wizard family size; was wizard family planning

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 130220

Chancie: "OK, granted this question is coming from WAY out in left
field,  but I was wondering, is there any cannon on having babies in 
the WW?"

No, other than the mere fact Lily and James had one.


Bruce: " That's an interesting question; I can't remember anything
'canon' on this, but then it is primarily a children's series. I can't
remember anything about one of the female teachers taking the girls
aside for THE TALK, or female students going to Mme. P. for--er--supplies.

How do hormones work on magical abilities? The fact that wizardling
children aren't given serious instruction until adolescence indicates
that perhaps they do. Do a witch's spells go awry more often during
THAT TIME OF THE MONTH? Do pregnant witches avoid major spellcastings?"

One place to start is reminding ourselves that these books are not a
window into the wizard world; they're a tiny little peephole. We don't
see 98% of what goes on in the wizard world.
(BTW, you're either the bravest Gryffindor in history or Peeves's twin
to kick over a hornets' nest like this. Bon chance, mon ami, and would
you like a blindfold?)

As far as having babies goes, I wrote some dialogue in a fanfic once
where I imagined that many wizards believe in taking care of their
babies the same as we Muggles do. It would be easy to clean up the
little tyke's byproducts with a wave of a wand, but loving parents
clean up by hand and hold the bottle by hand because it strengthens
the bonds between parents and babies. Just a little aside by a Muggle
dad who wouldn't have missed any of it for his babies, who are now 11
and 13.

There's no reason to think that the students' hormones have anything
to do with their magical abilities.  I don't need to see and we aren't
going to see the details of how wizard people deal with their bodily
functions. OTOH, the fertility or otherwise of the wizard world is a
major social issue for them.

Pureblood wizards are likely to have low fertility rates because of
their restricted gene pool. They're even likely to develop problems
with things like haemophilia or even Tay-Sachs disease, all of the
intermarriage problems that affected groups such as European royal
families.  The wizards whose lines are being invigorated with fresh
blood from non-magical folk, however, are less likely to have these
problems and also more likely to have
larger families.

This alone is a source of tension in the wizard world.  Not only do
the Malfoys feel increasingly outnumbered, but I doubt they like
seeing the things like blue jeans, soccer balls and U2 posters that
the Muggleborn kids inevitably introduce their schoolmates to. I'd
guess they feel their grip on the wizard world slipping.

Ron was right. The wizard world would have died out long ago if they
hadn't married Muggles. There's no way for them to stay at a
comfortable small number - they'd pay far too high a price as a
society for it. Actually, their society would eventually fade away.

Jim Ferer