wizard/muggle relations: The Dark Side

[corinthum <kkearney@students.miami.edu>]

No: HPFGUIDX 48666

Chris said, regarding the potential harm of Memory Charms

>Sorry to contridict you, but Crouch Jnr specifically says that 
>Beatha's mind was damaged by his farther's curse.

And I reply:

Yes, but that was a particularly strong charm.  Crouch needed to make 
sure Bertha forgot that one of the most dangerous criminals of the 
time was alive and being hidden by a powerful MoM official.  Most 
memory charms seem to be used to make a Muggle forget a single event, 
say, seeing a random person on a broomstick fly over his or her 
house.  This wouldn't be too difficult, since the event isn't 
connected to any other thoughts of said Muggle.  Just change "I just 
saw a person flying on a broomstick over my house" to "What a 
beutiful sky today".  No problem, probably no long-term effects.  But 
change, "Oh my God!  Dangerous criminal!  Might be helping He Who 
Must Not Be Named!  And the Ministry of Magic is in on this!  I must 
warn everyone!" to "My, what an uneventful day" and things start to 
get a bit unstable.  

-Corinth