Integrated worlds, separate, or co-existing?

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 155077

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > Seriously, it seems fairly obvious to me that there was a 
> > conflict between Muggles and Wizards and the Wizards lost.  
> > They lost so badly they not only went into deep, deep, *deep* 
> > hiding (erasing everything but the barest whisper of their 
> > existence) they took their *animals* with them!!
> > Oh yeah, one of these groups is superior, and it ain't the 
> > parasitical wizards.  Not when they have to keep their *insects* 
> > a secret.

> >>Sandra:
> 
> That's a good point which I hadn't thought of - the amazing 
> animals of the HP world. Why do they have to be secret, and who 
> would decide what muggles are allowed to be aware of? 
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
IIRC, that text book JKR put out on the magical animals of the WW 
(I'm away from my books, sorry) talks a lot about this.  Basically 
(again, IIRC) the wizards decided that anything that suggested the 
possibility of magic existing needed to be hidden.  That way their 
own existance would remain a secret.  So they formed a committee and 
got to it.

> >>Sandra:
> But taking another angle, as we've read, there is a top-level link 
> between muggle politicians and the Ministry for Magic, so 
> wouldn't the services of the magical world have been used by 
> various dodgy governments (or big businesses) to benefit their 
> own ends? Financial pressures, illicit dealings with the less 
> pleasant wizardy people, combined forces to dominate both 
> worlds - it's all there to be exploited. Maybe that's part of 
> Voldermort's grand plan, to cross over the divide and rule both 
> worlds?

Betsy Hp:
Hmm, but any hint of Muggle knowledge is strictly controlled by the 
MoM.  That's the basis of the WW's government, keeping the Big 
Secret.  It wouldn't surprise me if there were wizards interacting 
with Muggles for their own (and probably even WW's) benefit, but to 
not fully control the few Muggles in the know?  *Far* too risky.  
Either a life time away in Azkaban or a full obliviate and future 
monitering.

> >>Sandra:
> This just strengthens my feelings that JKR might have been 
> better off by making the two worlds in parallel dimensions, rather 
> than a bit of each here and there.

Betsy Hp:
It'd be simpler, I think, but far less interesting.  Personally, I 
love the pressures and problems inherit in the WW *because* they're 
forced to co-exist with Muggles.  

Plus, I like the suggestion that those eccentrics you run into from 
time to time are actually wizards.  Those spots where reasturants or 
stores *always* fail are actually wizard hotspots.  It's kind of 
fun, IMO.

> >>Tonks:
> <snip>
> I see the WW as a deeper reality, a truth that Muggles do not want 
> to know, see, or bother about. I see the WW as the world of the   
> mystic. I see the WW as the matrix that upholds the MW. People    
> like Uncle Vernor fear it, want to lock it under the stairs, try   
> to make it go away.

Betsy Hp:
Too bad it's so ugly.  I'm rather uncomfortable with the WW.  I used 
to think it was where creativity and imagination lived, but now it 
seems to be the place where pettiness, fear, and mob-think get their 
strength.  Though, that might be the Voldemort influence Harry is 
there to purge?

Betsy Hp