Magical status[]
It's possible that she could've been a Muggle and still forbade her children from using magic outside of school. She could've been married to a wizard. Or she could've learned about the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery when someone from Hogwarts came to tell her that her child was a Muggle-born wizard/witch. Is there any other information in the game from which we can infer the player character's blood status? ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 13:03, February 1, 2018 (UTC)
According to what I've seen on youtube, the player character mentions that he/she is from a wizarding family. It's not made clear if both sides of the family are magical, though, so she may indeed be a Muggle married to a wizard. Unless she's confirmed to be a witch at another point in the game.--Rodolphus (talk) 14:17, February 1, 2018 (UTC)
- It's possible she was a Muggle, but so unlikely compared to my edit that it's almost not worth considering. If you have one reiligious parent and one non-religious parent, and both of them agree to have their child go to Church until they're old enough to reach their own conclusions, how likely is it that the non-religious parent will be stricter about them going to Church in their childhood than the religious one? Sure, the former might encourage the kid to go to Church for the sake of the other parent, but who would be stricter about it? Obviously the religious one. And if there is a magical and one non-magical parent, who would be stricter about upholding magical law?
- Besides, the the time span between him recieving the letter and him going to buy his school supplies would be so small that if his mother was a Muggle, the topic of flying on a broom would've never come up. And even if it had, the Muggle mother would certainly not be strict about it. The boy would loudly wonder how it would be like to fly a broom, and the Muggle parent would prudently remind them of it being forbidden, and that's that, but it would be the magical parents who actively enforced it. Not the Muggle, but the magical one.
- He could've told of his meeting with a future fellow student, he could have told her that he had been looking on brooms in the store window, but we have no information thus far to suggest he baught one of his own that day, but has it at home. From the moment he gets his letter, the conversation around the dinner table would, in every realistic scenario, automathically turn to his pending attendance at Hogwarts, questions like what house he would be sorted into and what a magical parent's reminiscing of schoolboy days and the different teachers.
- Also, the player's from a wizard family. I think it's more likely that he is a pure-blood with Muggle ancestry somewhere along the line like the Weasleys. Beside the fact that there have never been any half-blood in books, movies, games, trading card or any other canon-based medium who has claimed to hail from a family of wizards if some of the family isn't, as that would be a lie, most students tell about themselves when they meet/befriend each other. Remember book one? Harry listed everybody in his year, or just about everyone, their family lives, etc. I think that if he had had a non-magical parent, it would've been mentioned.
- Also, she did not believe in the Cursed Vaults. A Muggle wouildn't ever have heard of the cursed vaults in the first place, but even for the sake of discussion, let us say a Muggle mother did know of them: Why wouldn't she believe her own child when Jacob told her he thought he had found them? She's a Muggle, she don't have the (if she's a Muggle and her husband a wizard that is) knowledge on the inner workings of the magical world of her husband to start dismissing claims of magical secrets. Any member of the wizarding community would know enough about the magical world would be able to determine whether something that could concivably be created with magic is likely to have been created. Kind of with the Chamber of Secrets. It sounded just like something that could've been created by magic, but until it was opened, no one believed it to be real because it had never been found and finally deemed a myth. A Muggle hearing of the secrets of Hogwarts, from their own child, no less, would be MUCH more likely to be open to the possibility of it being real than a witch or wizard, if the general perception of other wizards were that it didn't. Ninclow (talk) 18:06, February 1, 2018 (UTC)
- According to the final chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, first-years take home notes warning them not to use magic outside school, at the end of the school year. Harry didn't show his to the Dursleys (they only learned it when Harry received the a warning from Ministry), but it stands to reason that, if a decent Muggle parent would know that their child risked breaking the law and expulsion from school if they performed magic outside school, they'd be strict about enforcing it (and the putative Muggle mother would know about it since Jacob had attended, not since the player received the letter from Hogwarts).
- Her dismissal of the existence Cursed Vaults might be more of a belief that her son Jacob actually was going mad (as it seemed to have been believed by most, if Merula is a decent source) than anything. -- Seth Cooper owl post! 18:45, February 1, 2018 (UTC)
Oh yeah... Didn't think about the note and Jacob for a sec... But be that as it may, it also stands to reason that the character you play would not say they came from a magical family if they didn't. And no character in any setting have at any point said, in any shape of form in which the universe of Harry Potter has ever been depicted in, has ever described their family as a wizarding family if they have one Muggle parent. Ninclow (talk) 19:05, February 1, 2018 (UTC)
- It's very subjective now until we find out more information. It's a simple way of saying they were not Muggle-born. We cannot infer every piece of in-depth information about the magic world because the writer will focus on the story - even Rowling says she needed to stop herself from deviating from the actual plot. I don't think we can say anyone with one Muggle parent would never say they were from a wizarding family. Half-blood witches and wizards could say they were from a wizarding family because technically they are - particularly if they grew up knowing the magic world, experiencing it, being part of it, had a brother who went to the school.
- And if she was non-magic, she could (and probably would if she was a good mother) find out the Cursed Vaults either from the other parent (who would have told her and the children everything they needed to know about the magic world) or through their own research if their child started going on about them and obsessing over them. We don't know enough about the topic to actually say for certain what's 100% right. There's an answer for everything right now! :) - Kates39 (talk) 21:01, February 1, 2018 (UTC)
Do we seriously have to start asking ourselves "what if", "maybe" or "for all we know" over every ittle piece of new canon information we get our hands on? As for your assesment, Kate, I agree with your premise, but I reject your conclusion: We, human beings, are subjective. The facts, however, are as objective as they come and plain to see. The player said he came from a wizarding family, and so, until we learn more details later in the game, just assuming they could be this or could be that, or assuming one of their parents were a Muggle is just timewasting silliness. Until we have further information, failing keeping the articles updated "just in case" the character misspoke, unlikely as that is, is just speculative. Dismissing a valid source of canon for the sake of dismissing it, because "maybes" exists does not contribute to the promoting of accurate canon information. If the player-character says they're from a wizarding family, the only canonically accurate conclusion any objective soul can possibly derive from it is that they are from a family of witches and wizards. Ninclow (talk) 21:50, February 1, 2018 (UTC)
- The only thing we know - the character was from a wizarding family and could technically be either half-blood or pure-blood, leaving the blood status of their parents unknown. If the main character's surname was from a well respected wizarding family, they could say that they were from a wizarding family. Not everyone shares their life story like Seamus Finnigan at the 1991 Start of Term Feast! Though I do agree, the chances of either of their parents being non-magic are very, very slim. Yet nothing's "not worth mentioning", and we would not be the best editors if we never wondered "what if" and thought about what we add. - Kates39 (talk) 11:42, February 2, 2018 (UTC)
The only thing we know - the character was from a wizarding family and could technically be either half-blood or pure-blood, leaving the blood status of their parents unknown. If the main character's surname was from a well respected wizarding family, they could say that they were from a wizarding family. What makes you say that the charater's surename isn't from a well-respected wizarding family? Within the narritive of the game, if the player calls itself Hair Spray, then Spray becomes a existing wizarding family within the game. And Jacob's expulsion aside, there is no indication of the family itself being of low status.
- Yet nothing's "not worth mentioning", and we would not be the best editors if we never wondered "what if" and thought about what we add.
Also, you're obviously right. The "not worth mentioning" thing was poor choice of words on my part. Didn't mean to encourage people not to ask question at all, all I meant was just that the played character say they hail from a wizarding family, and while we absolutely can discuss among ourselves, whether or not one or more of the members of said family could be Muggles, we should only do so for the sake of a good discussion for now and not have it be reflected in the article. They says he is from a wizarding family, and to start saying "maybe a parent is Muggle" is, as I see it, speculative boardering on counterproductiveness. We've been given a fact, and for us to start to try and intepret what that might mean instead of taking it for what it is/the way it was presented to us, makes little sense to me. We might learn more later, but until further notice, that's all we have, really. Ninclow (talk) 12:03, February 2, 2018 (UTC)
- "assuming they could be this or could be that, or assuming one of their parents were a Muggle is just timewasting silliness" -- not to burst your bubble, but we're not the ones assuming anything. We're starting with null hypotheses -- the method of inference is to only accept alternative hypotheses as sound once the null is reasonably disproven.
- The term "wizarding family" can very well mean Pure-blood or Half-blood especially in the context it appears (if I recall correctly, the player uses it to distinguish it from Ben Copper's all-Muggle family). Saying "maybe one of the parents is Muggle" is no more speculative than saying "maybe both are wizards" in the absence of more data. -- Seth Cooper owl post! 16:24, February 2, 2018 (UTC)
Well, considering that the character in question hails from a wizarding family, and no family like the one Lockhart, Snape, Umbridge and Lupin comes from has ever been described as such, with any mention of their formative years denoting them being born to a magical and a non-magical parents, (making it effectively a family with witches and wizards as opposed to a family of witches and wizards), whereas pure-blood families, like the Weasleys, who is known to have Muggle ancestry, has, I'm inclined to saying "both are wizards" is far more likely, and thus a somewhat more sound hypothesis, than "one might be a Muggle". Ninclow (talk) 17:18, February 2, 2018 (UTC)
- The family of Lockhart, Umbridge and Lupin were never mentioned in the books and came from Rowling later in either an interview when asked, or an in-depth biography of them. And Snape was mentioned in the context of Harry wondering why Dumbledore trusted Snape and comparing him to Voldemort, for who blood status mattered a great deal. Their not fool-proof examples. The actual view of the half-blood family in society, and whether they were considered a wizarding family, cannot be pinned down. Harry Potter was from the wizarding Potter family and he could if he wanted, say he was from one.
- There's nothing right now which proves, one way or another, a half-blood with one non-magic parent, and one magic parent could not say they were from a wizarding family. The absence of proof should not be proof of absence. While it's more likely both were magic, there's a chance they were not, however slim it may seem to you.