Animagi/Muggle parents who oppose their children going to Hogwarts/Dialects

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston) <catlady@wicca.net>]

No: HPFGUIDX 49694

Torsten wrote:

<< We always talk about being able to chose or not, but doesn't this 
only apply - if at all - to wizards who decide to become animagi? I 
had the impression McGonagall didn't choose to undergo the 
transformation at some point in her life but rather was born as an 
animagus. Some are parselmouths, others seers, still others animagi. 
>>

There is no canon showing that anyone ever was born an Animagus, 
while there IS canon showing that some people (James, Sirius, and 
Peter) learned to be Animagi. While it is possible that some people 
are born Animagi, until JKR says so, it is simpler to assume that 
that Animagery is a learned skill for ALL Animagi, not just some. It 
seemed to me that McGonagall had learned Animagery by studying; she 
is a learned person, the Transfiguration teacher, and she seems a 
studious type.

Dan Tobias wrote:

<< This seems to indicate that some deference was given to the rights 
of the legal guardian of a child. >>

It's my own feeling that the wizarding world doesn't know from de 
jure guardians, only de facto guardians. Dumbledore didn't need a 
court order or a document from James and Lily to become Harry's 
guardian, he only needed to fetch Harry from the wreckage and not be 
challenged by anyone else. Perhaps a court would have gotten involved 
if someone had challenged him.

So if a wizarding court sometimes does get involved in child custody 
cases, surely they would think it was child abuse to try to prevent a 
little witch or wizard from getting a proper magical education, and 
therefore it might terminate the parental rights of those abusive 
Muggle parents and appoint a new guardian for the child. If they 
didn't use to bother to Memory Charm the parents after taking away 
the child, that would be one more reason for traditional Muggle 
hostility toward wizards.

Steve bboy_mn wrote:

<< Harry and Ron don't describe anything and everthing they see as 
being either 'cool' or 'wicked'. >>

No, as "brilliant".

For example, Book 1, when the Twins learn that Harry is the new 
Seeker: "I tell you, we're going to win that Quidditch cup for sure 
this year," said Fred. "We haven't won since Charlie left, but this 
year's team is going to be BRILLIANT. You must be good, Harry, Wood 
was almost skipping when he told us." [Emphasis added] 

Ginger wrote:

<< This would explain why modern English would have crept in, but on 
the whole, and amongst themselves, you would think they would have 
kept the old language or developed it in different ways. >>

Steve bboy_mn wrote:

<< Remember that many wizard live among the muggles, however, I think 
they, like the Weasleys, are able to stay isolate because they don't 
have to leave their house to travel. That is, they don't have to 
venture out into the muggle world. They either Floo or Apparate. So 
while they are able to look out the window and see the muggle world 
around them, they prefer to keep to themselves and stick with the old 
traditional ways. >>

Irene wrote:

<< The point is - Harry and Ron speak the same, despite their very 
different upbringing. Ron only has wizarding books and wizarding 
radio and yet his vocabulary and speech patterns are the same as 
Harry's. >>

It seems to me that there are many Muggle-born witches and wizards in 
each generation, and they intermarry freely with the wizard-born 
wizards and witches, a much higher percentage of the wizarding 
population than Yanks married to Brits are of the Muggle population, 
thus spreading their contemporary-Muggle accents to their wizarding 
children, and causing the meeting of Muggle in-laws with wizarding 
in-laws at family events, thus facilitating those wizard-Muggle 
marriages we hear so much about, and more importation of Muggle 
dialect into the wizarding world, a constant contact between wizards 
and Muggles. It seems plausible to me that WWN English is *very* 
similar to BBC English. 

What I do find implausible is that the wizarding folk would have the 
same *regional* accents as the Muggles among whom they live. Stan 
Shunpike is supposed to have some kind of Cockney accent, Hagrid to 
have some kind of West Country accent, and someone I forget has a bit 
of a Scots burr. How did they get those accents? Not by interacting 
with the neighbors, since, as Steve pointed out, they don't interact 
with the neighbors. I find it implausible that the wizarding folk 
would have *regional* accents *at all*, as they all shop in the same 
place (Diagon Alley) and go to school at the same place (Hogwarts) 
and are not isolated from each other, because (as Steve said) they 
have Floo powder and Apparation. Thus, all British wizards are one 
region.
 
I don't have trouble believing that proud old upper-class families 
like the Malfoys (and presumably the Rookwoods and Crouches) 
carefully maintain an upper-class accent.  I do have trouble 
believing that their upper-class accent is the same as Queen 
Elizabeth's. Since it is the proud old families that keep most 
separate from Muggles and Muggle-borns, their special accent should 
be the one that is least influenced by Muggle dialect. I don't know 
whether it would sound kind of Irish or Appalachian, resembling the 
English of Shakespeare's time, or if it would resemble some horrible 
gutteral German-like Anglo-Saxon, or resemble Latin, or resemble 
whatever language the Picts spoke before they joined the Scots... 
Justin Finch-Fletchley's accent doesn't say "upper-class" to the 
Malfoy ear, it shouts "Muggle!".