Wizards and nosy muggle neighbors...

[mandrina_q]

No: HPFGUIDX 161611

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "rapid_white_wolf" 
<rapid_white_wolf at ...> wrote:
>
> > >>Stacey:
> >> I  I was wondering if anyone had thought about what Wizards/ 
Witches said about their professions when asked by nosy nieghbors.
> >> <snip>
> >> And (admittedly a silly question) how do wizards/witches do 
their grocery shopping?  I can't imagine they grow/raise all they 
need and going all the way to Diagon Alley for weekly trips would 
seem laborious. << <snip>


  I think it would seriously come down to a matter of choice.  I feel 
like some wizards would have no problem living in a muggle 
neighborhood with muggle neighbors.  Evidence of this being a likely 
scenario is that we know of dozens of wizards who have fallen in love 
with and married muggles.  They would have to have met those people 
somewhere.
  In some cases, I'm sure that wizards choose not to entangle 
themselves with muggles at all and choose to live 'off the grid' per 
se (i.e. "the burrow" in the country or Malfoy Manor on a large tract 
of private land in Wiltshire).  Many of those wizards would, in my 
opinion, choose to take on the inconveniences of confining themselves 
to a wizards-only society.  Those folks would likely just take the 
matter of having to apparate themselves to Diagon Alley to do the 
grocery shopping for the week as par for the course.  You may also 
consider that, in a case such as the Malfoys, they likely have a 
house elf or two who could likely be sent out for those type of 
chores.
   And as for the wizards who do shop in muggle supermarkets... well, 
if we take the size of the Hogwarts student body relative to the size 
of the population of Britain as a whole as an example, then the 
wizarding community would not be so vast as to be on the radar in 
most places.  And don't we all have that one eccentric person... that 
one old lady who dressses funny and talks to herself in the produce 
section?  Haven't we all seen that one unusual gentleman in the 
bowler hat and bow tie with the sweater vest on in the middle of the 
summer?  Wizards don't have to really blend in, just fly under the 
radar, so to speak.

-Manda