Quote:
Originally Posted by ASUADPi
Was the consensus that Neville was the one who "came into their power late in life" because that just seems odd to me? Neville is only 17 years old, I don't necessarily call that "late in life". Plus, it's not like he hasn't been practicing for 6 years, unfortunately Neville just wasn't very good.
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It's definitely not Neville.
The statement from JKR that someone would do magic late in life is from
an interview in 1999, before Prisoner of Azkaban was published. Here is what she said:
Q. Will there be, or have there been, any "late blooming" students in the school who come into their magic potential as adults, rather than as children? By the way, I loved meeting you, and hearing you speak, when you came to Anderson's in Naperville. I can hardly wait until you tour again.
A. Ahhh! I loved the event at Anderson's. It was one of my favorites. That is completely true. No, is the answer. In my books, magic almost always shows itself in a person before age 11; however, there is a character who does manage in desperate circumstances to do magic quite late in life, but that is very rare in the world I am writing about.
Magic showed itself in Neville before he came to Hogwarts.
The speculation I have heard is that the character she was talking about, if not a character or plot element that was eventually eliminated, was Merope Gaunt. Her father called her a Squib, but after he and her brother were in Azkaban, she created the love potion that made Tom Riddle fall in love with her and got her out of her father's house. She was desperate and she did magic later than the usual 11.
Granted, she wouldn't be called "late in life," except relatively speaking. So maybe it was a plot element that she decided not to use.