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Charm ☼ 009 [text]
So Harry's gone home and James is in one of those strange, prolonged sleeps. I've even brewed a potion meant to wake someone from a magic-induced sleep, but. I suppose whatever causes it is beyond my abilities. A Happy Christmas to me.
But I suppose that's just one of the hazards of living in this place, isn't it? Soldiering on. And, of course, it's not as if I'm alone. I've adopted a sort of second family of sorts here, too. A family that doesn't really understand what I'm talking about when I talk about family.
So! I thought it would be helpful if I put up a little sort of...Informative Post on Human Family Structures for those of you with different backgrounds. Below you will find a handy little chart. A family tree. My family tree. I think I'm just going to post it, and then try to explain it all in a way that makes sense.
All right. Now we'll break it down. This might seem incredibly obvious, but blue indicates a male and pink is female.
We start at the top with my parents. Mr. and Mrs. Evans. The thick line that connects them indicates that they're married; he is her husband and she is his wife. (Mr. and Mrs. are "mister" and "mistress" although Mrs. is pronounced "missus". An unmarried woman would be Miss. My mum and dad do have proper names, of course, although I have never called them by them). Mr. Evans is my father. My male parent. I call him Dad. Mrs. Evans is my mother. My female parent. I call her Mum.
All right, so this becomes necessary: a quick and painless human reproduction lesson. One male and one female are required to produce a child. The male deposits his genetic material into the female (Merlin, that's got to be the most sterile and least romantic way to put that), where it combines with the female's genetic material. The child grows within its mother for nine months before she gives birth. If the child is male he is their son. If she is female, their daughter. A human child will typically live with his or her parents until the age of about eighteen. Traditionally, the mother is the primary caretaker of the child, particularly when he or she is an infant (the first three months of life). The father serves as protector and provider.
A couple will usually have more than one child. Children who share the same parents are called siblings. A male sibling is a brother, a female sibling a sister. Petunia Evans Dursley is my sister. Siblings are one's closest genetic relatives and the relationships between siblings are the ones that affect a person the most in their lives. You grow up alongside them, competing with them, helping them along. My sister and I don't get along. I could go into that, if anyone is interested, but that's not the point of this post.
My sister and I will both marry and will each have one child. I marry James, of course, and my sister marries a bloke called Vernon Dursley. The most terrible sort of muggle, really. But anyway. A note on last names! When a woman marries, she nearly always takes her husband's last name. So when James and I get married I'll go from being Miss Lily Evans to Mrs. Lily Evans Potter. Petunia will take her husband's last name as well. Children also take the surname of their father, so our son's full name is Harry James Potter.
All right, so now we've got parents, children, and siblings worked out. Now it gets a little more complicated as we look at the relationships between the other members on the family tree that aren't directly connected by lines.
Take Harry and my mum and dad. Each row of people horizontally is a different generation, and for that separation of two generations you add a "grand" onto the relationship name. So my father is Harry's grandfather, my mum his grandmother. And he is their grandson. James' parents are also his grandparents. If you took it another generation further, so say Harry has a son, you would start adding "great"s to the names. My grandson would be my parents' great-grandson, they his great-grandparents. For each generation separated after that you'd add another "great". Another interesting note...with each generation you have twice as many grandparents. Because each parent has two parents of their own, you have four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, sixteen great-great-grandparents, and so on. With a human lifespan, one usually only meets their grandparents.
Then there's also the relationship between a child and his or her parents' siblings. A parent's brother is an uncle, sister an aunt. Petunia is Harry's aunt, and her husband is his uncle. I'm also their son Dudley's aunt, and James is his uncle.
And just one more! The relationship between siblings' children. So on the chart, the relationship between Harry and Dudley. They're cousins. Same name for both males and females.
I'm sure that not everything has been explained here, but I hope that this at least gives all you trolls a better idea of how this all works. If you have any questions about the relationships and what they imply or...anything. Just ask! I am an open book.
But I suppose that's just one of the hazards of living in this place, isn't it? Soldiering on. And, of course, it's not as if I'm alone. I've adopted a sort of second family of sorts here, too. A family that doesn't really understand what I'm talking about when I talk about family.
So! I thought it would be helpful if I put up a little sort of...Informative Post on Human Family Structures for those of you with different backgrounds. Below you will find a handy little chart. A family tree. My family tree. I think I'm just going to post it, and then try to explain it all in a way that makes sense.
All right. Now we'll break it down. This might seem incredibly obvious, but blue indicates a male and pink is female.
We start at the top with my parents. Mr. and Mrs. Evans. The thick line that connects them indicates that they're married; he is her husband and she is his wife. (Mr. and Mrs. are "mister" and "mistress" although Mrs. is pronounced "missus". An unmarried woman would be Miss. My mum and dad do have proper names, of course, although I have never called them by them). Mr. Evans is my father. My male parent. I call him Dad. Mrs. Evans is my mother. My female parent. I call her Mum.
All right, so this becomes necessary: a quick and painless human reproduction lesson. One male and one female are required to produce a child. The male deposits his genetic material into the female (Merlin, that's got to be the most sterile and least romantic way to put that), where it combines with the female's genetic material. The child grows within its mother for nine months before she gives birth. If the child is male he is their son. If she is female, their daughter. A human child will typically live with his or her parents until the age of about eighteen. Traditionally, the mother is the primary caretaker of the child, particularly when he or she is an infant (the first three months of life). The father serves as protector and provider.
A couple will usually have more than one child. Children who share the same parents are called siblings. A male sibling is a brother, a female sibling a sister. Petunia Evans Dursley is my sister. Siblings are one's closest genetic relatives and the relationships between siblings are the ones that affect a person the most in their lives. You grow up alongside them, competing with them, helping them along. My sister and I don't get along. I could go into that, if anyone is interested, but that's not the point of this post.
My sister and I will both marry and will each have one child. I marry James, of course, and my sister marries a bloke called Vernon Dursley. The most terrible sort of muggle, really. But anyway. A note on last names! When a woman marries, she nearly always takes her husband's last name. So when James and I get married I'll go from being Miss Lily Evans to Mrs. Lily Evans Potter. Petunia will take her husband's last name as well. Children also take the surname of their father, so our son's full name is Harry James Potter.
All right, so now we've got parents, children, and siblings worked out. Now it gets a little more complicated as we look at the relationships between the other members on the family tree that aren't directly connected by lines.
Take Harry and my mum and dad. Each row of people horizontally is a different generation, and for that separation of two generations you add a "grand" onto the relationship name. So my father is Harry's grandfather, my mum his grandmother. And he is their grandson. James' parents are also his grandparents. If you took it another generation further, so say Harry has a son, you would start adding "great"s to the names. My grandson would be my parents' great-grandson, they his great-grandparents. For each generation separated after that you'd add another "great". Another interesting note...with each generation you have twice as many grandparents. Because each parent has two parents of their own, you have four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, sixteen great-great-grandparents, and so on. With a human lifespan, one usually only meets their grandparents.
Then there's also the relationship between a child and his or her parents' siblings. A parent's brother is an uncle, sister an aunt. Petunia is Harry's aunt, and her husband is his uncle. I'm also their son Dudley's aunt, and James is his uncle.
And just one more! The relationship between siblings' children. So on the chart, the relationship between Harry and Dudley. They're cousins. Same name for both males and females.
I'm sure that not everything has been explained here, but I hope that this at least gives all you trolls a better idea of how this all works. If you have any questions about the relationships and what they imply or...anything. Just ask! I am an open book.
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