My heart broke for Riddle when I read about the asylum. Imagine being a little kid and being able to do stuff that should not be possible. You want to tell people, but they will not believe you or they'll say you're crazy and lock you up, and you feel so abnormal. How can you bond and get close to anyone around you?
Imagine if a wizard family would have adopted Tom and given him a life where his gifts were nurtured, normal and cherished?
Exactly! Granted that little Tommy was a born psychopath - and he probably was - this does not have to mean that he was a born criminal. Had he been given a decent upbringing, he could have been just a somewhat unpleasant, but on-the-surface normal, wizard.
I don't have the background to comment on psychopaths, but I do believe a lot of what Tommy endured was also because he had no effective limits. My then two year sweet tempered niece once bit me because she was frustrated and cranky and had no way to express it. And then I, being an adult was able to put her in time out, and help her learn that biting won't work.
But in this case, the biting worked. The bad things happened and no consequences happened. So he kept doing it.
Yes! This is exactly what I'm getting at, and it's oddly difficult to explain it to people. Children may be naturally good - I believe they are - but they do not naturally recognize limits. They have to be taught. A wizarding child in Tommy's situation could not be taught. The child had all the power, and the adults none. The result would naturally be a disturbed child.
According to Rowling, there are no "Muggleborns". Every Witch or Wizard born to normal parents is a throwback to a magical ancestor.
Remember, you can't escape your place in the natural order of things!
3. I am no expert on magical history - like Harry, I missed any hints of a coherent backstory that might have been in the books. But I do get the impression that, in addition to being prejudiced, magical people might fear ordinary human beings. Perhaps the persecutions shown as laughable in Harry's textbook were actually quite serious?
There's definitely something Bathilda Bagshot's not telling us here. Remember in Fantastic Beasts how the wizarding family got an Order of Merlin First Class not for driving off the dragon attacking the Muggle beach, but for wiping the witnesses' memories of the event? Remember how the textbook Harry's reading at the start of PoA emphasises how silly the Muggles were that they couldn't reliably identify witches and wizards and so burned hundreds of their own kind (oh what larks!)? There's fear at the
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There had to be a fear of witch trials - if not then it makes no sense to enact the Seclusion. I cannot believe the Wizarding World suddenly decided to go into hiding because the muggles suddenly demanded too much magic be done for them. Not after almost 300 years of witch trials
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----The Death Eaters were right. According to Rowling, there are no "Muggleborns". Every Witch or Wizard born to normal parents is a throwback to a magical ancestor. Yes, she really said that!
I believe the truth may be that everyone, both magical and non-magical, has a magical ancestor, in much the same way that probably anyone with European ancestry is descended from British royalty. (See www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/05/the-royal-we/302497/ )
Here's how it might work. Let's say that magical ability is dependent upon two genes, each with two alleles. Gene 1 Alleles: U,u; where U is dominant for magical ability Gene 2 Alleles: W,w; where W is dominant for magical ability There are 16 possible combinations from these two genes. Both U and W are required for magical ability, so a wizard or witch can have the genotypes UUWW, UUWw, UuWW, or UuWw. And a squib or muggle can have the genotypes UUww, Uuww, uuWW, uuWw, and uuww
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Imagine if a wizard family would have adopted Tom and given him a life where his gifts were nurtured, normal and cherished?
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But in this case, the biting worked. The bad things happened and no consequences happened. So he kept doing it.
That's frighteningly bad for development.
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Thank you.
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Remember, you can't escape your place in the natural order of things!
3. I am no expert on magical history - like Harry, I missed any hints of a coherent backstory that might have been in the books. But I do get the impression that, in addition to being prejudiced, magical people might fear ordinary human beings. Perhaps the persecutions shown as laughable in Harry's textbook were actually quite serious?
There's definitely something Bathilda Bagshot's not telling us here. Remember in Fantastic Beasts how the wizarding family got an Order of Merlin First Class not for driving off the dragon attacking the Muggle beach, but for wiping the witnesses' memories of the event? Remember how the textbook Harry's reading at the start of PoA emphasises how silly the Muggles were that they couldn't reliably identify witches and wizards and so burned hundreds of their own kind (oh what larks!)? There's fear at the ( ... )
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I believe the truth may be that everyone, both magical and non-magical, has a magical ancestor, in much the same way that probably anyone with European ancestry is descended from British royalty. (See www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/05/the-royal-we/302497/ )
Here's how it might work. Let's say that magical ability is dependent upon two genes, each with two alleles. Gene 1 Alleles: U,u; where U is dominant for magical ability
Gene 2 Alleles: W,w; where W is dominant for magical ability
There are 16 possible combinations from these two genes. Both U and W are required for magical ability, so a wizard or witch can have the genotypes UUWW, UUWw, UuWW, or UuWw. And a squib or muggle can have the genotypes UUww, Uuww, uuWW, uuWw, and uuww ( ... )
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And attended Durmstrang, notorious for not taking in Muggle-borns.
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