Impact of Inbreeding

"Can we get back to the matter at hand?" Dumbledore requested. "As I was saying, all Mr. Potter did was cause Miss Granger severe emotional distress probably equal to what she caused him when she destroyed the photo album containing the only pictures he had of his parents."

"It was far greater surely Albus!" McGonagall protested. "The punishment didn't fit the crime simply for picking up a book off a table."

"But ultimately, I don't think that's what he was punishing her for. I think that was just the trigger. I think he was punishing her for destroying his photo album." Dumbledore countered. "She knew how much those pictures meant to him and she also knew how much it would hurt him to see those pictures destroyed by someone he thought of as his friend. By the same token, Mr. Potter knows how much Miss Granger loves to read and knew how much it would hurt her to not be able to do that."

McGonagall conceded that he was probably right. "I still think his final punishment far outweighed any crime she may have committed. He was Miss Granger's first friend here and I know how much she wanted to make up with him and get that friendship back."

"And that is why he has to stay in the Gryffindor dorms." Dumbledore told her. "He needs to work through his anger at his fellow students and the Wizarding world as a whole and he can't do that if we allow him to hide from us. It is important that young Harry remain in the wizarding world. He is too important to lose."

"You keep saying that Albus, but compared with the future witches and wizard of our world, why is he so important? If this keeps up it is possible that we may lose these students to other schools, if they don't decide to give up their education completely." She pointed out. "Tell me why he is so important."

Dumbledore sighed and met her gaze, the twinkle for once gone from his eyes. "Part of what I am about to tell you is confidential, known only to those in the Department of Mysteries and a few senior members of the Wizengamot. Did you know that the number of new wizards and witches being born is slowly declining and that the Wizarding world is basically stagnant?"

"What are you talking about?" McGonagall knew what the word meant, but didn't see how it related to the current topic under discussion. "I know that because of the deaths caused by the last two Dark Lords that the population of the wizarding world as a whole might be down, but I had no idea the birth rate was going down."

"Inbreeding among wizards and witches has caused the birth rate of magically able children to go down." Albus told her simply. "There are more squibs being born every day."

"Surely the infusion of muggle-borns and half-bloods is able to counter that." McGonagall seemed surprised that things might be as bad as he had indicated.

"It isn't something that is obvious to the naked eye yet," Dumbledore began to explain, "but as head of the Wizengamot among other things, I can get a look at the birth statistics and I did about 40 years ago, when I started noticing, a decrease in the number of witches and wizards attending Hogwarts. I also checked with the Headmasters and headmistresses of other European schools and they were also showing small but steadily declining numbers, more than could be accounted for by the actions of Grindelwald and his followers or even now Voldemort and his followers. Even though the pure bloods will not admit it, muggle-borns and those with a mixed magical heritage far outnumber them and it is among the pure bloods that the decline is the most obvious and the children are some of the weakest magically."

After a few moments pause he continued, "Also except for a few new potions such as the Wolfsbane potion, there have been no magical advances of any kind in the last fifty years or so. It has also been noted that with each generation while our first years start out fairly powerful with the first year spells, but as they progress through their years of school, their power seems to level out by their third year and even at the point where they would normally go through their magical maturity around fifteen or sixteen, their power level doesn't increase all that much. This seems to be the case even for muggle-borns. This trend has been studied for the last twenty years, using records going back over the last one hundred years. There is some speculation among a few members of the Department of Mysteries along with several other departments that more of our kind should be capable of wandless magic given the power levels recorded for them when they start their first year of school. It has also been noted that among the pure-blood families that refuse to even consider marrying muggle-borns or half bloods that the number of Squibs is rising steadily due to inbreeding."

"Do they have any idea what is causing this?" McGonagall was caught up in what she was hearing. She had quickly realized the implications behind the fact that each generation of witches and wizards seemed to be a little weaker than the last.

"Several factors," Dumbledore told her. "Did you know that most muggle-borns, unless they have married into wizarding families or are very clearly powerful, leave the wizarding world within a few years of graduating from Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, or Durmstrang."

"Why would they want to do that?" McGonagall hadn't been aware of this.

"Discrimination." Dumbledore told her simply. "About a hundred years ago, the Purebloods of the time realizing that the muggle-borns were growing in number and would quickly outnumber them put legislation in place limiting what occupations a muggle-born could do, because they were afraid of losing their power. They managed to lock them out of most positions of power in the Ministry, so they couldn't do anything to make changes."

Dumbledore told her. "Some of those who have left the wizarding community here have immigrated to America or Australia where there is very little distinction between muggle-borns and pure-bloods, so they can exercise their full potential. Others have just returned to the muggle world and for those who can not afford it the wizarding world is forced to pay for their re-education to the ways of the muggle world so they can find a job there."

"And nothing has been done to try and reverse these laws?" McGonagall couldn't believe the wizarding community could be so short-sighted.

....

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