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harry potter - Can Muggles give birth to a magic sensitive child similar to a Squib?


In Harry Potter, Squibs are generally known as people who cannot perform magic, and all the examples from the books appear to be descended from wizards.


In reality, we see various levels of magical control exhibited by Squibs -- they can see magically hidden things (such as ghosts, the true appearance of Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, and magically hidden creatures), use magical items, develop magical relationships with magic beasts (such as kneazle-cat hybrids), etc.


Moreover, there are many Muggles who claim abilities (such as seeing ghosts) which require magical sensitivity as well. While Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them claims that these people are either lying or Squibs, it's also purposefully written with an unreliable narrator.



The Muggle-born wizards we see, however, are all of standard wizarding capability.


Can Muggles give birth to a magic sensitive (but incapable of casting spells) child, equivalent to a Squib (since the term 'Squib' itself only applies to the children of wizards); a dud wizard?


Squib



Answer



Using the Wayback Machine - I found this site / info which is attributed to J.K. Rowling herself and would cement the 'No' answer:



I have been asked all sorts of questions about Squibs since I first introduced the concept in ‘Chamber of Secrets’. A Squib is almost the opposite of a Muggle-born wizard: he or she is a non-magical person born to at least one magical parent. Squibs are rare; magic is a dominant and resilient gene.



http://web.archive.org/web/20110713111531/http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/extrastuff_view.cfm?id=19


Additionally - in more current form:



Pottermore* seems to have the answer land on 'No' as well - however, depending on your interpretation of things (as well as the canonical level of the site) - you may find some conflicting info on the same page.


The Squibs Fact File defines Squibs as:



Humans with little or no magical talent born into wizarding families, who are looked down on by the wizarding world



(emphasis mine) - so, the very clear "born into wizarding families" seems to indicate the identifier "squib" belongs exclusively to offspring of wizarding families.


However, it goes on to say:



MAGIC ABILITIES


Able to access the wizarding world, unlike Muggles, and can use certain magical objects and creatures




If Muggles can produce non-muggles, then purely logically, they should technically be able to produce non-muggles with limited wizarding capabilities which would fit a practical definition of 'Squib'. We have seen that some wizards have more innate skills than others and this would seem to indicate there is a 'curve' of some sort in terms of skill but again, logic aside, the term Squib seems to be reserved for wizard families, not low skill Muggle-borns



*Is Pottermore canon?


https://www.pottermore.com/about/us



Pottermore, the digital publishing, e-commerce, entertainment and news company from J.K. Rowling, is the global digital publisher of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World.



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