Hogwarts letters Re: Choosing sides

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 118968


Snow wrote :
" Have we all forgotten that Hogwarts has a specific class in Muggle 
Studies that Hermione got a 320% in? (POA) Hogwarts by offering this 
class does not appear to dismiss the muggle world or what it may have
to offer. Hermione wouldn't have been the only child that took Muggle
 Studies or the class would have been cancelled for lack of interest."

Del replies :
Muggle studies is about studying the Muggles, their world and their
lifestyle. It's not about studying what Muggle children would study in
school (Maths, English and so on).

I believe that this class is NOT intended primarily for Muggleborns,
because it probably doesn't teach much that Muggleborns wouldn't
already know. Hermione got a 320% in it precisely because she already
knew most or all of it ! I think this class is only an offer for
wizard-born kids to get an idea of what the Muggle World is like.

Snow wrote :
" Could Hermione or any child from a muggle background survive in the
 muggle world, I would tend to agree that they could, if they wanted 
to! None of the muggle background children that we have met have been
 discouraged from attending Hogwarts and none have considered going 
home even after the basilisk incident where muggles were the prime 
target."

Del replies :
This is *precisely* the heart of my problem : ALL the Muggleborns we
see are absolutely delighted to live in the WW, and firmly intend to
stay there.

This is statistically and psychologically impossible, unless they had
a VERY compelling reason to all think the same way. So far, the only
reason I've been offered that comes close to being compelling is :
because the WW is so great. Well, it doesn't look so great to me, so
I'm wondering why it seems to look so great to ALL those kids.

My personal idea of that compelling reason is : because things seem
easier there. The kids see adults do things magically, without any
apparent effort, and of course they like that. They just have to sit
at the table, and their dinner appears magically out of nowhere.
People can apparently turn anything into anything else. They can make
things fly, or other cool things.

But as they grow up, the kids realise that things aren't that simple.
All those spells have to be learned. Not everybody can have a
House-Elf. Not everything can be created out of nowhere, or
transformed into something else. They also discover that there's a
dark side to the wonder : people can control or impersonate you,
potions and hexes can do horrible things to you, magical creatures and
people aren't necessarily that cool to work with, some people consider
Muggleborns as second-class citizens, and so on.

But it's almost too late to change their mind by the time they
discover all that. Going back to the Muggle World would imply making
huge efforts to hide their magic, and to catch up on all the training
they didn't get. Considering that apparent easiness is what got them
to enthusiastically jump into the WW, I doubt many of them would even
consider making the efforts necessary to live a Muggle life, even if
they wanted to.

So I stand by what I said before : the Muggleborn kids who go to
Hogwarts don't truly expand their world, they just exchange one world
for another, and there's almost no going back.

Del