Unresolved issues in HP and the Philosopher's / Sorcerer's Stone

[Edis]

No: HPFGUIDX 70810

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sueeeyqbong" <sue at s...> wrote:
> Hello everyone. I've started re-reading the Harry Potter series 
3)In chapter 1, there are TONS of mentions of all the wizards and 
witches in the streets around Vernon's place of work, then in 
chapter 2, (p.27) the 11 year old Harry reflects on the peculiar 
srangers who often bow/shake hands then disappear. This implies that 
there is a sizeable magic community in Little Whinging...yet there's 
never any other mention of them, and in OoP, > Sueeeyqbong

Edis notes:

Vernons factory could be some distance away, Surrey being full of 
residential areas zoned apart from industrial areas. I am quite 
certain that Vernon would never live in the kind of neighbourhood 
contaminated by the kind of factory he must run. I mean actually 
making things, noise and smoke maybe and the traffic... So there is 
an escape clause for this part... have to say that I assumed a drive 
to work of at least 45 minutes, knowing the sort of area implied by 
Canon.

However...

The Court hearing in OOtP gives Canon for there not being any Magical 
Community people in whatever zone(s) the Magical Community regards as 
close to the Dursleys. 

Magical Tourism would explain Harry's pre-revelation encounters but 
that does raise a lot of other issues such as security and teh good 
sense of the Magical Community (Ok we have Canon to acertain lack in 
the latter departmet in other fields). We know that when Harry first 
comes to the Leaky Cauldron in PS there is an explosion of delight 
that he is Back at last. Maybe he was plagued by Gawpers in his 
younger years... 

Edis