Skip to main content

harry potter - Why are some muggles allowed to know of the magical world?


Throughout the series, there are many muggles which we see that know about the wizarding world, and no effort seems to be made to stop them. All of them seem to fit into the mold of family of wizards, but let me just make a list of the ones we know about.



  1. The Dursleys.


  2. Hermione's parents

  3. Lily/Petunia's family seemed to know a bunch as well.

  4. The British Prime Minister.


I'm sure there are others, but this seems to be a fair start. Why are they allowed to know, and what measures prevent such people from telling other people, letting the cat out of the bag?



Answer



This is a slightly different variation on Tango's answer:



Why do some Muggles know?




There are two categories:




  • Relatives of witches/wizards.


    This is for practical reason (easier when they know); as well as ethical (the wizards with muggle families probably don't WANT to hide from the family, and would likely object to magical means of screwing with families' heads).




  • Government liaison (E.g. Prime Minister of the UK)


    This is:





    1. to ensure that there is no major issues in case of some contact




    2. to assist wizarding world when needed (e.g. search for Sirius Black).




    3. Presumably, so that PM can stop any law enforcement/intelligence agencies from looking in the "magic" direction if they start.








Why isn't that a Big Deal considering the efforts to hide wizarding word from Muggles?



Three reasons:




  1. The relatives are unlikely to say anything if they are explained that "outing" wizarding world will have bad consequences for EVERY wizard, their wizarding family members included.





  2. Who's gonna believe those who say anything? Remember Fudge's chat with PM:



    Cornelius Fudge: "The Minister of Magic only reveals him--or herself to the Muggle Prime Minister of the day. We find it the best way to maintain secrecy."


    Prime Minister: ""But then, why hasn't a former Prime Minister warned me?"


    Cornelius Fudge: "My dear Prime Minister, are you ever going to tell anybody?"



    I mean, you start trying to tell the truth like that; at best you would be thought of as a wackjob and some know-it-all from http://skeptics.stackexchange.com gets a bunch of up-votes showing just why you're nuts; at worst you get put into the psychiatric institution.





  3. Plus, there are magical ways of dealing with exceptions to the first two. (memory charms etc...). Could even be some sort of magically binding "don't tell" oath similar to Unbreakable Vow as preventive measure.


    P.S. Dursleys are a bit different - they don't fit into #1; but they don't even need #3 as they actively pretend magical world doesn't exist all on their own.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...
1 comment
Read more

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...
Post a Comment
Read more

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...
Post a Comment
Read more