Lesson Three
Muggles and Magic
As the title of this class so suggests, we are going to use this lesson and talk a little bit about Muggles and Magic. Moreover, we are going to go into a little bit of detail of specific Wizarding World events that affect Muggles, why the Magical World must, and does, remain hidden, and other items of conversation pertinent to this thought.
To start this lesson off, I am going to be talking about something that most, if not all of you should know about, and that is the Statute of Secrecy.
The Statute of Secrecy, which is the act that allows the Magical community to be protected from muggles, was created in 1689, and established in 1692. Now, does that year set off any alarms, ring a bell, trigger some memory? It should since it was the year the Salem Witch Trials (also discussed in WMMC I) and the brutal persecution of “supposed” magical folk. This statute stresses that each individual Ministry of Magic around the globe is responsible for hiding the presence of the magical community. Each Ministry is held responsible for, among other things, the control of magical beasts, deterring public displays of underage magic, and making sure that magical games and sports are played without the possibility of discovery, such as the Quidditch World Cup.
The Quidditch World Cup.
Obviously, the Quidditch World Cup is a massive Wizarding event that takes years of planning, communication, and effort for all parties within the magical world to create. There is finding the actual site where the Championship can be held, transportation for nearly a hundred thousand witches and wizards, arranging where everyone is going to sleep (camp grounds, buildings, ect.), monitoring magical activities and making sure that the entire magical world isn't going to be exposed to the Muggle World.
It is improbable, if not impossible, to exclude Muggles entirely from an event this huge. Magical and non-magical paths are going to cross eventually, especially with such a huge crowd. Whilst the Wizarding World can attempt to use man power to hide the Cup's location, they are, of course, going to have to depend on magic for some of the work.
If Muggles happen to chance by some of these magical locations, there are charms set up to deter them from getting too close. Charms are set to erase their memories if they stumble across something unexplainable, or something that the Ministry does not want them to see. Also, charms can be set to repel Muggles from magical areas and to make magical buildings seem like dangerous, run-down shacks.
During the catastrophe that was the Ireland vs. Bulgaria Quidditch World Cup several years ago, Aurors and Obliviators were set to the task of erasing Muggle's mind when they became too suspicious of some of the activities occurring.
However, I am fondly reminded of the Muggle movie 'Men in Black' with their mind-erasing flashy pens, and I am forced to wonder if our magical memory charms might cause some permanent damage to a Muggle's mind. Now, the Statute of Secrecy started out as a way to protect magical beings from Muggles, but, in turn, it also turned out to be a way to protect Muggles from wizard and witch fanatics over time.
At this point in our history, is keeping the Magical World a secret from Muggles necessity or convenience? Is it easier to simply exclude Muggles from our culture for the mere reason we don't want to deal with them, or is our continued secrecy still in the best interests of the magical community. As mentioned many times in our histories, during the witch trials it was very simple for a witch or wizard to perform a simple charm to evade burning in the fires. If it was so simple for us to evade this persecution, and if we had memory charms, why didn't we just use them? It is possible that not everyone had knowledge of these charms so far back those decades, or even if they existed yet. However, most witches and wizards of the current era are well-versed in these charms, thus it would make it easier to avoid a sticky situation like that of the Salem Witch Trials. Of course it is counter-productive to show the Muggle world our abilities as witches and wizards just to erase them from their memory. In the end, it comes down to no longer protecting us from these Muggles, but protecting Muggles from us.
Also, with the media circus surrounding paranormal and mythical creatures these days, no one can pinpoint what the reaction of Muggles would be if they truly discovered real magic existed. A great many would embrace it and try to learn it, as so many already do, and the others would shun it and persecute those who can do such feats of magic. The show 'Charmed' ran on Muggle television for years and gained quite a large following because of the three sister witches.
However, I believe, depending on which country you lived in, the ability to persecute magic would be different. In the United States, there exists the standard of freedom of many concepts and ideas. If magic was introduced to the non-magical public, there would, more than likely, be amendments added to U.S. government laws protect these people if they were not viewed as a menace to society. Alas, if magical folk and creatures were viewed as a threat, who knows what kind of protests and riots would ensue.Moving on to another subject which baffles the mind. Along with having the Statute of Secrecy, the Underage Magic law exists to aid the Wizarding world's secrecy. Basically, this law states that no underage witch or wizard may perform magic without proper, predetermined supervision. However, in the rare chance that they do, the Ministry of Magic has no set way to determine who exactly performed the magic.
So, say an oh-so-adorable house-elf stops by to pay you a visit and you're a mere 12 years old...Well, this house-elf decides to levitate a cake over your family's house guest by magic! Guess who gets blamed for it? That poor, unsuspecting 12 year old.
I mean, look at him. Who could resist that? He loves Harry Potter....
Fluke in this underage magic theory? I think so. There is so much that could go wrong. Someone could be wrongly accused of preforming underage magic, which leads to false accusations, which leads to embarrassment of the Ministry of Magic, which leads to distrust and loss of respect for our government. This is an absolutely terrible fluke in our magical governing system.
There has to be another way to precisely pinpoint who cast the magic and which wand it came from. Of course, there is one way to see the spell last cast from a wand and that spell is 'Priori Incantato'' (not to be confused with the rare effect of Priori Incantatem). Now, I know there has been some confusion about this spell and the ability to delete a spell from your wand. The spell 'deletrius' in itself is easy to guess the meaning. It deletes spells; however it is quite misleading because it is only the counter-spell toPriori Incantato. It cannot delete previous cast spells.
So, if you kill someone using Avada Kedavra, the Ministry takes your wand, performs Priori Incantato, and you wand shows that the last spell you cast was the killing curse...
Say hello to Azkaban for me.
One last piece of intrigue before I send you off to your assignment.
The Gaunt Family
Morfin Gaunt was the son of Marvolo Gaunt. Marvolo also had a poorly abused daughter by the name of Merope. After an incident with the Ministry of Magic, Morfin and his father were sent to Akaban to serve sentences. Morfin received 3 years, whilst his father only had to serve 3 months. However, when Marvolo was released from Azkaban, he returned to an empty house since Merope had run off and married a Muggle man by means of trickery. Marvolo died before his son was released from prison.
Many years later, after Merope had given birth to Tom Riddle and died during child labor, Tom Riddle returned to his rightful birthplace in Little Hangleton. He went to visit the house where Morfin was dwelling to learn about his family.
After stunning Morfin, he went into the villiage and killed his Muggle father, his grandfather, and his grandmother with Morfin's wand. Then, Tom Riddle implanted the memories of him killing his family into Morfin's mind and framed Morfin for their murders.
Magical disaster.
Only Albus Dumbledore, on his quest to find out if Lord Voldemort had, in fact, created Horcruxes, discovered Morfin's innocence. By that time Morfin Gaunt was nearing death and would never see the world outside Azkaban again.
With so many ways to deceive the Ministry of Magic, how are any of us safe from being framed, blackmailed, or, even, how are any of us safe?
If you'll continue onto your next lesson, please.
An image of the adorable and well-meaning House-Elf Dobby.