The Magic Quill, Hogwarts' Admission and Squibs

[aldrea279]

No: HPFGUIDX 41343

The Catlady wrote:
> I am worried how such a system could deal with Muggle-born magic 
> children who emigrated with their parents to UK after birth but 
> before age 11.

Elkins replied:
>>Hmmm. Well, it's a Magical Quill, isn't it? It has a mystic ability 
to detect magical children. So I'm willing to accept that it might 
also be able to just *know* which magical children would be living in 
Britain at the age of eleven and which would not.>>

I always picture the Magic Quill as having this radar thing going 
on.  It's looking out for new magic, I guess you could say. Looking 
for the presence of a magical youngster.  As soon as the Magical 
Moment occurs, as soon as the young wizard shows some of that "scared 
or angry" magic, they are "born" as a wizard.  That's my theory, 
anyways.  And as soon as that happens, *that* is when they enter the 
WW and become a wizard.  Or atleast granted the chance to become a 
wizard.  Anyways, that's when they show up as a blip on the Quill's 
radar screen. Everytime it detects a new blip, the Quill consults The 
List, and writes down the name. So if one enters the country after 
they've already been "born", then they can still get put down.  Then 
McGonagall comes along and consults the list once a year to see who 
is going to be eleven. So, that would lead me to guess that the 
Magical Quill writes down their age, also, and that that magically 
gets kept up to date.  


Elkins:
>>This touches on the question of why families are not notified the 
instant that their child's name goes down in that book, to save them 
the apprehension over their child's eventual future. My gut feeling 
about this is that the stewards of the Quill deliberately eschew such 
a policy on the very grounds of that thorny predestination/free will 
question. >>

Really? Hmm...well, the way I see it, they aren't notified because it 
would be just a tad unfair.  And the unfairness between Muggle-borns 
and bred Wizards is already bad enough.  A child could get notified 
at say 5 years old that they're going to Hogwarts. Then they have 6 
years to prepare themselves.  Or, one could move into the country say 
a month before the Hogwarts term starts, and that's when they get 
notified.  They only have a month to prepare.  A bit of a 
disadvantage, I'd say.  


Elkins:
>>Had Neville's family already *known* that he was "magical 
enough" to go to Hogwarts, for example, would they have spent so much 
time trying to badger some magic out of him? And if they hadn't done 
so, then *would* he have qualified for Hogwarts?>>

Well, once they had him bouncing, they seemed pretty sure he was a 
wizard.  I do recall reading that his family was afraid he wasn't 
magical *enough*, so maybe it takes a bit to become a blip on the 
Quill's radar.  Or maybe, there's a cut. And if you aren't magical 
enough to make the cut, you don't get no letter.  But I don't like 
that idea as much.  I think Neville's family was just trying to make 
sure the Neville Blip stood out nice and bright to that Magical Quill.


Elkins:
>>Well, if they could tell from the beginning that a child was a 
Squib, 
then I think that many families probably *would* leave it on a 
mountainside to die, or (if we were talking about the Malfoys) 
possibly even use it in some nasty Dark ritual. At the very least, I 
suspect that many of those "Fine Old Wizarding Families" would put a 
non-magical child up for Muggle adoption -- and then try to hide the 
evidence that the child had ever even existed.>>

What about disowning?  Maybe this can give us an insight into the 
wonderfully mean-spirited and bitter caretaker, Mr. Argus Flich...his 
parents could have quite possibly disowned him when they found out he 
was a Squib.  And so he hates all those students because their 
parents aren't hating them, and hey! look, they're doing magic, too. 
Well, there's two reasons to hate them right there... =P


~Aldrea (I do realize this is a bit late...but I forgot about this 
post.  I saved the address on my computer, so I could get back to 
it.  And hey, I've gotten back to it.)