Muggle Awareness of WW (was "To the extreme")

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 164877

snow15145:
>> What if Voldy's Mom gave her powers away so that she could die? 
>What if she gave her powers away to a very young child named Lily?  
>Merope's powers would no longer save her from death and allow her to 
>die. Lil' Lily would acquire Merope's power and become the first 
>witch in the family.

Ceridwen:
>Also, how does one give away one's powers?  She apparently lost the 
>will to live, and the ability to do magic.  But this was more of an 
>emotional response to losing the love of her life, as well as years 
>of constant degredation from her father.  Maybe JKR could come up 
>with some way for a witch or wizard to donate their powers to someone 
>else, but at this time, it seems more to me that magical powers are 
>like any other trait, and can't be passed to someone else any more 
>than sight or hearing.

Bart:
Still, this fits in with one of the running mysteries of the series: to what extent are muggles aware of the WW? Consider the following:

1) Squibs. It appears that squibs have a lot in common with the Amish religion/culture in the United States. The Amish are free until they take their vows as adults to reject their reliigon without being shunned; if they choose not to take vows, they are expected to live outside the communities, but are still welcome as guests within the community. However, the reason why few Amish avail themselves of this opportunity is that their education makes it difficult for them to live and thrive in the outside world (although some are trying short-cuts; there is currently a drug-dealing problem among the young Amish). Squibs, although without magic powers, unless their parents are VERY progressive, would also not have the background to thrive in the muggle world. This might explain the working class among the WW; those who are either squibs or could not pass any OWLS that required magical ability. Have we ever seen Rosmerta cast a spell? Now, one would guess that a squib would be culturally considered a more suitable marriage partner in the WW than a muggle, and a squib would naturally prefer a partner from the WW. But what of the suibs that make lives for themselves in the muggle world? They have knowledge of the WW, and it becomes likely that so will their spouses, or even children. And not all spouses and children are good at keeping secrets.

2) Parents of wizards/witches. Lily's family was supposedly happy to have a witch in the family. Hermione's family seems to have taken to it quite well. How do muggles get access to Diagon Alley? 

3) Are memory charms used extensively to keep the existence of the WW a secret? How good ARE these memory charms? Consider what Snape said about thoughts when explaining how actual mind-reading is impossible to Harry. Even the pensieve only seems to remove sensory impressions from memories, and it appears that it can only be used to take memories voluntarily given, where the secondary impressions of these memories stay. So, if a marriage between a muggle and a WW'er ends badly, is the muggle's entire memory of the marriage stripped, with possibly years of their lives stolen? 

Consider what happened to the muggles abused in GOF. Was the removal of their memories of the incident any less abusive?

Bart