Choosing sides

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 118734


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "delwynmarch" 
<delwynmarch at y...> wrote:

> Del:
> I commented on this a few weeks ago. 
> Many people seem to assume that Muggle-borns are necessarily happy 
> to discover that they are wizards and witches, and that they all 
> choose to go to Hogwarts. But the fact is : we don't know how many
> Muggleborns who receive the letter actually come to Hogwarts. Most 
> of all, we don't know *why* they decide to come to Hogwarts. And we 
> don't know why their parents let them come.

We are told, fairly early on, that lots of odd things have happened 
to young Harry--his hair fixing itself, some seeming teleportation, 
etc.  Not too much of a stretch to assume that strange magical things 
happen with other kids.  Combine that with parents who actually 
observe what is going on with their offspring instead of carrying out 
a regimen of neglect and the fact that a teacher comes to talk to 
them about Hogwarts (per interview--I forget where, though), and you 
have a more powerful rationale for letting the kids go off.  It's 
obvious that they can do things the normal kids can't, things that 
are, well, magical: that may play a large role in letting them go, 
the realization that your child is talented and will only learn how 
to use it at one place.

...with the possible added bonus that things could get hairy if you 
don't.  Wouldn't shock me if at least some Muggleborns' magic 
manifested itself in messy and costly ways on things like the family 
china. :)

I doubt either parents or students really fully understand all of the 
costs, but then again, we also don't know how disbarred from the 
normal Muggle world the Muggleborn who has finished school really and 
truly is.  We lack the information to judge that question, so I won't 
speculate.  Neither world is either a utopia or a true dystopia, 
though.

-Nora gets back to her own personal dystopia of working