Blame your genes for lack of poter-lioke abilities

London, Dec 21 (UNI) Blame it on your genes if your spells are lacklustre and you lack the ability to zoom on a broomstick, like Harry Potter.

A study of wizardry, published in the British Medical Journal, based on an analysis of the famous Harry Potter novels, has concluded that there is indeed good evidence that magical abilities are passed down the generations.

Much is made of heredity and whether wizards are pure bloods, half-blood, or plain mudbloods of muggle descent (non-wizards) in the Potter books.

Sreeram Ramagopalan, Dr Marian Knight, Prof George Ebers, and Dr Julian Knight of Oxford University conclude that ''magic shows strong evidence of heritability.'' The Daily Telegraph quoted Dr Knight as saying,''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows provides a lot of valuable information about magical families that strongly suggests a role for genetic factors.

For example, magic exists in at least seven generations of the Black family. We also see twins, like the Weasley twins, with the same magical abilities.'' According to the study, there appear to be three magical skills that are conferred by specific genes.

The study said,''One of these is the capability to speak to snakes (parseltongue), known to be only a feature of those who are direct descendants of Slytherin. Another is to be a seer; Sybill Trelawney, although not perfect, has this ability, and her great-great-grandmother was also extremely gifted in this respect.

Lastly, being a metamorphmagus (the ability to change one's physical appearance) is an ability that Nymphadora Tonks passed on to her son.'' UNI XC SKB GC1118