[HPforGrownups] How does the WW fit into the MW?

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 128064

Sandra wrote:
>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

Short answer is "none of it". Longer answer would be - none of it, unless
you can get past the spells that stop muggles noticing it.

>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...

Harry and Ron are wizards. They aren't subject to the spells that stop
muggles noticing it.

>magical and 'switched on' than I thought. Besides, the car could
>be seen in the muggle world, and must have brought the

The car's an unofficial artefact. Arthur's done the work on it in his back
garden. Either it doesn't have the "don't notice me" charm on it, or it's
worn off (it doesn't run very well, but then it's a pretty old car!)

>hidden WW place, what was the point of interacting with the
>muggle world?

Probably none. It's highly illegal for anyone in the WW to interact with the
muggle world. Statute of Secrecy forbids it.

>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?

Possibly, but if they did, they wouldn't notice it.

>And if Hogwarts is standing on British soil, does that mean the

Scottish, actually

>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

Not sure why you feel that the spells are bizarre (any more than it
stretches the bounds of the imagination to consider spells that make gross
changes in the fabric of reality). The spells seem to be very effective.
Muggles, after all, don't notice...

>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?

Students who go to Hogwarts aren't muggles. By definition. They are wizards.
Muggles have no magical power. Hogwarts students do. Harry and his pureblood
friend (Ron?) can certainly meet up at the Burrow for the holidays.

>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

I like the word Hogwartonian!

But yes, provided they had the address. There'd be nothing hiding the
address from them (Harry of course isn't Muggle-born, his parents were both
wizarding folk)

>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

JKR mentions several gateways in (Diagon Alley, the Ministry, St Mungos, to
name but three)

>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

They can see it, they just don't notice it. If they look at it, their eyes
slide over it. It just doesn't register.

>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.

Just not noticeable. They go past, but they don't see.

>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.

Only because some people come from the muggle world into the WW (as Hermione
did). In terms of physical reality, both worlds occupy the same world of
course. The WW isn't faerie, it's next door. You just don't notice it unless
you're a wizard (or a squib).

Cheers

Ffred

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