The Statute of Secrecy

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 158864

Mike recently made an interesting point regarding the interaction
between Dumbledore and Mrs. Cole. Dumbledore had to hide the fact that
the school he was recruiting Tom Riddle for was a school of magic from
Mrs. Cole because of the Statute of Secrecy, so in order to send Tom
to the school (and prevent an untrained wizard from wreaking potential
havoc among the Muggles), Dumbledore had no choice but to trick her
into thinking that the blank paper she was looking at was an official
document. (I won't get into the gin discussion, but he seemed to sense
that something was wrong with Tom and needed to find out about that, too.)

My point is that, as Mike stated, Dumbledore is trapped by the Statute
of Secrecy. He can't straight out tell Mrs. Cole what kind of school
he's recruiting Tom for. She wouldn't believe him, for one thing, and
would probably call the police. The Obliviators who modify Marge
Dursley's and Mr. Roberts's memories (along with many others) are more
extreme examples of wizards forced to act as they do to maintain or
enforce that statute. (Whether it was wise or necessary to institute
it in the first place is another matter, as is what would happen if
the statute were breached and no memories modified. Would the WW cease
to exist if Muggles knew of its existence? That's what wizards, other
than the simple-minded Hagrid, seem to think.)

The problem comes back to JKR. She has invented a Wizarding World that
 somehow manages to exist undetected among Muggles. If the WW existed
in another dimension or on another planet, there would be no need for
the Statute of Secrecy, but she has to have some means of concealing
the WW from Muggles because her intended (child) readers are Muggles,
and she has to create a means of enabling those readers to believe
that the WW exists unseen right in London itself (among other places).
Her readers will naturally wonder why they can't see any witches or
wizards or giants or dragons or magical places, so she has to provide
both magical means of concealment or forgetfulness (e.g., the spells
on Hogwarts and memory charms) and a reason for the secrecy (the
statute). Her characters, from Dumbledore to the MoM, are then trapped
into this structure and must operate within it. (If it weren't for the
Statute of Secrecy, for example, Snape would have no reason to be
angry about the flying Ford Anglia--other than the damage to the
Whomping Willow.)

It seems to me that the whole premise of secrecy, which is necessary
to our belief (or suspended disbelief) in the WW (it exists all around
us but we never knew it till we read her books) depends on the Statute
of Secrecy, along with the equally suspect device of Muggles not
seeing what they don't want to see ("They don't see nuffink, do
they?") And once the Statute of Secrecy is in place, the characters
are compelled to obey it, even if that means resorting to methods that
either seem to be or actually are unethical or unfair to Muggles.
Despite all of Dumbledore's statements about freedom of choice (and
I'm not questioning the importance of the concept to the books), at
least some of the characters' actions are determined by the world they
live in and its peculiar laws and worldview.

Carol, wondering how JKR could have solved the problem of
believability (a magical world that Muggles can't see existing right
under our noses) without resorting to the Statute of Secrecy and
Obliviators