Wizards in a Muggle World (was:Spinner's End as home...)

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 142249

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03"
<horridporrid03 at y...> wrote:
>
> > >>Carol:
> > > I can see an adult who can Apparate and Disapparate hiding in    
> > > plain sight. But how is the child Severus supposed to do that?   
> > > Did he spend his entire out-of-school life in that dreary       
> > > bedroom? I can't imagine him wearing Muggle clothes or going to 
> > > school with Muggle children.
>  
> > >>Potioncat:
> > For that matter, how did Sirius and Regulus fit into the          
> > neighborhood at 12GP? We could make an argument that the Weasleys 
> > managed to keep all their kids close, but they aren't in a city.


> Betsy Hp:
> ...
> 
> ...
> 
> Then, of course, ... Molly has had to venture into town on a few
> occasions (calling a cab, getting Ron to a phone, buying stamps 
> for the letter they mailed to Harry) so obviously the townsfolk 
> know the Weasleys exist. ...
> 
> ...  
> 
> And I think that in general, most wizards know a little something 
> of the muggle world.  I doubt they travel in it a lot, what with 
> floo powder and portkeys and such, but they must venture out. ...  
> Even Draco, that purest of pure-bloods, knows what a helicopter is.
> 
> I have a feeling that any wizard or wizarding family is looked on as 
> a strange person or family that keep themselves to themselves in the 
> neigborhoods they reside in.  There might a bit of protective magic 
> thrown in (notice-me-not or something like that) to keep door-to-
> door salesmen away, but I doubt they all live so totally isolated 
> that Muggles are completely unaware of them.
> 
> Betsy Hp


bboyminn:

Well, I'm repeating myself again; sorry. 

To some extent this is old news as I've said it so many times before,
but I think it still holds up as an excellent analogy to wizards in
the muggle world.

I've always analogized the Wizard World to Chinatown. Many Chinese
move to London, or San Franscico, or New York, and find themselve in a
foreign and unfamiliar culture, so they seek out others of a culture
similar to their own, and gravitate to places like Chinatown, or in
the case of others, Koreatown, Little Italy, Little Tokyo, Little
Saigon, etc....

In many case, despite being in a foreign country they exists totally
in this small enclave of their own culture; they eat Chinese, they
speak Chinese, they associate with Chinese, and in every way they live
Chinese despite being in the middle of New York City or London.

For the record, Korea Town in Los Angeles has a population of 250,000;
that's equal to the total population of the City of Minneapolis. 

Now, it's not impossible for them to venture out of Chinatown, but
they do so with great hesitation. Picture yourself alone on the
streets of Beijing/Peking trying to make your way alone, or trying to
buy your nephew a birthday present; a very uncomfortable task in a
very uncomfortable environment.

That's how I picture wizards who venture into the muggle world; it's
like going down to Chinatown where most people speak some English, but
it's still a very foreign and frequently uncomfortable environment.
Best to say comfortably with your own kind.

In the rare but notable cases where a wizard lives in a muggle
neighborhood, I believe it is either very urban and impersonal, so you
don't have to know your neighbors, or it's remote like the Weasleys.
Friendly comfortable safe suburbs don't seem likely for most wizard. 

We know that Mad-Eye lives in muggle London, but I suspect he lives in
an highly urban area where you could live next door to someone for
years and never even say 'Hi' to them. Keeping in mind as others have
pointed out, that Moody can come and go as he pleases without ever
leaving the house by using Floo and Apparation. He could leave the
house everyday, and from the perspective of his neighbors, he wouldn't
leave the house for a month.

While it's not perfect, I think Chinatown/Koreatown, or similar, very
clearly demonstrates how one completely foreign culture can exist
isolated within another.

Just passing it along...again...and again...and a... well you get the
idea.

Steve/bboyminn