[HPforGrownups] healing wizards

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 55706

Fandulin wrote:
> illnesses as well.  I wonder if there are spells that have the
> ability to cure or reverse the effects of cancer or alzheimers
> though.  I'd always thought that even though wizards don't have very

It's quite possible. Though given the existence of St Mungo's, it's certain
that magic can't cure everything, at least yet - doubtless the hospital has
a research programme, given that the various branches of magic do seem to
develop over the years.

> close dealings with the muggle world, there must have been members of
> magical society that have considered using their versatile powers to
> do good in the world at large.  For instance, sneaking into muggle
> hospitals with an invisibility cloak on and healing broken bones, or
> other minor, "wand-wavable" injuries.  Or if there are indeed magical
> means of treating more serious diseases, doing so.  We know through
> Hermione that there are definately activist, do-gooder types in the
> wizarding world.  It wouldn't have stop at medicine either.  Think of
> the things that a clandestine group of stealthy wizards could do,
> roaming the world stopping senseless conflicts by making them forget
> why they're fighting, fixing irrigation problems, providing food and
> such.  I'm not suggesting that wizards could save the muggle world
> from itself by any means, but a lot of good could certainly be done.
> Perhaps the Ministry has a "non-interference with the muggle world"
> clause.  Ah well, just musing.....

I strongly suspect that the Ministry would take a very dim view indeed of
this sort of activity, no matter how virtuous. The one over arching
principle that the MoM lives by is "no contact with muggledom" and think
about the _huge_ amount of ministerial resource that goes into enforcing
that. I don't think that the MoM would differentiate between a group of
altruistic healing wizards and Voldemort's abusers - both of them threaten
the secrecy of the WW.

Perhaps in a way, the healers would be a bigger threat to the WW if their
existence was discovered. Because what began as a favour would then be
demanded as routine, and refusal would threaten to end in a pogrom against
wizardry, the same threat that caused the WW to go underground in the first
place.

And don't forget that if the muggle world found out about wizardly powers,
they might well start demanding not just intervention for healing and peace,
but on the opposite side. Wizards of mass destruction, anyone?

Cheers

Ffred

O Benryn wleth hyd Luch Reon
Cymru yn unfryd gerhyd Wrion
Gwret dy Cymry yghymeiri