Wizarding history (WAS Re: Less than 1000 posts in a month - why now?)

[or.phan_ann]

No: HPFGUIDX 180281

> Katie wrote:
>
> In the spirit of new threads, however, a question I have always    
> had: How do you guys think the very first wizards realized they 
> were different and how do you think the wizarding community was    
> formed? I mean, are we talking prehistoric, here? Or do we think    
> this is a more recent evolutionary change? 

Ann:
Well, given how important Egyptian magic seems to be, I'd say the 
magical mutation, if there was such a thing, happened in recent 
prehistory at the earliest. But if it did happen, either it must 
have been pretty early for it to have spread all across the globe 
(when all homo sapiens lived in a small enough part of Africa for 
the gene to spread to everyone), or it happened multiple times. But 
a mutation event can't be taken for granted, because magic appears 
to exist independently of wizards - dragons, for instance, can't 
have evolved without magic, which may have been thrust upon 'em than 
happening by chance. Maybe the first wizards gained magic powers by 
living near magical creatures, which rearranged their DNA to 
produce the magic gene. I wonder if the Muggle government has a 
register of people with a common, mysterious, genetic anomaly, and 
doesn't realise they have a list of Squibs?

A couple of related points. Firstly, I've said before that I think 
the establishment of Hogwarts was the beginning of British 
wizarding unification, providing a centre for the population. But a 
diffuse population can't have a central location without very fast 
travel. This explains with Apparition, not useful enough to be taught 
in classes, is taught to almost every young wizard: it's seen as a 
necessity for functioning in wizarding culture. (This makes it a 
parallel to driving in US culture, I think, explaining why the Twins 
Apparate between storeys in OotP.) If someone around the time of the 
Founders developed the spell, that would explain why Hogwarts was 
begun.

Secondly, the Patronus Charm is difficult - it's not taught at OWL 
level, so most wizards may not be able to cast it. But all Aurors 
can. It's not hard to see the Aurors beginning as, or significantly 
adding to their power, with this spell, so much so that what began 
as a private operation, somewhere from quasi-chivalrous order to 
protection racket, had to be absorbed by the Ministry or 
proto-Ministry because it was just too powerful, and thereby adding 
to its own power so much that it became the dominant wizarding 
organisation in Britain, ousting the Wizengamot. If anyone else has 
theories about the Ministry's development, they might find this 
interesting - anyone?

Ann