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Hogwarts Professors Question

How do muggles become wizards or witches?

Example Hermione Granger and Lily Potter, how did they become witches when their parents are muggles?
 RobinSparkles posted over a year ago
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Hogwarts Professors Answers

makintosh said:
Pretty good question 'cause I don't have any idea ...
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Pretty good question 'cause I don't have any idea ...
posted over a year ago 
mbalzar said:
Chances are that magic is a gene just like hair or eye color. One of their ancestors was probably magical, and the gene just happened to present itself in hermione . (
Or whatever muggle born we may be talking about).
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posted over a year ago 
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I agree. The gene explaination also explains squibs.
bri-marie posted over a year ago
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Yes, in fact that is the explanation JK Rowling herself has given at an interview : Katie Mosher: How exactly do muggleborns receive magical ability? J.K. Rowling: Muggleborns will have a witch or wizard somewhere on their family tree, in some cases many, many generations back. The gene re-surfaces in some unexpected places.
nene72 posted over a year ago
nene72 said:
Maybe one of their anscestors was a squib so the magic gene was passed on and at sometime in later generations someone is born with both the magic in them and ability to draw it out?...
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posted over a year ago 
ecpjll said:
not possible....no such thing...
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posted over a year ago 
Ninja-Kitten said:
Gene mutation. Although the correct way to phrase this is "how do witches and wizards with two muggle parents have magical powers when no one else in the family does?

Adult muggles cannot become witches or wizards.
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posted over a year ago 
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It wouldn't be a mutation, it would simply be amother part of the genome. A sex linked trait is the most likely scenario for the passage of magicalabilities in muggle families, because the pedigree allows for women to be carriers of a trait without exhibiting it. Therefor, it could lay dormant for many generations. It also explains why there are more male muggle-borns, (Cloin Creevy, Justin Finch-Flechely, Ted Tonks, Dirk Cresswell, ect) and Half-bloods, (Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnegan). Because males only have one X chromosome to be affected by the gene. Also the trait for magical ability would be recessive. This explains why there are an equal number of squibs (mrs. figg,and Filch) because it only takes one contributung gene of nonmagic to make the person a muggle/ squib. In short, the passage of magic would be similar to the passage of the dissease Hemophelia. And, like in the habsburgh family, intermarying of purebloods make magical abilities more common in their offspring.
mbalzar posted over a year ago
frostydragon said:
There have been many scientific results that indicate that the gifts or what is known as magic is due the brain function. We humans use only a fraction of our brain. In people with gifts areas of the brain that normally have no electrical activity become active during the use of the gift/magic. This activity can be a result of brain trauma or natural abnormality and yes can be handed down through heritage. There are records of people suddenly becoming mediums or having other abilities after accidents to the head or a emotional traumatic experience.
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posted over a year ago 
dragonsmemory said:
Ahem…"pure" Muggles have no trace of magic in their families at all. Witches and wizards like Lily and Hermione have been found to have some trace ofmagic somewhere on the family tree. As long as someone in the family has magic, it is very likely the person in question has magic as well.
Usually, young witches and wizards can't control their magic, making it easier to find them in a crowd of Muggles. Their magic is tied to their emotions. Remember Harry? When Petunia cut his hair so short he was almost bald, he managed to grow it back overnight. Why? He dreaded going to school the next day and hearing the other kids laugh at him.
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posted over a year ago 
Rowan38 said:
Maybe the parents sex was "magical"
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posted over a year ago 
violetsea81102 said:
I know why. Cause magic found them and became them, something like that. Me and my friend thinks that. She is a muggle and she can move things like a inch forwards.
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posted over a year ago 
Ms-Granger said:
There must of been a Squib (someone born without magical powers in a magical family). In her family the magical gene got past down from generation to generation not showing in those people of her family in this case Grangers family aren't magic but Hermione is magic or got her magic from that magic gene. That gene was introduced into the family from the squib and a muggle had there offspring and was carried down .It showed up in Granger.
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posted over a year ago 
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