Wizard talent in Muggle families

[heiditandy]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C7062
From: heiditandy
Subject: Re: Wizard talent in Muggle families
Reply To: [Yahoo! #7010] Re: Wizard talent in Muggle families
Date: 8/17/00 10:46 am  (ET)

<<When it comes to Muggle parents dealing with a child's attendance at
a school for witches and wizards, could it be that they are put under
some sort of charm, a bit like the 'Obliviate!' spell? ['Obfuscate'
perhaps?]. It would be a long-term charm that would cause them to make
up very plausible 'smoke-screen' explanations for anyone who pried too
much, or trigger off some sort of alarm at MoM in such circumstances,
so that they could apparate someone over to say 'Obliviate!' >>

Well, this is Great Britain, and sending your 11 year old off to boarding
school isn't uncommon - in the average household, they could probably
tell friends & family that Brilliant Son/Daughter is attending a terrific
school which concentrates on his/her talents up north. I can see, though,
that in the Finch-Fletchly social circle, where Justin was expected to
go to Eton, it might be a LOT harder to explain why his parents decided
to send him/her elsewhere - and Hermione's parents may have a hard time
explaining, in a few years, why she's not at Oxford or Cambridge - unless,
of course, we learn that one of those schools (which one did Newton
(who dabbled in alchemy) teach at?) was a Magical College called Merlin.