[Sca-cooks] Nicholas Flamel

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 08:21 AM 8/25/2004, you wrote:

>Thinking like an onomastics herald for a moment:  the name "Potter" sounds 
>like a rather earthly vocational surname.  So is there a Muggle 
>g'g'g'grandfather back there?  Or is that a rather baroque reference to an 
>ancient incident involving a pot in a magical situation, such as 
>containing a dangerous djinn inside a ceramic amphora during the 
>Crusades?  I just made that up, by the way.
>
>Selene

  ISTR that Joanne said she chose the name Potter because it was so 
completely ordinary- which fed her 'ordinary boy with extraordinary traits' 
theme. She knew a family named Potter, and they were, well, ordinary...

I'm not sure about muggle ancestry in the Potter line- I got the idea that 
James was pureblood. Lily of course was a muggle-born.

Something that has stuck in the back of my head though- is it just me or do 
muggle-born and half-blood wizards seem to have somewhat irregular powers? 
Lily was the 'most talented witch of her age'. Hermione clearly is very 
powerful as well as clever. Seamus has erratic, uncontrolled magic. Justin, 
Dean, and the Creevy boys acquit themselves well in DA. Harry is clearly 
very powerful, as is Voldemort- both half-bloods. And who do de know who 
can conjure with a broken wand hidden in an old pink umbrella?

I'm wondering if just a little of the pureblood prejudice against 
muggle-borns and half-bloods is because their powers don't fit the 
traditional boundaries? Are they a threat to status quo on several 
different levels?

Just thinkin...

'Lainie
-in full work avoidance mode- laundry and floor-mopping await...
___________________________________________________________________________
The penalty good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be 
governed by men worse than themselves. -- Plato