Were the Creevey Brothers Muggle-Borns?

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

We have discussed before how Rowling seems to have "forgotten" in her later books that she originally intended for Colin Creevey to be a Muggle-born student. For one, it seems somewhat improbable that Colin and Dennis both turned out to be wizards if both of their parents were Muggles. For two, the fact that Professor McGonagall had to "chivvy" at least one Creevey out of the castle in chapter 31 of DH suggests that, despite the prohibition against Muggle-borns, the brothers were able to attend Hogwarts while Tom was in power... though it's possible that Colin, like Dean, was present for the final battle only because he had responded to Neville's alert on the DA coins.

However, it occurs to me that Colin's blood status was actually a bit ambiguous from the beginning.

What he told Harry in chapter 6 of COS is this:

I never knew all the odd stuff I could do was magic till I got the letter from Hogwarts. My dad’s a milkman, he couldn’t believe it either. So I’m taking loads of pictures to send home to him.

What Colin did not include in his introduction is any information about his mother. Thus, despite Colin's ignorance of magic, it's entirely possible that his mother was, in fact, a witch (or maybe a squb). If so, she would not have been the first witch to have hidden her magical abilities from her Muggle husband for as long as possible, nor do we know if she was even still in the picture by the time Colin received his invitation to Hogwarts.

Yes, Colin was petrified by the basilisk in COS, but that does not prove that he was a Muggle-born. It's possible, for instance, that he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Furthermore, as far as we know, the only way to properly identify a Muggle-born is by investigating his or her family tree, and Diary!Tom could only know what Ginny knew or believed about the current student body.

Comments

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

IWell, if Mrs. Creevey were a Squib who'd been rejected by her family, having children who had the ability for whose lack she'd been rejected might be very painful, no? And her sons, once at Hogwarts, wee being trained to look down on Squibs. She might not choose to mention her own background to them. And if her birth family had abandoned her to the Muggle world and lost track of her completely, her parents and siblings might not realize they'd grandsons/nephews at Hogwarts. The name Creevey certainly would convey nothing to them. The only way someone might guess is if there were a stong family resemblence and someone at Hogwarts to notice it and make the connection.

But her decision not to let her children know her own background and family ("I was orphaned at eight and sent to foster care") would change when the Muggle-born Registration Commission came along.

At that point of course she'd step forward and say, "I, the mother of these two supposed Muggle-borns, am actually the Squib daughter of A and B, Purebloods for three generations. You can see the scorch mark on the family tree right next to the name of my elder brother Corvus."