Contacting parents

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 55976

 
> *waves hand* I disagree. :)  I think there's a vast difference 
between
> notifying parents of Petrified students and the whole 
Scabbers/Pettigrew
> debate.  The former involves an official action as the Headmaster 
of the school, the latter only a personal action based on his 
knowledge of extra-curricular events, so to speak.  He has the DUTY 
as Headmaster to
> notify parents under certain instances, and I think a child being
> Petrified -- whether or not there's a cure available -- is 
definitely one
> of them!  (Would Dumbledore just HOPE Colin's parents don't notice 
that
> their child doesn't write them from *November* on, doesn't come 
home for
> Christmas, etc?  Please.)  
> 

This is an excellent point. Colin's parents were Muggles and he was a 
first-year. They get this letter from an owl, have to go through a 
magic entrance in the back of a tavern to buy his school supplies 
with money converted at a bank run by freaking GOBLINS!, watch their 
kid walk through a wall to catch his train, get letters from more 
owls and then within two months, they stop hearing from him?

Oh yeah, they would have noticed.

Now, what did Dumbledore tell them? Remember, the truth is preferable 
to lies, generally.

Does he tell them 'Your child has been petrified by a monster. He 
will be fine by the end of the year, while we wait for these plants 
to develop acne so we can smash them and use them for the potion 
cure" or does he say Colin is fine and has been too busy to write or 
does he even forge a letter saying "Mum and Dad, I'm fine. Going to 
stay here with my new mates over Christmas. Don't worry."

If it's the former, I would hope he or McGonagall made a home visit 
to the Creevey's to break it to them. Regardless, the Creevey's got 
over the scare or didn't notice the lack of contact from Colin, 
because Dennis started attending later. 

This brings up another tangent, one that was never quite resolved 
when I on this board last year.

Do Muggles just get owls notifying them of their children's 
abilities? And if so, do they just automatically send their kid to a 
wizarding school on the strength of that letter? 

Or does McGonagall or another professor (presumably not Snape) make a 
home visit? Hagrid only seemed to go to Harry before first year 
because the Dursleys were trying to hide from the letters.

Presumably, Hermione, Justin, and Colin would have displayed some 
kind of magical talent before the letter arrived, leading the 
Grangers, Ms. Finch and Mr. Fletchley and the Creeveys to wonder what 
was up with their kid (or kids, in the case of Colin's parents.)

And, can a set of Muggle parents or guardians refuse to send their 
child to Hogwarts, like Vernon wanted to do? 

Maybe they aren't as nasty about it as Vernon, but they just don't 
accept magic, want their children to go to a proper English school 
(like Eton) or one of any of 10 reasons not to want their child to go 
to Hogwarts.

What happens then?

Darrin
-- Ms. Finch and Mr. Fletchley would be a great name for a band