[HPforGrownups] "yard" / Muggle money / "Ottery"

[Barb P]

No: HPFGUIDX 42950


--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "hp_lexicon" <hp_lexicon at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., eloiseherisson at a... wrote:
> 
> I have always assumed that the Muggles could see the Burrow. Would 
> the word "yard" really be used for a village square? That doesn't 
> seem right at all, but maybe that's my American way of thinking of 
> things coming through. 
> 
> There are a number of things to support this. As someone mentioned, 
> the Weasleys themselves are obviously visible from the village from 
> the Burrow since they have to be careful where they fly on 
> broomsticks. Also, Molly wouldn't have used the phrase "I don't 
> think he knows where it is" in reference to the postman if she knew 
> he couldn't see the place at all. On top of that, they take the 
> trouble to de-gnome the garden. In an interview, JKR said that one 
> of the problems with gnomes is that their holes are a dead giveaway 
> to Muggles that Wizards live there. I know they could be de-gnoming 
> on to save the plants or on general principals, but frankly, I 
> don't see them being all that particular about some lumpy patches 
> in the ground, judging by the boots lying around. 

I think JKR was being facetious when she said that.  After all, Muggles aren't supposed to know about wizards, so they can hardly be aware of what the warning signs of a wizard neighbor are. <g>  I think the road that the Burrow is on is probably not used much by anyone (probably a dirt road) and the Burrow obviously doesn't have a house number.  While other houses that go by names and not numbers are able to receive Muggle post, that is probably only because the post office has been informed of how to find those houses.  There has been no need in the past for the post office to know how to find the Burrow, so if the Ottery St. Catchpole post office (Harry would need to look up the correct post code for this to begin with) received mail addressed to "The Burrow," they wouldn't know what to do with it.

> > > And who paid for all this? 
> 
> I think the Ministry actually has quite a stash of Muggle money 
> around and it was this that the Weasleys tapped into. I've 
> travelled quite a bit and every time I'm in a foreign country I 
> find it tricky to keep a sense of how much the money is worth. I'm 
> sure Molly doesn't think of British pounds as money, really, so 
> paying what we would consider to be a vast sum for a taxi ride with 
> cash that is otherwise basically worthless to her would not be such 
> a big deal. 

Oh, I sincerely doubt this.  We have no evidence that Molly is as clueless about pounds as Arthur.  I would, in fact, expect her to be far more knowledgeable than him, in fact, as she may have had occasion to go into the village to buy things from time to time (if she couldn't conjure it or buy it in Diagon Alley).  

> I'm sure Arthur, as he hurried around getting ready to head for 
> Moody's house, had someone at the Ministry "apparate" a five or six 
> hundred pounds to the kitchen table for her to use.

This is extremely unlikely, IMNSHO.  Gringotts is run by goblins, not the Ministry.  (You have to wonder if this was some settlement from one of the goblin rebellions.)  There is no doubt an exchange rate. (I would expect goblins to be very nasty about this, too.)  Hermione's parents, for instance, bring pounds to Gringotts to exchange for wizarding money so that they can shop for Hermione's school supplies.  There is absolutely nothing in the books that gives the impression that the Ministry would just give away hundreds of pounds.  Five hundred pounds would equal about one-hundred Galleons.  They would need to BUY the pounds at Gringotts, using wizarding money, plus paying an exchange rate, very likely.  If the Ministry didn't think anything of giving money away, they'd be paying Arthur Weasley more than they are.
 
> There is the possibility that Molly simply conjured it up, and that 
> it vanished a couple of hours later, but that's blatant thievery 
> and it doesn't seem like something Molly would do.

Yes, more and more unlikely.  Which is why the Ministry probably wouldn't do it either.  And if they didn't do it this way, they'd have to get it from Gringotts.  (See above.)

I think that when Molly made a shopping trip to Diagon Alley, she simply stopped in the bank to exchange some wizarding money for Muggle money.  There's no reason to turn this into a big mystery.  Yes, Arthur stares at the "bits of paper" during GoF, wondering how anyone could think they're money.  But he doesn't just toss a fifty-pound note at Roberts and tell him to keep the change, does he?  It's still money, and he does know that, as much as his basic instincts fight against it.

--Barb

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