Where the Malfoys Live (WAS:Re: Owl to Arabella?)

[annemehr <annemehr@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50499

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve <bboy_mn at y...>" 
<bboy_mn at y...> wrote:
 
> Also, more of a side note, I believe that Diagon Alley is a city
> within a city. It has high, middle, and low class housing areas, it
> has semi-industial/warehouse areas, and of course, the high street
> downtown area. I think Malfoy's house is in the rich section of
> Magical London, in what I call the Magic City of which Diagon Alley 
is
> only one part. I can't picture Malfoy living near muggles.
> 

You have mentioned this before, as I recall, and my thoughts on it 
have finally crystallized in my mind to where I can reply (but if I 
make any mistakes about RL fact, any Brits reading this should correct 
me!)  There are two points to make.

1) The Malfoys are said to live in a Manor (see the Borgin & Burkes 
episode in CoS, where Lucius expects the items he is selling to be 
picked up at his manor).  If I am not mistaken, a manor is a large 
house on a large tract of land owned by a member of the gentry (or 
nobility or upper class) in Britain (or, this is the way things used 
to be, under the class system).  It would be the seat, out in the 
country somewhere, of a landed gentleman and his family, with (am I 
right?) a village nearby.  Like the Riddle House with Little 
Hangleton.  I can certainly see the Malfoys living like this -- there 
is privacy, and anyway it's a nice place for Draco to ride his broom. 

2) But the upper class, besides having homes on their ancestral lands, 
also had houses in London, for the purposes of socializing, which was 
also very important to them.  This is how they made their connections, 
how their sons and daughters met suitable marriage partners, and may 
even have often been more comfortable than those draughty old houses 
in the country.  I can certainly see that the upper class wizards 
(however many there may be) having nice houses in the fashionable 
section of the Diagon Alley community.

So, to conclude, I think the Malfoys for the most part probably do 
live in that manor in the country.  I also think it quite likely they 
have a place in London which Lucius finds quite convenient for when he 
has business there with the Ministry or on some board of governors or 
other of which he is a member.

Annemehr
apologizing in advance if I've mangled any RL facts too badly...