Who goes to Hogwarts

[Bex]

No: HPFGUIDX 119849


Ffred wrote:
> JKR has said that around a quarter of the Hogwarts students are 
> Muggleborn - given that she's also said that pressure is put on 
> Muggle parents to respond to the Hogwarts letter (they get a 
> _visit_ from someone if they're not inclined to cooperate), then 
> it seems likely that there are very few refusals from this source 
> (those with one wizarding parent might have less need of a magical 
> education than those with two Muggle parents, who'd have a real 
> job making their way in a totally alien world).

Yb, who's been absent for a while:
I'd like to point out one little thing. That *visit* that Muggle-
borns get when they get their letter - it isn't (usually) 
a "convincing" visit like the one the Dursleys got; it's 
an "explanatory visit." Though the parents have noticed their child 
is a bit "different," the idea of /magical/ has probably never 
occured to them. So when they get this letter from out of the blue, 
they'd probably think it was some sort of gag. 

An ambassador would probably have to go along and deliver the letter 
personally so that questions could be answered. The person would 
probably be a professor, and a respected one at that. Hagrid was 
sent to "chat" with the Dursleys because he is a bit more, ahh, 
physically persuasive than a normal sized person, and he 
could "chat" without needing to resort to magic (I doubt Vernon's 
rifle would have done much damage to Hagrid had it actually been 
fired). Harry didn't get this treatment because Petunia knew all 
about the wizarding world, and as such could tell Harry about 
Hogwarts, etc. 

So maybe Professor Sprout, or McGonnagall, or even Dumbledore 
himself would go to these Muggleborns to explain what Hogwarts is 
and other things. Perhaps they provide directions to Diagon Alley. 
Note that no directions were provided to any of these places were 
provided in Harry's letter. We can make a few guesses about this. 
This means that:

a. The letter-writer (presumably McGonnagall, though just because 
she signed it doesn't she wrote it; it read a lot like a form letter)
assumed that Harry knew about these things, and therefore assumed 
Petunia knew how to get to these places, and had told Harry.

b. The letter-writer knew that Hagrid was taking the letter to 
Harry, and as such, would tell him all these things. This means that 
the contents of the letter were altered /specifically/ for Harry, 
and that most letters to Muggleborns include directions, etc.

c. Directions to Diagon Alley and the platform, and other bits of 
information are /never/ distributed in letters. The ambassador is 
expected to tell the Muggleborns about these things. Where Harry 
would fit in this one is not known, since Petunia should probably 
have only limited knowledge of this stuff.

I think (c) is the most likely scenario, just because that's how I 
feel today.

Ffred:
> What we haven't seen (or at least had pointed out to us) at 
> Hogwarts are any wizarding students who are explicitly "wizarding 
> commoners" - children of the WW's eel farmers, innkeepers, bus 
> drivers, and those who are "off-screen" producing all the things 
> that the WW needs.

Yb again:
Ahhh yes, those inconspicuous cogs that keep the world turning 
'round. We've seen people like that: Old Tom from the Leaky 
Cauldron, Fortescue who runs the Ice Cream Shop, and plenty of 
others who run shops in Diagon Alley. And Knockturn Alley, though I 
don't expect some of the characters /there/ reproduce much... :)
And Stan Shunpike, who many folks ask about. Apparently he went to 
Hogwarts. It's the only school in Britian, and Stan doesn't seem 
like the kind of student to go abroad. 

I suppose the closest thing we've seen to WW "commoners" is Luna 
Lovegood, her father being a magazine publisher/owner. I suppose 
several of these commoners are in Slytherin. (Wonder what Pansy 
Parkinson and Crabbe and Goyle's father's do for a living? Thwy 
can't all juggle assets like Mr. Malfoy.) The only reason I say this 
is that the WW is inclined to do business with well-respected, 
properly established shops. A quick way to earn respect would 
probably be to be a pure-blood; you'd have a solid chunk of the 
population on your side, establishing a good comsumer base, and 
easily starting to monopolize the market. Get some of your pure-bred 
buddies spreading your name around, and you'd be in a pretty good 
position.

Yb, ending a kinda twirly swirly post now.