Is There Alternating Current in Harry's World?

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 184179

justcorbly wrote:
>
> Somewhere, in DH I believe, one of the characters makes a comment
about radio that revels, at least to me, that he's pretty unfamiliar
with it.
> 
> So... is Hogwarts off the grid?  What about all the other houses and
buildings that our cast of characters inhabit or shelter in?
> 
> If there's no use of electricity and all the conveniences that
depend on it, why?  Does electricity pose a threat to wizards and
witches? Are their kitchens powered with wood-burning ovens?  What
about refrigeration?

Carol responds:

Steve (bboyminn) has posted fairly extensively on these topics, so
I'll let him link you to those posts or just sum up what he's said
before. All I know is that Hermione tells Harry that there's too much
magic around Hogwarts for computers or anything electrical
(electronic?) to work at Hogwarts. Personally, I think she just wants
to retain the preindustrial atmosphere, with fireplaces and quill pens
and candelabras. Computers and airconditioning would spoil all that,
don't you think? Even references to pencil cases and matchboxes (not
to mention Slughorn's reference to genes, a Muggle scientific concept)
take us out of that atmosphere, don't you think? Who needs a vacuum
cleaner when you can clean your house with "householdy spells"? And
they seem content with wizarding Wireless (obviously modeled on Muggle
radio), an official newspaper and a few magazines. Who needs TV and
video games when you have, er, Quidditch and books and, er, what else
do underage Wizarding kids who (theoretically) aren't allowed to use
magic have to entertain themselves in summer? I recall Fleur saying
that there's not much to do at the Weasleys' house unless you like
cooking and chickens. I suppose you can always Floo to a neighbor's
house or Diagon Alley. :-)

Justcorbly: 
> Are their homes completely and always invisible?  If not, how do
they avoid things like council taxes or property taxes?  If they
don't, how do they get the money to pay?

Carol:
That one I can answer. Mrs. Weasley says that she doesn't think the
Muggle postman knows where they live. The Blacks' Muggle neighbors
apparently didn't know of their existence even before the Fidelius
Charm was put on the house to hide it from anyone who didn't know the
secret. I think that a combination of Muggle-repelling Charms like
those used to hide Hogwarts or the QWC stadium and Unplottable Charms
so the place can't be mapped would be sufficient to keep tax
collectors away. On the off chance that one shows up anyway (he can't,
of course, phone, fax, or e-mail you), you just hit him with a nice,
strong Confundus charm. 

As for utilities, which you didn't mention, they don't need
electricity or phones, and I suspect that their plumbing and
waterlines are magically constructed, perhaps magically connected to
the city sewer and water systems, again with Muggle=repelling charms
on those lines, or just to magically constructed septic tanks and
magically drilled wells. (Aguamenti isn't going to provide enough
drinking water, and I'm not sure that conjured water lasts any longer
than conjured food.) Anyway, imagine heating and cooking done
magically (a la Mrs. Weasley and the House-Elves) on a stove that
doesn't require fuel because its magical (just magically conjured
flames like the ones the kids use in NEWT Potions class). Ditto for
the fireplaces, which don't require wood. No car payments, either,
because they don't own a car.
> 
> Do they shop at the local grocery?  Use credit cards?

Carol:
Not credit cards. I don't think that the Goblin Market (sorry;
thinking of Christina Rossetti here) would allow credit in any form.
Hogsmeade may have a local grocery; it has a candy store, a post
office, pubs, and restaurants. Witches and Wizards who live in "mixed"
town like Godric's Hollow and Ottery St. Catchpole might use the local
grocery and even attend church on Sundays, mingling with their Muggle
neighbors and only hiding obviously magical objects when a Muggle
neighbor comes calling. (Do you hide your obviously unmodern kitchen
as well? And why is it that most adult Witches and Wizards still have
no clue how Muggles dress?) Steve and others have postulated some sort
of middlemen as liasons to the Muggle community (a good job for
Squibs!) who provide goods and services to Witches and Wizards who
can't, for example, grow their own vegetables like the Weasleys or
butcher their own meat. (You can't conjure food. Hogwarts must get
most of its food from somewhere other than Professor Sprout's magical
herb garden or Hagrid's pumpkin patch.) I don't doubt that *some*
Witches and Wizards are farmers. After all, they have merchants and
tailors and craftsmen and printers and innkeepers and teachers and
Healers and potion makers, the WW equivalent of pharmacists
("chemists" if you're British). Poor old Agatha somebody had an eel
farm and lost it betting on a week-long match (or some such thing) at
the QWT. But someone (Umbridge? Yaxley?) uses "grocer" as a term of
contempt, indicating a Muggle profession. Hermione speaks of her
dentist parents in terms which suggest that dentistry is not a
Wizarding profession. All of which makes it likely that Wizards order
their food and have it shipped by owl from some sort of middle man.
Either that, or there are Wizarding grocers in Basic Alley, which
branches off Diagon Alley between the post office and Flourish and
Blotts. (I'm choosing two of the more mundane services here for my
imaginary alley, if anyone wonders. I wanted to call it Horizont
Alley, but I couldn't connect that with basic needs. And I rejected
Fundament Alley for reasons that I hope don't require explanation!)

Justcorbly: 
> Are they all in the NHS?

Carol:
Don't ask me! I'm American. Seriously, I suspect that St. Mungo's is a
nonprofit hospital that serves all Witches and Wizards (and an
occasional magically injured and Obliviated Muggle) free of charge or
on a sliding scale. Or it operates off the coins in the Fountain of
Magical Bretheren, which presents a bit of a problem once that
artifact is destroyed, combined with donations from rich patrons like
the pre-HBP Malfoys.

Justcorbly: 
> Come to think of it, what's the local school system's response when
12-year-olds suddenly drop out of school?  Is Hogwarts on the UK's
list of accredited private schools?

Carol:
Eleven-year-olds, actually. I suppose that it doesn't matter in an era
when homeschooling is a legal alternative to state-supported schools,
and maybe parents of Muggleborns are presented with fake scholarships
(properly bewitched with the appropriate charms) to foreign private
schools  to which they can claim that they've sent their children.
Children born to Wizarding families wouldn't be on the Muggle radar,
anyway.

Justcorbly: 
> What if a someone like Hermione wants to pursue work at university?

Carol:
That's a problem, I agree, because even a magically forged grade
report from an accredited high school wouldn't help that student to
pass the entrance exams or the university classes once she got in. I
suppose she could study for the university courses at the same time
she studied for her NEWTS (assuming that she wasn't taking as many
courses as Hermione), but Hogwarts itself certainly provides
inadequate preparation for university-level classes in literature,
foreign languages, math, the sciences, and Muggle history, to name
only those subjects that come immediately to my mind. I think that a
bright Muggle-born student would be faced early on with a choice
between Hogwarts and a good public school. (Justin Finch-Fletchley
chose Hogwarts over Eton. Hermione seems not to have given Muggle
education a second thought once she found out that she was a Witch.)
Except those few students who want to go into Muggle Relations, the
choice seems irrevocable. JKR seems to want us to think that Muggle
life and Muggle education is just mundane. Who, she seems to imply,
would choose Chemistry over Potions or Veterinary Medicine over COMC?
And all you need to be a writer is not a degree in English or
journalism but a Quick Quotes Quill and the mind of a Rita Skeeter or
a Xenophilius Lovegood.

justcorbly: 
> Just asking.  I know that quick answer is "magic", but that's
cheating, I think.

Carol:
Ah, well. "Magic" *is* the answer, but it's not necessarily a
straightforward or simple answer, and it requires a good deal of
speculation and inference-drawing to fill in the gaps.

Carol, who doubts that JKR takes her imaginary world, originally
intended for children, quite as seriously as we do