USAmerican 'Wizards' and 'Witches'?

[catlady_de_los_angeles]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C2953
From: catlady_de_los_angeles
Subject: USAmerican 'Wizards' and 'Witches'?
Date: 6/27/00 11:25 pm  (ET)

In the books, a number of wizards express scorn of Muggles and ignorance
of Muggle ways. Ignorance, such as Ron's misadventure with the telephone,
that could only come from living completely separately from Muggles.

Assuming that the scorn and separation are for real (they might be faked,
out of snobbery) and are shared by wizards world-wide, it appears likely
that Native American wizards used their magic to hide and be safe from
the Euro-American conquerors rather than to defend the Muggle Native
Americans against the Euro-American conquerors. It also appears likely
that the wizards of Europe and the British Isles didn't emigrate to
America along with the Muggle colonists and pioneers.

Therefore, the USAmericans would have started with no trained wizards and
no school of wizardry. Occasionally, wizard children are born to Muggle
parents, but there would be no school to teach them to use their magic,
not even an experienced wizard living in the neighborhood to give them
helpful advice. Relying on trial and error, and lacking wizarding tools
such as wands, they wouldn't be able to use their magic very effectively.

Maybe some of the trial and error wizards figured out how to contact
each other and new young wizards, so they can pool their experience and
what they have discovered about what works and what doesn't work. Maybe
some of the trials and their errors caused enough disruption in the local
magic environment that Native American wizards very reluctantly decided
that coming out of hiding to teach the Euro-American wizards some safety
techniques was less bad than being caught up in the disruption they had
created. MAYBE the disruption was big enough to affect the whole world
(Americans like to think that Americans do things in a big way!) so
that the wizards of Europe and the British Isles (and China and India,
if I meant 'whole world') sent representatives to America to educate
the un-trained or semi-trained wizards, which they MIGHT have done by
founding a USAmerican branch of Hogwart's.

I have been given to understand that myriad American soldiers passed
through Britain during WWII. Un-trained or semi-trained wizards would
have been among them. Maybe Dumbledore noticed the presence of these wild
wizards and started a committee to contact them and invite them to take
a course of classes in wizarding (can you imagine a 'Wands for G.I.s'
charity drive?) when they're on leave. Maybe romances blossomed between
American wild wizards and their British teachers, leading to marriages,
emigration, and the founding of USAmerica's first school of wizardry
and witchcraft - probably in the San Fernando Valley or in Levittown!