The Age Thing

[susanadcunha]

No: HPFGUIDX 111870


Inge wrote:
"Also, in the muggleworld people are registered from birth, so it 
must seem very strange that some muggles (I guess other muggles would
still consider muggleborns to be muggles ... uh.... normal people -
as they don't know about the WW) live to be 120-130 - or more?"
-----------

Hi, Ingue.
I don't think that's a very difficult question to answer.
I'll use 
Hermione as an example as you did:
Imagine she has uncles, cousins and some (two or three) close 
friends she kept from childhood (age 10). By the time she leaves 
Hogwarts she has barely kept in touch with them (in her case, she 
has barely seen her parents though I'm sure she wrights). Her 
parents have probably told everyone she's at a special school for 
the gifted witch I'm sure raised no suspicions among family and 
friends. Furthermore, no one will find odd if she's recruited for 
research work by a very hush-hush company sited no-one-knows-where 
that does no-one-knows-what-but-I'm-sure-is-very-important.

But we really don't need to go that far. About 90% of my friends
and 
family have never seen the place I work and their curiosity about my 
work is more on the are-you-happy level rather then what-are-your-
tasks. And of course, if you don't want people to ask about your
job 
just say you're an accountant (sorry, accountants out there, but 
most people find it dull – it's a fact). If you meet a real 
accountant you can say you want to get work out of your head for the 
moment. 

Back to Hermione, she will have a job in the WW and eventually a 
house with wizard neighbourhood and/or a discrete muggle 
neighbourhood. She will visit her parents who will die before she 
does without that being odd in any way. Her friends and cousins are 
a different story: they will grow old and wonder why a 90 year old 
is not retired. If she's still close to them by that time, that
is. 
Eventually they will die envying her health and that's that. I
don't 
see anyone calling the authorities because it's not normal that 
she's so old and yet so fresh.

Now imagine you're Hermione's neighbour. Imagine you move
into a 
neighbourhood at the age of 30 and there's a nice old lady next 
door, a Miss Granger. You have kids, they grow up, and at the age of 
50 you see her pass by your door carrying heavy-looking shopping 
bags [why was she shopping in the Muggle World is beyond me]. You 
think: `I remember her always being old but obviously she
wasn't 
that old. I guess she always looked old to me but she was probably 
50 and now she's 70' 

20 years later you awake one morning to find out you starting to 
have incontinence problems and you see her strolling on a bicycle. 
You think: `I need to do more exercise! Look at her. She must be
90 
and I bet she's not incontinent.' As you leave the house you
come 
across another old neighbour having trouble picking up some loose 
change that had fallen and you say: `Miss Granger doesn't
have a 
problem moving around. I just saw her in her bicycle. And she must 
be 90, right?' The neighbour answers: `90, you think? I
always 
thought she was 20 years older than me. But that would make her 100; 
you must be right, of course.'

Eventually you reach 80 and Miss Granger is energetically chasing a 
dog out of her back yard for ruining her daisies. You think:
`Gee, I 
wish I would reach her age with that vigour. She must be 95 by
now!'
Finely you're 90. You look out the window from your wheel-chair
and 
you see her strolling on her bicycle again. You think: `I
don't 
remember Miss Granger having a daughter. My mind is starting to play 
some serious tricks on me."

*Bless them, those muggles. They don't see anything do they!* 

Now, the official registry is another mater. But a simpler one! Most 
governments do periodic `clean ups' to their registries. When
they 
do, they find a small amount of 150 years old citizens. This is due 
to emigration, disappearances, and the `John-Do's at the
morgue. 
They assume those people are dead and that's the end of it.
No need to get into faking death and getting false identities. 

Susana
<Amazed at the length of her post!>