Hello again.

[noahismyidol.livejournal.com]

Another Harry Potter question! I've been thinking about this for a while. Doesn't it seem impossible that the wizarding world is that well hidden?


Think about it, JK Rowling said that there were about 1000 students at Hogwarts. You figure two parents for every child, plus both parent's side of the family would know. (Unless of course, you're a Dursley and refuse to tell anyone, which wouldn't matter anyway, because he has like one family member.) Now, I know 1000 + family and whatnot doesn't seem a whole lot for a world so big, but Hogwarts is only for the United Kingdom it seems. In book four, we meet the Beauxbaton school, which is obviously from France. They have to have at least 1000 students also. And there's also Durmstrang(I'm not quite sure where they're from), and we know that they have a lot of students also. Plus, all these kids have familys too. So think about, that's only 3 schools within a fairly close proximity of each other, and they have that many kids. Think about how many other wizarding schools there must be.

There's very many adults in the wizarding world also, as told in SS, when Vernon sees a ton of people wearing strange cloaks and celebrating.

Now, also, most of the families nowadays are half-blood wizards, meaning at least one parent was a muggle. What are the chances that they wouldn't tell their own family that they married a witch or wizard. It just doesn't seem plausible to me that the whole world wouldn't know by now, or have at least some idea of a world of which they counter-live with.



One other thing is, how did Hermione find Diagon Ally and such? Both her parents were muggles, and the letter they receive when they turn 11 only tells them what they need to buy and such, how did she know where to go?

Excuse any poor grammar, it's 5:30am and I can't sleep.

jerrica . ravenclaw

Comments

[boley.livejournal.com]

My only answer to this...being it 8 am....is that its a book. Its make believe. And therefore, muggles dont know about witches/wizards. :-) Im sorry, maybe someone else will come up with something better..hehehe

[-just-kat.livejournal.com]

I think that all the muggle-born students get instructions on how to get on the Platform and with Diagon Alley and such. Dumbledore sent Hagrid to Harry so he probably never got a letter with it, though he should have, at least with instructions on how to get on the Platform.

And I'm pretty sure if a muggle were marrying a witch/wizard the latter would tell them their identity.

[queenweasley.livejournal.com]

Ditto!

[bloodied-aura.livejournal.com]

I generally assume that muggles that know about the wizarding world one way or another are asked to keep it secret. If, say, there were a muggle-magical marriage, the pair and their immediate families - ie. muggles parents, siblings, nephews & nieces could know, if they too kept it secret. And since the MoM seems pretty good with the whole memory charm thing, leaks would be fairly non existant, and the ones that got through wouldn't exactly be taken seriously even with anything but incredibly substantial proof, when you think about how skeptical people today are. And in history, 'muggles' did believe in witches/wizards, so no cover-up was necessary on a large scale.

I agree with most people on how Hermione knew where Diagon Alley was - I'd assume there's a big automatic enveloping and mailing system, and muggle borns are given maps and instructions. Harry didn't recieve one due to being magical-born...

And that is my two cents

[tangerinesidhe.livejournal.com]

JKR has answered the Hermione question. Students from Muggle families who get accepted have a liason wizard deliver the letter and explain the situation to the family. The wizard would also explain important things like how to find Diagon Alley and Platform 9 3/4.

As for the keeping the wizarding world hidden... I don't know. I'm just guessing that you have to keep it secret. Remember how Voldie's mum didn't tell his dad that she was a wizard? And from what I can remember Dean Thomas and his family doesn't know that his birth father was a wizard.

[jupluna.livejournal.com]

The 1000+ students from the many schools are also not all from Muggle parents. A majority of them are Pure blood or at least half blood...

[shakiracrazy.livejournal.com]

All those students aren't all muggle-born. There are quite a few from wizarding families too, remember? Also, I bet the parents of hte students can't tell anyone about Hogwarts, etc. Violation of the Secrecy Law in the MoM. So yeah, Oblivate is very handy ;)

I bet Hermione, being a Muggle-born, recieved instructions. You don't give Wizards enough credit ;)

[ebeda.livejournal.com]

As far as how the magic world stays hidden, honestly, think about the way most people think. Anything that can't be easily explained is dismissed as a misinterpretation, a misconception, a group hallucination, whatever the case might be. No-one will ever see what they don't believe (or don't want to believe) exists. The ones that do claim to believe in far-fetched ideas are labelled crazies, paranoid, or drug abusers. I'd say the Muggles do a fine enough job of hiding it on their own.

[livesinthewalls.livejournal.com]

Sadly, we must face the pathetic truth. Wizards Don't Exist. *sigh* It broke my heart too, when I found out. We'll allow Mme. Rowling her creative license, for now.

[semirose.livejournal.com]

I've been playing with this issue in a fic of mine cause it really bugs me because I don't think they can stya completely hidden. Afterall, muggleborn students are registered in muggle schools and the government has records for them, eventually someone will notice the there are children just disappearing every now and then and the parents not worrying. Anyways, in my fic I have a department of each country's government devoted to muggle-wizard relations, just as you would have with any foriegn country. This department deals with covering up where the child went and with keeping the wizarding world secret. Now, I just made this for my fic, but it could possibly worked into a plausible idea.