Why are *all* Muggles so tolerant of their wizard chi...

[twister10_2000]

No: HPFGUIDX 47381

> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., jazmyn <jazmyn at p...> wrote:
> > I would think that anyone with wizards in their family would 
know 
> they
> > had them and that info passed down. Muggles don't spontaneously 
> produce
> > wizard kids, they had to inherit those magical genes from 
somewhere.
> > Possibly both parents would have to carry the 'recessive' gene 
as 
> well,
> > assuming its a recessive gene as it skips generations sometimes. 
So 
> even
> if one parent was adopted/fostered/orphaned and didn't know 
about 
having
>> wizarding in their bloodlines, its likely the other one might 
know. 
 
 I'm going with Jazmyn on this one, muggles are just non-magic 
folk, they could very well have magical genes in them and relatives 
in the family. While I buy into the recessive theory, there's still 
plenty of things in cannon that contradict it. Take for instance: Tom 
Riddle; he was petrified of the idea of having produced a magical on. 
If he's carrying the genes, then surely some distant relative of his 
is wizarding- no? Then again, that might just be *Why* he was so 
afraid, after all the WW is a very strange and dangerous place 
compared to our own. Like Petunia, he might view this as a freakish,
dangerous thing. Or of course, he might just be shocked to find out 
that such a world exists at all. 
 
What bothers me though is that Ron tells us that if Wizards hadn't 
married and mixed with muggles, they would've died out. If it's a 
recessive trait, then surely we would have some very depressed 
witches and wizards producing completely non-magical families. Did 
the Wizards of old have the forsight to see this as a long term 
benefit? And what was causing the wizarding population to die out? 
We know there have been a great many dark wizards aside from 
Voldemort (Grindenwald in 1945...that's two that we know of in one 
century)...so is this what was causing the population to dwindle? 
If so, marrying muggles could have just been a wizard's way of 
fleeing the situation. The benefits of marrying muggles and spreading 
magical genes across a varied population would have only been seen 
later. 

Perhaps the WW was once something much greater than it currently 
is, and then something  (perhaps, the first major war with dark 
magic) caused it to scatter and break up...I could very easily see 
one to two wizards in a clan of muggles in early history, therefore 
producing the stereotype of the wisemen or the medicinal men & 
women/shamans/etc within muggle culture. 
 
Getting back to Muggle parents' reactions...perhaps muggle parents 
aren't necessarily informed of the dangers of the wizarding world. 
Dark wizards are not something that the wizarding population is 
comfortable talking about amongst themselves, why would they 
reveal such a thing to innocent young wizards and their respective 
muggle families? To let them brood over the situation and decide 
whether or not they want their kid in this? I don't think so, I'm not 
quite sure that the WW can afford to loose so many possible wizards. 
Aside from that, it's not fair to the kid if the parents decide 
against it, it's like taking someone who has an innate ability to 
something and repressing it for their whole life. It might also be 
quite dangerous to anyone around them; we've seen what an innocent 
little Harry can do without knowing, and I suppose there are far 
worse situations then growing back hair quickly and making glass 
vanish. Perhaps stubborn muggle parents are visited with a memory 
charm or two, to sway them or at least have them accept the fact that 
their child is magical and needs tutoring. Sure, it's sounds cruel, 
but it's a much better alternative then having an untrained magical 
child on the loose in the muggle world from the Ministry's 
perspective. 
 
Or perhaps Hogwarts and other schools' letters are only sent to 
Family's with magical children who are most likely going to allow 
the child to accept and attend? Kind of like when a student in the 
U.S. sends in applications for college or university, it's makes more 
sense to just apply to the college's you want to go to and are 
most likely to get accepted into...that concept, but only in reverse. 
It's entirely plausible, considering that Dumbledore alone seems 
quite keen on *knowing* things about people.

~Jess