Dad had trouble just looking at Harry's trunk directly. Magic ran in families, and Michael Verres-Evans couldn't even walk.
Why would Harry's dad have significantly more trouble than his mum with looking at the trunk? Does Petunia register as a squib to the Muggle-repelling charms? Is it easier to think about magic if you were exposed to it earlier in life? The narration seems to imply that the blood hypothesis is true, but this later turned out to be false.
Does Petunia register as a squib to the Muggle-repelling charms?
Good question. I said above that, by canon standards, Petunia would not be considered a Squib. So any spells that refer to the Wizarding community's standards of what is a Muggle would treat her as a Muggle.
But she's probably (2:1 odds) heterozygous, so any spells that look at the genes should treat her as a Squib. The spells may work on the genes without the Wizards who developed that spell actually realising that this is the mechanism; that's the interesting part.
...The narration seems
ETA: There is now a third thread, so send new comments there.
Since the first thread has exceeded 500 comments, it seems time for a new one, with Eliezer's just-posted Chapter 33 & 34 to kick things off.
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