Identifying with Muggles - The Dursley and 'Terrifying' Abuse

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 158356

BAW wrote:
> Which of the Dursleys' children were sent to Hogwarts against 
> their will?  Harry was NOT their child.  If his parents had put 
> him down for Hogwarts before they died, his guardians should 
> honor that wish.  For all we know, that was part of what Petunia 
> agreed to when she took Harry in.  <snip>

> On her website, JKR says that ministry officials sometimes do that.
> Hagrid was a special case; Harry's parents had put him down for
> Hogwarts, and Hagrid (and probably everyone in the WW who was
> involved) had assumed that the Dursleys had told him. <snip>

Carol responds:
Forgive me for responding to a single point rather than the whole
post, but I believe that you're operating on a false assumption here.
Harry's *parents* didn't "put his name down for Hogwarts," the magical
quill did. If children were sent to Hogwarts only because of their
parents' wishes, only pureblood and perhaps some half-blood children
would attend. Muggle parents wouldn't sign up their children because
they wouldn't know about Hogwarts. And parents of Squibs would perhaps
sign up their children at birth, not knowing that they weren't magical.

As I understand it, McGonagall sends out Hogwarts letters to the
parents of magical children who will turn eleven on or before August
31 of any given year, and she gets those names from the book or roll
of parchment on which the magical quill has recorded them.

I don't have time to check the actual reference, but according to the
Lexicon, "A magical quill at Hogwarts detects the birth of each
magical child, then writes his or her name down in a large parchment
book. Every year Professor McGonagall checks the book, then uses this
information to send out owls to these children as they approach their
eleventh birthdays"(Sch1)."

Carol, not sure whether this information invalidates your argument but
thinking that it ought to be considered