How does the WW fit into the MW?

[Sandra Collins]

No: HPFGUIDX 128009



I mentioned this question in a reply to someone's reply to one of 
my points about Hogwarts, and I'd love to know people's 
thoughts in response to it (and please, no more bad tempered 
personal emails just because I like wondering about the WW 
and MW).

Here goes:

After re-reading book two the other night (well, flicked through it) 
I'm having trouble figuring out what parts of the WW are 
accessible (either visually or physically) to muggles, and what 
parts only exist through hidden doorways. For example, even 
though the Hogwarts Express leaves from a magical hidden 
platform in some kind of parallel world, Harry and Ron could 
chase it in their car. They didn't go through any magic gateway... 
or if they did, I must have missed it, and Ron must be far more 
magical and 'switched on' than I thought. Besides, the car could 
be seen in the muggle world, and must have brought the 
Weasley clan from somewhere, but if that 'somewhere' was a 
hidden WW place, what was the point of interacting with the 
muggle world?

Following the thought a step further, they would have arrived in a 
normal region of the UK - which is presumably concealed on the 
usual maps? Concealing it on paper is one thing, but a 
back-packing muggle could still stumble across it, surely?
And if Hogwarts is standing on British soil, does that mean the 
whole WW is spread around the UK (and other countries) - yet 
never seen by muggle-eyes? Perhaps the concealment may be 
due to bizarre spells or enchantments, but that's a little 
ineffective and rather stretching things a little, I would have 
thought? But if that's the case, would these places be visible and 
accessible to muggle students who go to Hogwarts, especially 
outside of school terms, in case for example, Harry and a 
pureblood decided to met up one holiday at the pureblood's 
house? Travelling by flue power would involve the muggle using 
hefty magic outside the school... and what if the Dursleys don't 
have a great huge fireplace with an enormous flue? 

So to go a step further, would a muggle Hogwartonian like 
Hermione or Harry easily find the parts of the UK where 
purebloods (or any) witches and wizards live?  The reason I 
mention this is that I don't think JKR has ever made the 
co-existence of the two worlds particularly clear - is it a parallel 
world accessed via doorways which take a person from the MW 
to the WW (in which case the whole car thing in Book 2 was a 
little odd), or is the WW all around the muggles but they just can't 
see it? And if it's a bit of both, do some live hidden in the muggle 
world whereas others have the luxury of living in the parallel 
world?

This has always made me wonder, ever since book one. The 
enchanted kind of door in the first book that Hagrid led Harry into 
the WW for the first time, to Diagon Alley, was part of a city 
located either parallel to the muggle world, or just rendered 
un-noticeable to muggles. Oh my head.

And then this leads onto the questions regarding why the WW 
would need such a link with the muggle world. After all, as we 
showed with all those ideas about the point of Hogwarts (thanks 
everyone), the two worlds don't have a fat lot in common.

Sandra (kind of confused, here)