Skip to main content

harry potter - Are there non-squib wizards/witches who work 100% in muggle world?


This Q/A ( Does Hogwarts teach non magical classes? ) made me realize that I can't seem to remember a single HP wizard/witch who had a Muggle job with a Muggle company, aside from Kingsley's bodyguard cover as the Prime Minister's secretary.


Everyone whom I recall being mentioned as having a job is either employed in some magical company or the Ministry of Magic (which seems to employ more magical people than every other employer combined) or be self-employed - again economically interacting with wizards.


Am I merely forgetting someone, or was Kingsley really the only magically capable person with a paycheck from the Muggle world (which doesn't count since the job was a cover)?



UPDATE: Just to clarify - I didn't necessarily mean "working a Muggle job while using magic to help you" - it could also mean simply doing a Muggle job. So there's not necessarily a concern about Statute of Secrecy (plus, you can use the magic, say, to learn - e.g. Hermione could magick herself to learn how to do dentistry in 1 month or something). So no need to answer how having some wizard doing a Muggle job would be contrary to HP universe rules. I merely want to know if there's an example, NOT why there should't be one.



Answer



Isobel McGonagall, mother of Minerva McGonagall


The Pottermore section on Minerva McGonagall talks at length about her mother, Isobel. After she eloped with a muggle, Isobel kept her magical heritage a secret from her husband, lived in isolation from the wizarding world, and voluntarily chose to lock up her wand.



By the time she was eighteen, [Isobel] had fallen in love with Robert. Unfortunately, she had not found the courage to tell him what she was.


The couple eloped, to the fury of both sets of parents. Now estranged from her family, Isobel could not bring herself to mar the bliss of the honeymoon by telling her smitten new husband that she had graduated top of her class in Charms at Hogwarts, nor that she had been Captain of the school Quidditch team. […]


Missing her family, and the magical community she had given up for love, Isobel insisted on naming her newborn daughter after her own grandmother, an immensely talented witch.



While no occupation is mentioned, it seems that Isobel neither used magic, nor associated with anyone who used magic, since she got married. Even after she revealed to her husband that she was a witch, Isobel kept herself isolated from others in the wizarding community (the fact that she was married to a minister probably influenced that). It's clear that by the time Minerva was accepted to Hogwarts (at least 11 years after they were married), Isobel still hadn't rejoined the magical community.




[Minerva] sensed, too, how much of a strain it was for her mother to fit in with the all-Muggle village, and how much she missed the freedom of being with her kind, and of exercising her considerable talents. Minerva never forgot how much her mother cried, when the letter of admittance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry arrived on Minerva’s eleventh birthday; she knew that Isobel was sobbing, not only out of pride, but also out of envy.



So while Isobel McGonagall didn't necessarily work in the muggle world without magic, she did live 100% in the muggle world without any use of magic or connections to the Wizarding World.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...