[HPforGrownups] Wizard Orphanages (WAS Hagrid's Personality)

[shane dunphy]

No: HPFGUIDX 47858




Sherry wrote:
>Shane wrote (after his wonderful treatise of Hagrid) > There's also > the 
>possibility that there are some wizarding orphanages.


Me now:
Thanks for the nice comment Sherry.  I'm glad you liked the Hagrid post.

Sherry again:
>Certainly the VoldeWars would have necessitated some kind of orphan-care 
>arrangement if there had been none before, although that would have been 
>after Hagrid's time. But something else occurred to me in reading this. Why 
>would Tom Riddle have been sent back to the *Muggle* orphanage if Hogwarts 
>were closed?

Me:
This occurred to me too, and I've re-read the relevant passages in CoS and 
GoF which deal with Tom Riddle's and Hagrid's situations and in GoF we also 
hear of the Neville situation, another example which, in the MW, would be 
dealt with by social workers if there was no family to step in.  In none of 
these cases is there any mention of a wizarding social services or of any 
formalised response to child-care or child protection needs.  If we look at 
the case of Harry himself, (I know that there is an extraneous reason for 
Harry's situation, the magical protection provided by his family etc) there 
is never even a discussion of keeping him in the WW or having him fostered 
by a wizard family.  Dumbledore must have known that he was sending Harry 
into years of emotional and often physical neglect, not to mention the 
psychological abuse, but it seemed that that was the only option.  Now, some 
thoughts have occurred to me in relation to this stuff:

(1)  Child neglect, child abuse (sexual, physical, emotional, and 
psychological) psychiatric illness and physical illness are universal.  In 
the MW they cross class divides and are present in every country.  I refuse 
to accept that the WW has in some way stamped them out and is not troubled 
by these very real problems.  If we accept this, we must accept that the WW 
at least has a *need* for some form of social services, including some form 
of residential child care services.

(2)  I have, however, noticed that, despite the very obvious presence in the 
canon of abuse issues, the *attitude* towards it seems to be very different 
to ours.  The treatment of Harry by the Death-Eaters, and subsequently by 
Dumbldore et al, at the end of GoF is a classic example: a child, after 
witnessing the brutal murder of a friend, is tortured and almost killed for 
the gratification of a group of adults (again, I know that there were larger 
reasons in terms of the magical plot, but that aside, it still constitutes 
child abuse).  Harry, after his escape has a few nice chats with Dumbledore, 
is given the wizard equivalent of a sleeping pill,  has a bit of a cuddle 
with Mrs Weasley and then is sent on his way back to a summer of (at best) 
neglect with the Dursleys!  Is any counselling sought out for him?  No!  
This strikes me as incredibly cold and callous.  I know that there is the 
whole  magic protection thing going on at Dursleys, but couldn't Dumbledore 
have sent a message stating that Harry had been unavoidably detained at 
Hogwarts, and arrange some form of more in-depth therapy?  Do wizards have a 
different undertanding of the effects of trauma?

(3)  Sherry wrote:
>But then, maybe I've just answered Shane's question: there are no Wizarding 
>orphanages, or Tom Riddle would have been sent to one over summers;
Maybe this *is* the case.  Maybe all social care issues in the WW are dealt 
with within the community.  Maybe that was why Dumbledore was so interested 
in taking Hagrid in after his expulsion.  Maybe there just wasn't a support 
infra-structure there to deal with his placement.  With no family there to 
take him in, he would have been left to fend for himself, and, as I've 
already discussed, Hagrid would have ended up in a lot of trouble if left to 
his own devices!  This could also explain Tom Riddle's being sent back to a 
Muggle orphanage, Harry's being dealt with by Muggle relatives, Neville 
being raised by extended family etc.  Child care issues seem, within the WW, 
to be responded to familially.  This may simply be the cultural heritage 
within the WW.  Social services as we know them are perhaps perceived as 
being largely ineffective by the WW (and god knows, there *is* a strong 
argument that this is an accurate perception) and that family is the best 
response.  Where there is no family, benevolent adults like Dumbledore step 
in to help out.  In Tom Riddle's case, we can assume that Dippet, the 
Headmaster during Riddle's time at Hogwarts was less benevolent than 
Dumbledore, and also that Dumbledore, who seemed to see something unsavoury 
in Riddle, was not inclined to step in and help him because of his instincts 
that something wasn't right.

Well , that's it for now.
Take it easy,
Shane.


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