Literal Half-Bloods in the Wizarding World
In hir essay " Inconveivable," condwiramurs discusses the implications of magical-muggle marriages when Secrecy is at the very foundation of the wizarding world. Condwiramurs writes, "As the direct, MAGICAL offspring of a mixed witch-muggle marriage, Severus Snape was practically a walking violation of the Statute of Secrecy itself. Standing inherently and unchangeably right astride the most fundamental line in the wizarding world."
In response, I decided to do an analysis of known literal half-bloods. Unless stated otherwise, all of my information comes from Pottermore. Most of the notes from Pottermore can be found on tumblr; just google "[character name] pottermore tumblr" I realize that there are varying opinions on the canonicity of sources beyond the published books, so that will make this post more or less relevant to the discussion.
Wizards/Witches with a Muggle parent include:
--Celestina Warbeck
--Tom Marvolo Riddle
--Minerva McGonagall
--Dolores Umbridge
--Sybill Trelawney
--Severus Snape
--Remus Lupin
--Gilderoy Lockhart
--Seamus Finnigan
--Dean Thomas
ETA 1: I've added more discussion about Minerva McGonagall.
ETA 2: Hwyla speculated that House affiliation might affect how half-bloods fare, so I've added that information. Celestina, Minerva, Remus, Seamus, and Dean are Gryffindors; Tom, Delores, and Severus are Slytherins; and Sybill and Gilderoy are Ravenclaws.
Celestina Warbeck
House: Gryffindor
Parents: Wizard father rescued her Muggle mother from a Lethifold.
Outcome: The Warbecks appear to have had a happy marriage. Celestina has a very successful career, but it's in a field where there's little competition from other witches and wizards.
TL;DR: At least one of Celestina's parents probably wasn't British and may have had different attitudes about the muggle/magical divide.
According to her chocolate frog card and the Pottermore timeline, Celestina Warbeck, the "singing sorceress" was born in 1917. We learn from Pottermore that Warbeck "hails from Wales" (though Warbeck not a Welsh surname.)
Her father, a minor functionary in the Muggle Liaison Office, met her Muggle mother (a failed actress) when the latter was attacked by a Lethifold disguised as a stage curtain.
Celestina’s extraordinary voice was apparent from an early age. Disappointed to learn that there was no such thing as a wizarding stage school, Mrs Warbeck reluctantly consented to her daughter’s enrolment at Hogwarts, but subsequently bombarded the school with letters urging the creation of a choir, theatre club and dancing class to showcase her daughter’s talents. [snip]
More controversially, Celestina was vocal in her disagreement when the Ministry of Magic sought to impose restrictions on how the wizarding community was allowed to celebrate Hallowe'en.
JKR writes that she modeled Warbeck's character after the famous Welsh singer Shirley Bassey "in both looks and style."
There's actually quite a bit of information hidden in these details.
First, FB tells us that "the Lethifold is a mericifully rare creature found solely in tropical climates." This means it's fairly likely that Celestina's parents did not meet in Britain, but somewhere much closer to the equator. Please note that, in 1917, several countries in the tropics were still part of the British Empire, and therefore possibly also under the jurisdiction of the British Ministry of Magic.
Second, real-life Shirley Bassey is the daughter of an Englishwoman and a Nigerian merchant seaman. Similarly, Celestina Warbeck is usually depicted as a woman with African ancestry. This, in combination with my first point, strongly suggests that at least one of Celestina's parents is from a former (or current) British colony in either Africa or the British West Indies.
This is important because countries and cultures outside of Western Europe may have (or previously had) very different ideas about the muggle/magical divide and the importance of Secrecy. I imagine the lines to be much blurrier in some societies. There are possible hints of this is Celestina's story. Unlike many muggle parents, Mrs. Warbeck continued to be quite involved in her daughter's education after Celestina started at Hogwarts, and Celestina, herself, sometimes had "controversial" opinions about how the Statute of Secrecy was enforced.
Tom Marvolo Riddle
House: Slytherin
Parents: Impoverished witch Merope Gaunt (supposedly) used a love potion on wealthy Muggle Tom Riddle, Sr.
Outcome: Tom Sr. left Merope before Tom Jr. was even born. Merope died in childbirth. As an adult, Tom Jr. despised Muggles, hid his Muggle ancestry, and (according to Dumbledore) murdered his father and paternal grandparents.
Minerva McGonagall
House: Gryffindor
Parents: Witch Isobel Ross eloped at age 18 with the local Presbyterian minister, Robert McGonagall.
Outcome: The whole Pottermore essay on Minerva is about the challenges of growing up as a literal half-blood and the difficult choices she had to make when she, herself, fell in love with a Muggle man, Dougal McGregor.
Dougal did not know what she, Minerva, truly was, any more than her father had known the truth about Isobel before they had married. Minerva had witnessed at close quarters the kind of marriage she might have if she wed Dougal. It would be the end of all her ambitions; it would mean a wand locked away, and children taught to lie, perhaps even to their own father. [snip]
Mindful of the fact that if she broke the International Statute of Secrecy she would lose the job at the Ministry for which she was giving him up, she could give him no good reason for her change of heart. She left him devastated, and set out for London three days later. [snip]
Though undoubtedly her feelings for the Ministry of Magic were coloured by the fact that she had recently suffered an emotional crisis, Minerva McGonagall did not much enjoy her new home and workplace. Some of her co-workers had an engrained anti-Muggle bias which, given her adoration of her Muggle father, and her continuing love for Dougal McGregor, she deplored. Though a most efficient and gifted employee, and fond of her much older boss, Elphinstone Urquart, Minerva was unhappy in London, and found that she missed Scotland. Finally, after two years at the Ministry, she was offered a prestigious promotion, yet found herself turning it down.[snip]
Known to successive generations of students as ‘Professor McGonagall,’ Minerva - always something of a feminist - announced that she would be keeping her own name upon marriage. Traditionalists sniffed - why was Minerva refusing to accept a pure-blood name, and keeping that of her Muggle father?
I think it fairly likely that the Ross family was once one of the more prominent wizarding families in Britain. The names are clues. In the real world, Clan Ross has a well-established history in the Scottish Highlands dating back to the 13th century, and Minerva (definitely a wizarding name) was named after her great-grandmother, "an immensely talented witch." Isobel knew that her parents "would frown on a connection with the serious young Muggle," and her marriage to Robert left her estranged from her family. I'm speculating that, nevertheless, Minerva's Ross heritage may have helped to make up for her half-blood status. She excelled at both Hogwarts and in her career.
It's a little ironic that Isobel married a Presbyterian minister because, in previous centuries, conservative Presbyterians took the lead in the witch hunts in Scotland, though the Highlands were less affected by this than the Lowlands. How much of the Rosses' anger was due to Robert being a Muggle, and how much was due to him being a Presbyterian minister?
Dolores Umbridge
House: Slytherin
Parents: Wizard janitor Orford Umbridge married Muggle Elizabeth Cracknell.
Outcome: The Umbridges were unhappily married and eventually divorced. Delores pretended that she was a pure-blood.
Dolores Jane Umbridge was the eldest child and only daughter of Orford Umbridge, a wizard, and Ellen Cracknell, a Muggle, who also had a Squib son. Dolores’s parents were unhappily married, and Dolores secretly despised both of them: Orford for his lack of ambition (he had never been promoted, and worked in the Department of Magical Maintenance at the Ministry of Magic), and her mother, Ellen, for her flightiness, untidiness, and Muggle lineage. Both Orford and his daughter blamed Ellen for Dolores’s brother’s lack of magical ability, with the result that when Dolores was fifteen, the family split down the middle, Orford and Dolores remaining together, and Ellen vanishing back into the Muggle world with her son. Dolores never saw her mother or brother again, never spoke of either of them, and henceforth pretended to all she met that she was a pure-blood.
Sybill Trelawney
House: Ravenclaw
Parents: Wizard father, Muggle mother
Outcome: Not much is said directly about Sybill's experiences as a half-blood. However, Sybill's wizarding ancestry was apparently extremely important to her.
(Sybill's) early marriage ended in unforeseen rupture when she refused to adopt the surname ‘Higglebottom’. [snip]
Sybill is the great-great granddaughter of a genuine Seer, Cassandra Trelawney. Cassandra’s gift has been much diluted over ensuing generations, although Sybill has inherited more than she knows. [snip]
Trelawney’ is a very old (Cornish) name, suggestive of Sybill’s over-reliance on her ancestry when seeking to impress.
Severus Snape
House: Slytherin
Parents: Witch Eileen Prince married Muggle Tobias Snape.
Outcome: Discussed extensively in condwiramurs post, "Inconveivable"
Remus Lupin
House: Gryffindor
Parents: Wizard Lyall Lupin rescued Muggle Hope Howell from a Boggart.
Outcome: The Lupins seem to have been happily married. Remus's status as a werewolf affected his life a lot more than the fact that he was a half-blood.
Lyall Lupin was a very clever, rather shy young man who, by the time he was thirty, had become a world-renowned authority on Non-Human Spiritous Apparitions.[snip]
On an investigative trip into a dense Welsh forest in which a particularly vicious Boggart was supposed to be lurking, Lyall ran across his future wife. Hope Howell, a beautiful Muggle girl who worked in an insurance office in Cardiff, had taken an ill-advised walk through what she believed to be innocent woodland. Boggarts and poltergeists may be sensed by Muggles, and Hope, a particularly imaginative and sensitive person, had become convinced that something was watching her from between the dark trees. Eventually, her imagination became so overactive that the Boggart assumed a form: that of a large, evil-looking man, bearing down on her with a snarl and outstretched hands in the gloom. Hearing her scream, young Lyall came sprinting through the trees, causing the apparition to shrink into a field mushroom with one wave of his wand. The terrified Hope thought, in her confusion, that he had driven her would-be attacker away, and his first words to her - ‘it’s all right, it was only a Boggart’ - made no impression on her. Noticing how very beautiful she was, Lyall made the wise decision not to talk about Boggarts any more, but instead agreed that the man had been very big and scary, and that the only sensible thing to do was for him to accompany Hope home to protect her.
The young couple fell in love, and not even Lyall’s shamefaced admission, some months later, that Hope had never really been in danger, dented her enthusiasm for him.
There are several details worth noting here. First, Lyall was already "world-renowned" by the age of 30. Translation: He could probably do whatever he pleased. Second, Hope was very very beautiful. Translation: Her beauty probably helped to make up for her "shortcomings" as a Muggle. Third, Hope was particularly "imaginative and sensitive" and, despite her being a Muggle, a boggart assumed a form in her presence. Translation: Hope could probably pass as a squib with undocumented wizarding ancestry.
Also, is it significant that two of the only happy marriages on this list resulted from a wizard rescuing a hapless Muggle woman from a magical creature?
Gilderoy Lockhart
House: Ravenclaw
Parents: Witch mother, Muggle father
Outcome: Not much is said about the Lockharts' marriage. It may be significant that Gilderoy's expertise was in memory charms. Gilderoy never exactly learned how to fit truly into wizarding society.
Born to a witch mother and a Muggle father, with two older sisters, Gilderoy Lockhart was the only one of his parents’ three children to show magical ability. A clever, good-looking boy, he was his mother’s unashamed favourite, and the realisation that he was also a wizard caused his vanity to blossom like a particularly pernicious weed. [snip]
It was a most unwelcome shock to discover that his name was unknown, his talents were unexceptional and that nobody was particularly impressed by his naturally wavy hair.
Seamus Finnigan
House: Gryffindor
Parents: Witch mother, Muggle father.
Outcome: Seamus says in PS, "Me dad’s a Muggle. Mum didn’t tell him she was a witch ’til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him." His father is never mentioned again, and it appears that Seamus grew up in the wizarding world, which suggests that his father was no longer in the picture.
Dean Thomas
House: Gryffindor
Parents: Wizard father, Muggle mother.
Outcome: Dean's father left the family when Dean was very young. While Dean suspects that his father was a wizard, he hasn't been able to prove it by the time of DH. JKR wrote on her old website:
Nobody has ever discovered the truth: that Dean's father, who had never told his wife what he was because he wanted to protect her, got himself killed by Death Eaters when he refused to join them.
It's interesting that Seamus and Dean are best friends and seem to mostly stick together, though Harry may just be oblivious to their other friendships.
In response, I decided to do an analysis of known literal half-bloods. Unless stated otherwise, all of my information comes from Pottermore. Most of the notes from Pottermore can be found on tumblr; just google "[character name] pottermore tumblr" I realize that there are varying opinions on the canonicity of sources beyond the published books, so that will make this post more or less relevant to the discussion.
Wizards/Witches with a Muggle parent include:
--Celestina Warbeck
--Tom Marvolo Riddle
--Minerva McGonagall
--Dolores Umbridge
--Sybill Trelawney
--Severus Snape
--Remus Lupin
--Gilderoy Lockhart
--Seamus Finnigan
--Dean Thomas
ETA 1: I've added more discussion about Minerva McGonagall.
ETA 2: Hwyla speculated that House affiliation might affect how half-bloods fare, so I've added that information. Celestina, Minerva, Remus, Seamus, and Dean are Gryffindors; Tom, Delores, and Severus are Slytherins; and Sybill and Gilderoy are Ravenclaws.
Celestina Warbeck
House: Gryffindor
Parents: Wizard father rescued her Muggle mother from a Lethifold.
Outcome: The Warbecks appear to have had a happy marriage. Celestina has a very successful career, but it's in a field where there's little competition from other witches and wizards.
TL;DR: At least one of Celestina's parents probably wasn't British and may have had different attitudes about the muggle/magical divide.
According to her chocolate frog card and the Pottermore timeline, Celestina Warbeck, the "singing sorceress" was born in 1917. We learn from Pottermore that Warbeck "hails from Wales" (though Warbeck not a Welsh surname.)
Her father, a minor functionary in the Muggle Liaison Office, met her Muggle mother (a failed actress) when the latter was attacked by a Lethifold disguised as a stage curtain.
Celestina’s extraordinary voice was apparent from an early age. Disappointed to learn that there was no such thing as a wizarding stage school, Mrs Warbeck reluctantly consented to her daughter’s enrolment at Hogwarts, but subsequently bombarded the school with letters urging the creation of a choir, theatre club and dancing class to showcase her daughter’s talents. [snip]
More controversially, Celestina was vocal in her disagreement when the Ministry of Magic sought to impose restrictions on how the wizarding community was allowed to celebrate Hallowe'en.
JKR writes that she modeled Warbeck's character after the famous Welsh singer Shirley Bassey "in both looks and style."
There's actually quite a bit of information hidden in these details.
First, FB tells us that "the Lethifold is a mericifully rare creature found solely in tropical climates." This means it's fairly likely that Celestina's parents did not meet in Britain, but somewhere much closer to the equator. Please note that, in 1917, several countries in the tropics were still part of the British Empire, and therefore possibly also under the jurisdiction of the British Ministry of Magic.
Second, real-life Shirley Bassey is the daughter of an Englishwoman and a Nigerian merchant seaman. Similarly, Celestina Warbeck is usually depicted as a woman with African ancestry. This, in combination with my first point, strongly suggests that at least one of Celestina's parents is from a former (or current) British colony in either Africa or the British West Indies.
This is important because countries and cultures outside of Western Europe may have (or previously had) very different ideas about the muggle/magical divide and the importance of Secrecy. I imagine the lines to be much blurrier in some societies. There are possible hints of this is Celestina's story. Unlike many muggle parents, Mrs. Warbeck continued to be quite involved in her daughter's education after Celestina started at Hogwarts, and Celestina, herself, sometimes had "controversial" opinions about how the Statute of Secrecy was enforced.
Tom Marvolo Riddle
House: Slytherin
Parents: Impoverished witch Merope Gaunt (supposedly) used a love potion on wealthy Muggle Tom Riddle, Sr.
Outcome: Tom Sr. left Merope before Tom Jr. was even born. Merope died in childbirth. As an adult, Tom Jr. despised Muggles, hid his Muggle ancestry, and (according to Dumbledore) murdered his father and paternal grandparents.
Minerva McGonagall
House: Gryffindor
Parents: Witch Isobel Ross eloped at age 18 with the local Presbyterian minister, Robert McGonagall.
Outcome: The whole Pottermore essay on Minerva is about the challenges of growing up as a literal half-blood and the difficult choices she had to make when she, herself, fell in love with a Muggle man, Dougal McGregor.
Dougal did not know what she, Minerva, truly was, any more than her father had known the truth about Isobel before they had married. Minerva had witnessed at close quarters the kind of marriage she might have if she wed Dougal. It would be the end of all her ambitions; it would mean a wand locked away, and children taught to lie, perhaps even to their own father. [snip]
Mindful of the fact that if she broke the International Statute of Secrecy she would lose the job at the Ministry for which she was giving him up, she could give him no good reason for her change of heart. She left him devastated, and set out for London three days later. [snip]
Though undoubtedly her feelings for the Ministry of Magic were coloured by the fact that she had recently suffered an emotional crisis, Minerva McGonagall did not much enjoy her new home and workplace. Some of her co-workers had an engrained anti-Muggle bias which, given her adoration of her Muggle father, and her continuing love for Dougal McGregor, she deplored. Though a most efficient and gifted employee, and fond of her much older boss, Elphinstone Urquart, Minerva was unhappy in London, and found that she missed Scotland. Finally, after two years at the Ministry, she was offered a prestigious promotion, yet found herself turning it down.[snip]
Known to successive generations of students as ‘Professor McGonagall,’ Minerva - always something of a feminist - announced that she would be keeping her own name upon marriage. Traditionalists sniffed - why was Minerva refusing to accept a pure-blood name, and keeping that of her Muggle father?
I think it fairly likely that the Ross family was once one of the more prominent wizarding families in Britain. The names are clues. In the real world, Clan Ross has a well-established history in the Scottish Highlands dating back to the 13th century, and Minerva (definitely a wizarding name) was named after her great-grandmother, "an immensely talented witch." Isobel knew that her parents "would frown on a connection with the serious young Muggle," and her marriage to Robert left her estranged from her family. I'm speculating that, nevertheless, Minerva's Ross heritage may have helped to make up for her half-blood status. She excelled at both Hogwarts and in her career.
It's a little ironic that Isobel married a Presbyterian minister because, in previous centuries, conservative Presbyterians took the lead in the witch hunts in Scotland, though the Highlands were less affected by this than the Lowlands. How much of the Rosses' anger was due to Robert being a Muggle, and how much was due to him being a Presbyterian minister?
Dolores Umbridge
House: Slytherin
Parents: Wizard janitor Orford Umbridge married Muggle Elizabeth Cracknell.
Outcome: The Umbridges were unhappily married and eventually divorced. Delores pretended that she was a pure-blood.
Dolores Jane Umbridge was the eldest child and only daughter of Orford Umbridge, a wizard, and Ellen Cracknell, a Muggle, who also had a Squib son. Dolores’s parents were unhappily married, and Dolores secretly despised both of them: Orford for his lack of ambition (he had never been promoted, and worked in the Department of Magical Maintenance at the Ministry of Magic), and her mother, Ellen, for her flightiness, untidiness, and Muggle lineage. Both Orford and his daughter blamed Ellen for Dolores’s brother’s lack of magical ability, with the result that when Dolores was fifteen, the family split down the middle, Orford and Dolores remaining together, and Ellen vanishing back into the Muggle world with her son. Dolores never saw her mother or brother again, never spoke of either of them, and henceforth pretended to all she met that she was a pure-blood.
Sybill Trelawney
House: Ravenclaw
Parents: Wizard father, Muggle mother
Outcome: Not much is said directly about Sybill's experiences as a half-blood. However, Sybill's wizarding ancestry was apparently extremely important to her.
(Sybill's) early marriage ended in unforeseen rupture when she refused to adopt the surname ‘Higglebottom’. [snip]
Sybill is the great-great granddaughter of a genuine Seer, Cassandra Trelawney. Cassandra’s gift has been much diluted over ensuing generations, although Sybill has inherited more than she knows. [snip]
Trelawney’ is a very old (Cornish) name, suggestive of Sybill’s over-reliance on her ancestry when seeking to impress.
Severus Snape
House: Slytherin
Parents: Witch Eileen Prince married Muggle Tobias Snape.
Outcome: Discussed extensively in condwiramurs post, "Inconveivable"
Remus Lupin
House: Gryffindor
Parents: Wizard Lyall Lupin rescued Muggle Hope Howell from a Boggart.
Outcome: The Lupins seem to have been happily married. Remus's status as a werewolf affected his life a lot more than the fact that he was a half-blood.
Lyall Lupin was a very clever, rather shy young man who, by the time he was thirty, had become a world-renowned authority on Non-Human Spiritous Apparitions.[snip]
On an investigative trip into a dense Welsh forest in which a particularly vicious Boggart was supposed to be lurking, Lyall ran across his future wife. Hope Howell, a beautiful Muggle girl who worked in an insurance office in Cardiff, had taken an ill-advised walk through what she believed to be innocent woodland. Boggarts and poltergeists may be sensed by Muggles, and Hope, a particularly imaginative and sensitive person, had become convinced that something was watching her from between the dark trees. Eventually, her imagination became so overactive that the Boggart assumed a form: that of a large, evil-looking man, bearing down on her with a snarl and outstretched hands in the gloom. Hearing her scream, young Lyall came sprinting through the trees, causing the apparition to shrink into a field mushroom with one wave of his wand. The terrified Hope thought, in her confusion, that he had driven her would-be attacker away, and his first words to her - ‘it’s all right, it was only a Boggart’ - made no impression on her. Noticing how very beautiful she was, Lyall made the wise decision not to talk about Boggarts any more, but instead agreed that the man had been very big and scary, and that the only sensible thing to do was for him to accompany Hope home to protect her.
The young couple fell in love, and not even Lyall’s shamefaced admission, some months later, that Hope had never really been in danger, dented her enthusiasm for him.
There are several details worth noting here. First, Lyall was already "world-renowned" by the age of 30. Translation: He could probably do whatever he pleased. Second, Hope was very very beautiful. Translation: Her beauty probably helped to make up for her "shortcomings" as a Muggle. Third, Hope was particularly "imaginative and sensitive" and, despite her being a Muggle, a boggart assumed a form in her presence. Translation: Hope could probably pass as a squib with undocumented wizarding ancestry.
Also, is it significant that two of the only happy marriages on this list resulted from a wizard rescuing a hapless Muggle woman from a magical creature?
Gilderoy Lockhart
House: Ravenclaw
Parents: Witch mother, Muggle father
Outcome: Not much is said about the Lockharts' marriage. It may be significant that Gilderoy's expertise was in memory charms. Gilderoy never exactly learned how to fit truly into wizarding society.
Born to a witch mother and a Muggle father, with two older sisters, Gilderoy Lockhart was the only one of his parents’ three children to show magical ability. A clever, good-looking boy, he was his mother’s unashamed favourite, and the realisation that he was also a wizard caused his vanity to blossom like a particularly pernicious weed. [snip]
It was a most unwelcome shock to discover that his name was unknown, his talents were unexceptional and that nobody was particularly impressed by his naturally wavy hair.
Seamus Finnigan
House: Gryffindor
Parents: Witch mother, Muggle father.
Outcome: Seamus says in PS, "Me dad’s a Muggle. Mum didn’t tell him she was a witch ’til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him." His father is never mentioned again, and it appears that Seamus grew up in the wizarding world, which suggests that his father was no longer in the picture.
Dean Thomas
House: Gryffindor
Parents: Wizard father, Muggle mother.
Outcome: Dean's father left the family when Dean was very young. While Dean suspects that his father was a wizard, he hasn't been able to prove it by the time of DH. JKR wrote on her old website:
Nobody has ever discovered the truth: that Dean's father, who had never told his wife what he was because he wanted to protect her, got himself killed by Death Eaters when he refused to join them.
It's interesting that Seamus and Dean are best friends and seem to mostly stick together, though Harry may just be oblivious to their other friendships.