[HPforGrownups] Re: Middle Age ways of the Wizarding World

[OctobersChild48 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 159313

Carol wrote:


> They use quill pens and parchment like Muggles in the Middle Ages and
> > candles for lighting (ever try grading essays or doing homework by
> > candlelight?). Hogwarts is so cold in winter that kids wear cloaks and
> > gloves in the corridors. (Durmstrang must be nearly unbearable.) They
> > don't have computers or telephones or even cars.) Yes, some of them
> > can Apparate, but they can't teach that skill to Muggles even if they
> > wanted to.
> 

Sandy now:
This is something that has aiways confounded me about the Muggle born/raised 
students at Hogwarts; how willing they are to give up all their Muggle 
comforts for the sake of going to Hogwarts. I would think it goes even further than 
that. If they are educated as witches and wizards it stands to reason that they 
will continue to live in the WW after they leave Hogwarts. It all sounds so 
charming as you are reading the books, but think about the last time you went 
through a power failure. It is the only life the WW knows, but that is not the 
case for Muggle born/raised. You have Hermione, who is the only child of two 
dentists, which leads me to believe she lived in relative affluence, and she 
gives all that up to become a witch?!? As fascinating as the concept of magic 
is, I couldn't do it. 

This is also one of JKR'S inconsistencies. Although they have no electricity 
or electronics, and no furnaces, they have modern plumbing with running water, 
flushing toilets and bathtubs with hot and cold running water. We know this 
from cannon because of all of the action that takes place in various books in 
the bathrooms and because of the prefects' bath in GOF. 

As I said, it adds a certain charm to the books, but I wouldn't want to live 
in those conditions and don't understand why anyone would who knows that there 
is a better way.

Sandy


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