Muggle Parents and more

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 184047

lizzyben wrote:
> 
> While reading the books, I've often wondered what the wizards would
do if some stubborn Muggles parents refused to let their child attend
 Hogwarts. I certainly wouldn't let my kid go to that school! Not 
every parent will be as thrilled as the Grangers or Evans were at the
thought of giving up their child to a strange school & stranger 
wizards. Possibly the majority would refuse to let their child attend.
> 
> And what if the parents said no? The parents are legal guardians of
the child, so if they refused, that should be the end of it. But 
wizards have never been very good about respecting Muggle customs. And
if the wizard child doesn't learn to control their magic, & goes to
normal Muggle schools, that child could expose the entire wizarding
world. Plus, be a danger to themselves or others. Plus, what if those
stubborn parents go talking to other Muggles about this Hogwarts
school? Seems like there are many risks involved.
> 
> It would be so much easier for the wizard to do a memory-wiping 
spell, just like Hermione did to her parents, or a mind-altering 
spell, like Ron did to the Muggle driving instructor. W/a spell, the
wizards could take the child to Hogwarts to learn magic, teach the 
child how to use magic properly & protect the wizarding world from 
being exposed by leaving a wild wizard wandering in the Muggle world.
 The wizards haven't hestitated to use magic on Muggles before, for
much less compelling reasons. 

Carol responds:
While I agree with you that most parents wouldn't want their children
to attend a boarding school, much less a school that would lead them
to become alienated from their parents, I suspect that the proposition
is presented to them in glowing terms--their highly talented and
unusual child is being given a unique opportunity for an education
geared toward his or her special talents--rather like being offered a
scholarship to Guilliard. Rather than having their memories wiped, I
suspect that reluctant parents would be charmed, in both senses of the
word, into granting their children a special privilege, with no hint
that the child would most likely end up estranged from them and their
world. (Surely even Hermione goes home to visit her parents on
occasion, bringing her Muggle-loving father-in-law along--and Ron and
the kids--so the estrangement isn't total. And Lily still corresponded
with Petunia, despite hating her apparently tasteless presents.)
Anyway, I think our model here should be Dumbledore and his contract
with Mrs. Cole via a blank sheet of ("everything seems to be in
order"). A nice, lasting Confundus Charm causing them to be happy to
have a witch or wizard in the family would do the trick better than a
Mamory Charm, which would cause them to forget that they had a child
and leave the child with no place to go over the summer holidays.
(Even Tom Riddle had to go back to the orphanage; kids can stay at
Hogwarts over the Christmas holiday, and most probably stay for Easter
break, but the two-month summer holiday, or vacation, as we Americans
say, is another matter.)

Another small thing--I don't thing there's any danger that the parents
of Muggle-borns, whether or not they send their kids to Hogwarts, will
talk to other Muggles about it. We see the Muggle Prime Minister
absolute certainty that he'll never speak of his contacts with the WW.
He knows that no one would believe him and fears, IIRC, that he'd be
considered insane. (Petunia must have had a similar fear when she told
Vernon about her disgraceful relatives.)

In any case, I don't think we're supposed to think about it overmuch,
but it seems likely to me that any coercion is accomplished subtly,
disguised as persuasion, causing the Muggles (like Hermione's parents)
to want what the Wizards want them to want, if that makes sense. It's
probably rather like the Muggle marketers of new technological gadgets
who persuade consumers that they want and desperately need some gadget
that they've lived all their lives without and never wished for till
they see and hear those seductive ads.

Carol, just tossing out some thoughts in reaction to your post