim of magical trauma. Merope was a squib, that's why her family rejected her. Dumbledore's sister was the one who was a victim of magicla trauma.
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 8:19 pm
ScottieBears MiaKitty TricksterChoice I definitely agree that it is something genetic, but I'm not sure if it is just contributed to inbreeding since they do say that Merope wasn't a Squib, so much a victim of magical trauma. Merope was a squib, that's why her family rejected her. Dumbledore's sister was the one who was a victim of magicla trauma. No Merope had magic. She just never wanted to use it, that's why they rejected her. She used her magic when she and Tom were together, then she herself rejected magic when he left her. That's why Tom Marvolo was born the way he was, and why she sold the Slytherin locket. Because she would not use magic to get anything for herself. She wasn't a Squib, she was basically just really against using magic for herself.
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Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2009 1:29 pm
Squibs?
In my opinion, when a Pureblood wizard marries a Pureblood witch, their first would be either a squib or a magic child. Now, even if your first child is magic, doesn't mean that one child in the family will be born without magical powers.
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