Wizard society/magical ability/Arthur's house/Widow

[rhodhry at yahoo.no]

No: HPFGUIDX 13000

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Steve Vander Ark" <vderark at b...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Jim Ferer" <jferer at y...> wrote:
[snip]
> I don't think it necessarily does. There's a big difference between 
> Hogwarts and the other kinds of "schools" that we'd be describing. 
> What exactly did JKR say? I don't have that written down anywhere.
> 
> > She said in an interview that a magical quill writes down the 
> > names of magical children as they're born. Once a year Professor 
> > McGonagall takes the names of those turning eleven and sends the 
> > letters out.  There doesn't seem to be room for another system. 
> > OTOH, I have a hard time picturing Stan Shunpike as a Hogwarts 
> > student.  
> 
> See, and I can easily take this to mean those who have strong 
> enough magical ability to qualify. I think a lot of the folks in 
> the Wizarding World aren't anywhere near as magically capable and 
> powerful as the students at Hogwarts. They're the regular people, 
> who can do some magic but don't rely on it for more than day to day 
> stuff. I imagine a continuum of inherent magical-ness, where the 
> bottom of the list is the squibs, who rate a zero on the scale, and 
> who still do have some small amount of magic (otherwise they'd be 
> Muggles, not Squibs, and therefore Kwik-Spell does work for them), 
> all the way up to the Dumbledores etc. who rate a ten. Normal folks 
> on the street in Diagon Alley range anywhere in between, with 
> probably more of them at the lower end of the scale. Maybe if you 
> rate, say, a six or higher, your name is registered with the 
> magical quill and then you go to school, meaning Hogwarts. If not, 
> you might have any number of other training options, but not the 
> official school.
[snip]

But where does this leave the muggle-born/-raised students?  The 
continuum would be just as visible with muggleborn children with 
magical ability.  Going to Hogwarts school is very important to the 
muggleborn/raised - it is the only way they have to learn about 
living in the magical society.  The ministry cannot simply leave them 
to their own devices - they would have to send out officials to erase 
memories rather too often.  

There has been no mention in the books of preferential treatment of 
muggleborn/raised, as far as I can see, whcih there would have been 
if all muggleborn/raised children with magical ability were 
automatically shunted into Hogwarts, while those born/raised in a 
magical environment were not.  

Also, to be able to get an apprenticeship with a wand-maker or in 
similar trades, which I seem to perceive you are suggesting, would 
require a deeper level of connections than most muggleborn/raised 
children could hope to have (lest the ministry forced shops and 
businesses to take on so and so many apprentices each year).

Do we know that Stan Shunpike is not a squib?  The books seem to make 
the distinction that either you have magical ability and get to go to 
Hogwarts, or you are a squib (and very rare).  During CoS, Neville 
mentioned that *everyone know i am nearly a squib* (quoted from 
memory, following the attack on Justin, I think).  If there is a 
great scale down to squib of people who cannot get into Hogwarts, 
then he would not have said that.  

Also, separating a large quantity of people with magical ability from 
being able to go to Hogwarts seems to make Hogwarts some sort of 
elitist school, which does not resonate with Dumbledore's attitude to 
things in general.

On an OT note - there seem to be a lot of people trying to break into 
my computer tonight.  My firewall just keeps sounding the alarm.

Best regards
Christian Stubø