I'm the sort of awkward teenager that both loves and despises the Harry Potter series. I love the depth and the world and the complex systems and some of the characters (that's actually a lie) and the mythology and story. I hate the decisions that the characters make, the characters in general, and some of the rigid ideas that shouldn't be so rigid.
Like the idea of Purebloods versus Half-Bloods versus Muggleborns, Squibs, and Muggles.
Spoilers are a given.
For the record, both Harry and Voldemort/Tom Riddle Jr. are Half-Bloods. Voldemort/Riddle through his Pureblood almost-Squib mother Merope Gaunt and his Muggle father Tom Riddle Sr. Harry is one through his Muggleborn witch mother Lily Potter neé Evans and his Pureblood father, James Potter.
I'd hope you already know that.
What's interesting is that Riddle - because I hate writing Voldemort every time I'm talking about him - is a Half-Blood for being the descendant of the ruined line of Gaunt/Slytherin, living in poverty, bad inbreeding, shame, and disgust by what few wizards or witches remember them. Merope Gaunt herself is almost a Squib, and believed to be one by her father and brother. Yet, she's still considered a Pureblood, despite not being a "worthy" one, because she loved and had a child with a Muggle, Tom Riddle Senior.
Riddle Junior is a Half-Blood, the son of a ruined witch's ruined family and of a rich Muggle who hated him.
Harry Potter on the other hand, is the son of a well-liked fairly powerful Muggleborn witch and the (presumed) heir to the respected Potter family.
I don't know about anyone else, but that sounds rather unequal.
So what gives?
Actually, the whole magical inheritance thing is an interesting topic.
Magic would be genetic, since magic him/her/itself doesn't choose who can use him/her/it (or else the morally decrepit probably wouldn't have magic). This is obvious considering that there are magical families rather than scattered magicians.
Muggleborns are very likely descended from Squibs who were cast off from their mostly-Pureblood families for a lack of magic. While Squibs aren't magic, they would carry the gene for it, assuming that magic is recessive. The whole understanding for this concept is that magic would be recessive since Muggles outnumber those with magic. Think for a moment, Hogwarts is the ONLY magical school in all of Britain - Harry never got other invitations to other schools, and others are never mentioned, if they exist- and the graduating class is about 50 students, maybe 60 in Harry's second year, since people would be, um celebrating after Voldemort's fall. And that's being liberal.
Anyways, that's a tiny number for populous country/commonwealth/whatever like Britain, and the number of Muggles that would be graduating in a year...I don't know, take a guess. It's likely gigantic.
So magic is recessive, like blue eyes or blonde hair or double-jointedness or heterochromia.
The chances are fairly likely that someone - Squib or a descendant of one who carried the gene, like Hermione's parents, if this is all true - will meet and have children with another who has the gene and thus have a magic child to a non-magic parent.
For the record, I'm a Slytherin, and I've taken the Sorting Test three times - only once on Pottermore, so don't get cranky, the others were just copied over from PM onto the internet. Once I tied at 88% between Slytherin and Ravenclaw. My reasoning for some of the answers were complicated.
Anyways.
If magic is recessive, then every witch or wizard is just as magically pure as any other witch or wizard, which makes blood purity entirely redundant.
Well, not completely, due to inbreeding that undoubtedly happened by Purebloods to remain Purebloods, having children with like second cousins or something. coughcoughSirius'sparentscoughcough.
But doesn't that make Purebloods less pure than the Half-Bloods and Muggleborns they belittle? Perhaps that's why Harry and Hermione are so powerful, despite not having cast a single spell once in the first 11 years of their lives, while Draco Malfoy likely knew how to cast a Levitation by the time he was 6.
Seriously, if you were raising a magical kid, you'd be hard pressed NOT to teach them magic, if you were magical yourself.
But anyways...BUM BUM BUUUUMMMM. I have officially blown your mind. See that stain over there? That's your brain.
Riddle, Harry, Snape, Nymphadora Tonks are all Half-Bloods, yet are either feared, possess a very rare family skill (Metamorphmagi are genetically Blacks), or can scare away a horde of Dementors by the time they're thirteen under immense pressure and without too much practice, and by being a terrible student.
Because Harry is a terrible student.>
Dumbledore and Bellatrix are about the only two Purebloods that we know are intimidating magically. While Alastor Moody, McGonagall, or Shacklebolt are also all good magically, do we know for certain their blood status? Even if they are all three Purebloods, they just might not have the issue with inbreeding or perhaps they do, and we just can't tell because, remember, we don't see them perform super amazing acts of magic.
Hermione Granger is a very strong witch, not only in knowing things that those magically-raised don't know - remember the Basilisk? - but also in casting them. Levitation Charms are the obvious example. Lily Potter was praised for her skill in Charms, but what about her Pureblood husband?
Just some food for thought.
But I'd like to point out, finally, that because most Muggleborns are descended from Pureblood Squibs, they themselves could be heir to an otherwise heirless family line. Or, even better, could reasonably be related to Draco himself. The irony here should be illegal. It probably is.
This is Shiizumi Valé, otherwise known as WillowEye10329 on Pottermore, or just Shiizumi on many various webpages. Go, be sarcastic, and fly free! Spaaaaaaaccceee!
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