Squib!Harry in the WW (was:Re: The Scar)

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 160378

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03"
<horridporrid03 at ...> wrote:
>
> > >>Ken: 
> > There is no getting around the fact that canon implies that
> > intermarriage is reasonably common, the numbers speak for         
> > themselves.
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> How do you figure that?  We have a bare handful of wizard marriages 
> described, and an even tinier portion of that are of the non-
> magical/magical variety.  Now, I'm not mathametician, but even I can 
> see that you have no proper statistics to play with here.  JKR has 
> not given us enough information to make those sort of judgements, 
> IMO.
> 

Ken:

I figure it from the fact that of the small number of marriages
described a sizable fraction are mixed. No, in the real world this is
not a large enough sample to draw precise numerical conclusions from
nor is it a scientificly chosen sample. But even in the real world a
fraction of 10% or greater even from such a small sample does imply
that the true fraction is significant unless some bias has been put
into the data. It is very unlikely the intermarriage rate is as small
as 1% given the data we have seen. But this isn't the real world, this
is an author painting a picture of an imaginary world. Given that we
can be much more certain that numbers represent the "truth" of this
imaginary world. You and many others here draw even stronger
conclusions about the WW from much smaller samples of WW behaviour.
However since most of those are "touchy-feely" issues and don't
involve anything as obviously mathematical as percentages you do not
even realize that you are doing this. Everything that is said here is
based on samples as small as the mixed marriage numbers. We have seen
only a tiny fraction of Harry's life yet we all draw many conclusions
about it and him and we hold those conclusions with the strength of
100 Olympians. We depend on the author to paint us a true picture of
the world she envisions, this particular instance is no different than
any other that we discuss.


> > >>Ken:
> > As to how happy and successful those marriages are, I was not
> > addressing that. We all know muggle/muggle marriages as bad as the
> > examples you give, some of us may have been in one.
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> I've never been in, nor have I known anyone in a marriage in which 
> one spouse has such utter and total control over the other. (If my 
> friends are able to have their husbands fill in for a missing coffee 
> table, they've kept quite quiet about it. <g>)
> 

Ken:

I think we all hear about some pretty awful behaviour between romantic
partners on the nightly news. Each of us who are married or in a live
in relationship hold the power of life and death over our partners as
they do over us, how much more control do you want? Murder reports on
the news demonstrate this over and over and over again. Some men and
women live in slavery to their partners. I know that many of you feel
the WW is exceptional in this regard but I do not see it that way. The
WW is a reflection of our own though obviously the magical half of a
mixed marriage has resources that are not available to the muggle
half. My wife could easily stab or shoot me while I sleep or poison me
with food she has prepared. She could not as easily devise and
implement some cunning plan to kill me with an electromechanical
contrivance the way I, as an electrical engineer, could readily do to
her. If she were in fact a witch she would have similar power over me
but this would not diminish my power over her. My cunning device would
still work. But in fact I love my wife as she loves me and neither one
of us is going to kill the other. Our arguments would end much
differently if she could turn me into a table instead of storming out
of the room but I would still stand my ground with her because I would
trust her to release me from the spell once her anger had cooled. I
simply am not intimidated by the WW the way so many of you are.


> > >>Ken:
> > <snip> 
> > His magical education and experience would allow him to edit books 
> > at a magical book publisher,
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> If only he could work the pens.
> 
> > >>Ken:
> > it would allow him to work at the Ministry of Magic in a variety   
> > of capacities,
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> If only he were a fully recognized legal member of the WW.
> 
> > >>Ken:
> > he could help run the twin's budding business empire,
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> If only he could place fire calls.
> 
> > >>Ken:
> > he could be a Quidditch commentator,
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> If only he could use Saronus (I think it is?  That voice amplifying 
> spell).
> 
> > >>Ken:
> > he could be a reporter,
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> If only he could use the pens.  (I said that before... Ah well, 
> anything with writing involved is right out.  It be like a reporter 
> in the Muggle world who couldn't use a computer.)
> 
> > >>Ken:
> > he could emulate his creator and write books,
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> See above.
> 
> > >>Ken:
> > he could help Hermione run SPEW
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> Except that Hermione would have to drop SPEW to work full time at 
> getting Harry some reasonable rights as a non-magical person within 
> the WW.  (Posterboy -- just what Harry's always wanted to be! <g>)
> 

Ken:

Betsy, all a pen does is put ink on paper, even in the WW. The
exceptions I can think of are Rita's Quick Quotes Quill which is
hardly an asset to a responsible journalist and the spell-checking
functions of Ron's pen. The act of writing, editing, or commentating
is not a fundamentally magical act, it is an exercise in human
intelligence. Harry has the training to edit magical books, he can
write or report as well as Rita Skeeter or Gilderoy Lockhart, he has
the Quidditch experience to be a commentator. He can easily use a
common muggle pen or computer to do his writing, someone can charm a
megaphone for him to announce Quidditch matches. These are tiny
hurdles, easily stepped over, barely lines scratched in the dirt.
Running a business or civil rights organization involves far more than
being a talking head in a fireplace. There are enormous ammounts of
work to be done that any muggle could accomplish for these
organizations. Jobs in the MoM would generally be beyond muggles but
you don't have to *do* magic to do most of them. You have to
*understand* magic and Harry has that understanding. Even *I* could
monitor the thickness of imported cauldron bottoms!! 

What Harry has is wealth, celebrity, experience, training,
friendships, connections, and resourcefulness. The Harry I know can
and would use those to overcome the barriers that are put in his way.
When Jackie Robinson accepted the offer to play major league baseball
he faced huge obstacles. He overcame them and paved the way for many
others, in sports and later in ordinary life even as generations of
black musicians had laid a foundation he could build on. He helped the
United States achieve social goals it had struggled with for 200
years. To be sure Harry would face similar social obstacles. Facing
them down would be a worthy conclusion to this story and I believe him
capable of it. I am sorry that your Harry is only a pale imitation of
the Harry I read about. The HP books I read have prepared Harry for
life in the WW without magic, they have prepared this reader to
believe that he can pull it off. I doubt that Rowling intends to go
that way because it would take a book not an epilogue to do it justice
but I am with her if she does.

Ken