Jogwarts admission (was: Harry & Hermione Siblings?

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 53424

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Kathryn Cawte" wrote:

<< we don't know much about how magical children are 'found' for 
Hogwarts. I think it's possible that until they get the names and 
send off the letters they don't know which muggleborns are going to 
turn out to have magical potential. >>

JKR said in an interview that at Hogwarts there is a magic quill. 
Whenever a magic child is born in Britain, it writes his/her name in 
a book. Once a year, McGonagall checks the book to address Hogwarts 
letters to all the children who will turn 11 'that year'. If JKR had 
specified 'by September 1' that would have settled all that argument 
about whether Hermione is older or younger than Harry. 

I am much troubled by the idea that that quill writes down the 
child's name at birth. Yes, birth is a strongly magical time 
(therefore natal horoscopes), but some children were born in a 
different country than where they're living by the time they turn 11. 
If wizarding folk had a child outside Britain even tho' they lived 
in Britain, they would know about Hogwarts and know to appeal to 
Dumbledore for a Hogwarts letter for their child. But Muggles who 
immigrated to Britain bringing their Muggle-born magic child with 
them wouldn't know about Hogwarts. I would be happier if the magic 
quill skipped birth and the book and just addressed the Hogwarts 
letters when they were about to be sent.

There also is the question of how Neville's grandmother and 
great-uncles could have feared he wasn't magic enough to go to 
Hogwarts: why couldn't they just ask McGonagall to peek ahead in 
the magic quill's book and see if Neville was in it? 

(this is a separate post because I just couldn't squeese it into the 
title of my combined post.)