#muggleborns

I have talked about it in the past a few times, I believe. This post, is one, for example.

Now, I don't think Harry is unobservant; he is occasionally selective in what he observes, but he is quite perceptive and notices way more than people give him credit for — so, I don't think that's the main factor here. So, no, I don't think Hermione's relationship with her parents is great, but I don't think it's bad either.

I agree Hermione likely didn't have friends in her former Muggle school (though, I can see her having one or two friends, who she wasn't super close to, but could sit with. That being said, all ties with them would've been cut once she got to Hogwarts). That is definitely the impression I got, and her bossy and self-assured behaviour speaks of a spoiled only child, which she is.

Her parents are dentists; they live very comfortably and can go on vacations out of the country every year. They went to France, as you mentioned, but they also went skiing multiple times in the past. She comes to Hogwarts as a swotty-know-it-all who is comfortably middle-class and is used to getting her way. She never lacked anything material growing up; there was always food on the table, and nice new clothes if she wanted them, and any toy or book she wished for, and her parents had no other child to spoil and buy all this for. I think she was loved growing up, but I don't think she was ever close to her parents, because the facts are:

She rarely talks about them. Even early on, and when she does, it's only to bring up their job as dentists; she doesn't really know them well as people, despite all their vacations together. Once she enters the wizarding world and realises how Muggles/muggleborns are treated there, she is very purposefully choosing to be a full-time witch. She cuts her parents out of her life long before she oblivates them.

We see her stay most holidays in the wizarding world, be it school, summer break at the Weasleys, hell, even Christmas since second year she spends away from her parents. Cutting them off more and more.

And we see muggleborns that are in touch with their families:

Colin Creevey brings a camera to Hogwarts just so he can send photos to his parents and keep them involved in his life. He clearly loves his parents and is proud to be related to his father, whom he mentions. Hermione does none of that. She seems almost ashamed to bring up dentistry when clearly the wizards don't care.

I think Hermione loves her parents, and her parents love her, but she doesn't want them involved in the wizarding world. She keeps her two worlds very separated. She actively lies to them about the danger she and her friends are in. She doesn't want them to worry, or worse, not let her come back to Hogwarts. So she lies:

“What are you doing here?” Harry asked her, pulling open the door, as Buckbeak resumed his scratching at the straw-strewn floor for any fragments of rat he might have dropped. “I thought you were skiing with your mum and dad.” “Well, to tell the truth, skiing’s not really my thing,” said Hermione. “So I’ve come for Christmas.” There was snow in her hair and her face was pink with cold. “But don’t tell Ron that, I told him it’s really good because he kept laughing so much. Anyway, Mum and Dad are a bit disappointed, but I’ve told them that everyone who’s serious about the exams is staying at Hogwarts to study. They want me to do well, they’ll understand. Anyway,” she said briskly, “let’s go to your bedroom, Ron’s mum’s lit a fire in there and she’s sent up sandwiches.”

(OotP)

Her parents want to spend time with the daughter they sent to wizard school and barely see, and they are trying so hard to be supportive of her and her studies (I kinda headcanon the family vacations were a new thing. That before Hogwarts, they didn't go as often, but they were trying to connect to Hermione). I assume they told her all her childhood how smart and brilliant she is whenever she brought home a good exam — hence her confidence.

Hermione is the first in the trio to offer to go to an adult with any problems they have — this speaks of her having had a support network. She had people who were there that will help her with certain issues — the big issues.

Since she also acts like she expects herself to be able to handle things on her own. She takes problems she sees as "small" into her own hands, and wants to bring up "big" problems to Dumbledore or McGonagall. She acts a lot like she was told growing up that she is so responsible and mature for her age, and she really took it to heart. I sorta assume that even in her Muggle school, she'd deal with her lack of friends or any bullying she may have encountered on her own because she was "the mature and smart one" and she should be able to handle it on her own — hence her tendency

Now, the blame is kind of on both parties. Her parents probably did make her feel like she should be able to handle her own issues herself, and allowed her a lot of independence growing up (which isn't necessarily a bad thing!). From the little we hear about them, they seem like they are very concerned with their jobs as dentists and it's one of the only things Hermione brings them up with.

Hedwig had returned from Hermione’s house with a large box stuffed full of sugar-free snacks. (Hermione’s parents were dentists.)

(GoF)

So they are probably a little strict and very preoccupied with their work. It's possible, growing up, Hermione felt their jobs came first and she came second to that, since their job is the only thing she mentions about them. That being said, they probably taught her to love books and reading and strive for academic success, but they are probably also the ones to instil in her values of courage and kindness. I think her childhood was a happy one at home, even if she was never super close to her parents and was a mostly self-reliant kid.

But when Hermione entered the Wizarding World, the distance grew. Because Hermione knew she was a fish out of water and she wants to be seen as a real witch and part of this world so damn much. So she learns, and studies, and stops bringing up her Muggle parents.

And she acts like a witch. She looks down on her parents, in a way. Yes, she loves them, but she is condescending towards them. She doesn't see them as authority figures or people who are supposed to protect her — because they're muggles and she's a witch. She sees them as incapable of protecting her and helping her. So she makes it her job to protect them and decide what's best for them, because Hermione believes she always knows best. So when she thinks the best way to protect them is to erase their memories and uproot their lives completely, she does so, without asking them. because they are muggles, and she's a witch, and she knows better.

I think, with all Hermione says in DH that she is a "Mudblood, and proud of it!", she doesn't act it. Like, look at the difference throughout the series:

“You will keep looking while I’m away, won’t you?” said Hermione. “And send me an owl if you find anything.” “And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is,” said Ron. “It’d be safe to ask them.” “Very safe, as they’re both dentists,” said Hermione.

(PS)

Hermione almost doesn't want to leave in book 1, she doesn't want to miss out on the search for Flamel. She sees her parents as safe to ask because they're dentists, because they are so muggle and disconnected from this world. I think she doesn't believe her parents would know anything important about Flamel because they are dentists.

but he was distracted almost at once by the sight of Hermione’s  parents, who were standing nervously at the counter that ran all along the great marble hall, waiting for Hermione to introduce them. “But you’re Muggles!” said Mr. Weasley delightedly. “We must have a drink! What’s that you’ve got there? Oh, you’re changing Muggle money. Molly, look!” He pointed excitedly at the ten-pound notes in Mr. Granger’s hand.

(CoS)

Hermione nodded, beaming. “Mum and Dad dropped me off this morning with all my Hogwarts things.”

(PoA)

Early in the series, her parents come shopping with her, from her 1st to her 3nd year. They are involved and try their best to understand the Wizarding World for their daughter's sake, even though they don't really get it.

And they likely aren't stupid. They see they are being treated like zoo animals by wizards, even wizards who like muggles, like Arthur. But Hermione probably tells them it's fine, that no one cares that she is muggleborn, so they won't worry.

She thinks about them and talks about them and what they like:

“We can do all our Christmas shopping there!” said Hermione. “Mum and Dad would really love those Toothflossing Stringmints from Honeydukes!”

(PoA)

(Again, they sound like they are too serious and like their work is their whole life). And while she thinks about them, we see she clearly prefers the magical world to the muggle one. She likes shopping there better. She likes living there better, and we see how she slowly does just move in with the Weasleys for the summer since 4th year, which is when we start seeing the distance grow more:

Hermione suddenly smiled very mischievously, and Harry noticed it too: It was a very different smile from the one he remembered. “Well . . . when I went up to Madam Pomfrey to get them shrunk, she held up a mirror and told me to stop her when they were back to how they normally were,” she said. “And I just . . . let her carry on a bit.” She smiled even more widely. “Mum and Dad won’t be too pleased. I’ve been trying to persuade them to let me shrink them for ages, but they wanted me to carry on with my braces. You know, they’re dentists, they just don’t think teeth and magic should — look! Pigwidgeon’s back!”

(GoF)

I think this scene is an important one. I think Hermione is right that shrinking her teeth magically is fine, but it shows the distance I was talking about — her parents don't understand magic. They don't understand her, and she feels like a stranger in her own home, and neither party is really taking the right steps to bridge that gap. And like I mentioned, she is the witch, she knows better than the muggles, in her opinion, she doesn't need her parents' permission or approval. And this distance just keeps growing:

“Thanks,” said Hermione. “Erm — Harry — could I borrow Hedwig so I can tell Mum and Dad? They’ll be really pleased — I mean, prefect is something they can understand — ”

(OotP)

Because she stops telling them about things they won't understand. She just shares academic achievements that they can understand as muggles. No need to worry them, no need to bring them into her world. She gave up on them understanding her life. She lies to them about staying at Hogwarts for school that year. She loves them, she wants them to be proud of her, but it's a distant sort of memory of how things were. After all, she rarley ever writes to them. Ron gets letters from home, Harry gets letters from Sirius — Hermione doesn't get letters from home and very rarley sends them.

Then, in the summer before 6th year, she's at the Weasleys again. Her parents don't really see her since the end of her 3rd year. They missed so many of their daughter's formative years, and she doesn't confide in them about anything she goes through. They probably don't know she was petrified in 2nd year, or time-travelled for a whole year. So is it really that strange that they aren't close, and they don't know her, and she doesn't know them?

Well, I don’t know whether it’s really like this or simply my own impression, but I’ve always seen Severus as a person full of dualities. His life is marked by never fully belonging anywhere: he’s a Slytherin, yet his best friend is a Gryffindor; he wants to join the Death Eaters, but the person he has the strongest bond with is a muggle-born girl; he works as a double spy for the Order, where nobody appreciates him, while harming the Death Eaters, where he is valued, even if only on a utilitarian level; his life unfolds in the magical world and his entire universe is there, and yet he continues to live in the muggle house of his childhood. It’s as if he never completely belongs anywhere, as if he’s always out of place, always caught between two worlds.

And this is directly linked to his own nature as a half-blood. There’s one thing I really dislike, and that is equating a half-blood like Harry whose two parents were wizards and whose two parents belonged to the magical world (we know that muggle-borns gradually sever ties with their origins over the years)— with someone like Severus, who is literally half muggle. Not only in terms of blood, but in terms of cognitive and social development. Severus was born in the muggle world, had a muggle father, grew up among muggles, lived in a muggle environment. His entire upbringing was muggle, with magical education from his mother, yes, but everything else was still muggle. There is a duality in him that never disappears —the duality of being half and half— and that later reflects itself in every other aspect of his life.

For example, the duality between having adopted manners, education, and ways of presenting himself as someone impenetrable, someone with perfect control over his thoughts and emotions, and then losing his temper, exploding, behaving like a child, and spitting words because he’s furious. Severus is half wizard, half muggle; he’s a man with an education but also a working-class kid; he’s someone with a great deal of self-control but very easy to anger. He is many things at once, and specifically many things that are diametrically opposed. And I think people tend to latch onto some of these traits and not others, and often don’t go deeper into the nuances of both sides.

Why does he continue to live in the family house when that house carries so much trauma? Why, being someone whose life is rooted in the magical world, does he keep returning to the muggle world so consistently? I think that is the foundation of everything else; it’s what lies beneath the surface. And I think it’s incredibly interesting to explore when you’re portraying the character in a fic —something that isn’t done very often, or at least not that I’ve seen— this constant balancing act between all his halves.

I think he carries a lot of internal rejection (which is understandable, not only because of his past, but also because magical society has absolutely no respect for muggles) toward everything that has to do with the non-magical world. But at the same time, it’s part of who he is, because he grew up there. And I think a very interesting perspective is seeing how he might reconcile himself with that part of him, which actually becomes very present when he lets his guard down. Because when he explodes and stops repressing himself, that side of him as a rough, lower-class kid is what truly comes out, and it’s fascinating.

In favor of Classism:

1. Muggleborns and Purebloods can come from anywhere and be any ethnicity and it’s interesting that nearly all of the muggleborns are canonically white.

2. The fact that they use “Status” and more than once, Purists are canonically stated to see themselves as practically Royalty and use Royal terms. (Lord, Prince, Noble and the Slytherins called Ron “Our King” to mock him.)

3. Tne fact that quite a few Purebloods are rich and Draco the main Slytherin, often bullies based on class. (Mocking the Weasleys being poor a lot.)

4. Muggleborns don’t appear to suffer much if any discrimination from anyone other than death eaters and their supporters. They are able to live in society just fine and appear to have equal rights.

Okay.

Okay. There's a lot going on here.

I'm going to start with two caveats. The first is that I genuinely do not think JKR handled this issue especially consistently or well. And the second is that historically, America and Britain think about classism differently. ESPECIALLY when you're comparing American and British literature.

I'm going broad strokes and simplifying, but in general America has a very deep seated narrative of - bootstrap your way into success, hard work is virtuous, success in business means you're worthwhile and respectable as a person. Buying your way into the American upper class was much more a *thing* than buying your way into the British upper class. (of course, it was also much harder if you were a disenfranchised minority, but it was usually still possible.)

The British upper class is less about money, and more about - continuity, who is your family, who are your people, do you know the way things are supposed to be done. British literature is full of people who are both upper class AND broke, which is not really a trope that you see in American literature. But we do see the 'impoverished aristocrat' in Harry Potter with the Gaunts and the Weasleys - undeniably pureblood, undeniably poor. Even the Blacks are dealing with threadbare carpets, there's definitely an implication of "declining wealth" during the main timeline.

Also, there is the idea of being wealthy but not accepted by the upper class... which is an idea in American literature too of course - Jay Gatsby's whole thing is he made his money the 'wrong way' and doesn't come from a 'good family.' So it doesn't really matter how wealthy he is, Old Money Daisy is going to go with Old Money Tom, because they're Of A Type. The characters in the Great Gatsby still have a foot in what I would consider to be this older type of classism, where even if the young prince is raised as a goatherd or whatever, his Good Blood will inevitably manifest. The problem with the Weasleys is not just that they're poor (although that's part of it.) The problem is that they're "blood traitors," ie not *culturally* pureblood, not doing things the Right Way."

Because of all this - the kind of 'aristocratic' classism we see in Harry Potter is going to feel much more racially charged to an American reader, because we don't really have that 'well how OLD is your family/your money' thing quite as much. But we do have disenfranchised racial minorities that have been part of the country's history since day one. And to be fair, there are little bits of anti-muggleborn sentiment in the Harry Potter books that actually do read like classism (like the social climbing narrative Rita Skeeter builds around Hermione.)

.... that said ...

I do think JKR rather enjoyed being praised for speaking out against racism, even if she hadn't been doing it 100%-totally-on-purpose. I've written about how the house-elves almost certainly started as a classism thing, that were then kind of clumsily turned into a racism thing, and I do think a similar thing might have happened with muggleborns.

The first type of societal muggleborn discrimination we see in the books is 'muggleborns shouldn't be allowed to go to magic schools.' This is the case with Durmstrang - it just doesn't let muggleborns in, full stop - and Draco (also presumably Lucius, because baby Draco just parrots Lucius) thinks that Hogwarts should do the same thing. To an American familiar with school segregation and Jim Crow laws, this feels really racial. To an Brit familiar with the idea of needing to be part of the right family in order to get into Eton, this could absolutely be classism as well.

But, once we hit the later books, the anti-muggle born stuff fits more into the 'contagion' narrative of racism, and also eugenics. Lots of stuff about how muggleborns are 'weakening' wizards overall (by stealing magic.) Which is absolutely a thing in racist narratives, that 'x group is weakening society' part. There's also a lot of "miscegenation" type stuff when it comes to muggle/wizard marriages, also a lot of animalistic word choices like "breeding" and discussing muggles as though they're subhuman, which has unfortunately also been a thing in racist worldviews. But it's also a slightly different narrative from the one muggleborns get, which is more "infiltrator" coded. The closest historical parallel I think I can make would probably be jewish people, or romani. The whole 'blood status' thing sounds pretty darn similar to the 'racial status' thing of the Nazi Nuremberg Laws, although JKR apparently did this accidentally.

(and yeah, the goblins are also Jewish coded, almost certainly unintentionally. like I said, the whole thing isn't very well thought out.)

Just in general, there isn't much in the way of racial politics in the Harry Potter books at all. I mean, for one thing... pretty much everyone is white. The only canonically non-white characters in the Harry Potter series are:

Dean Thomas

Lee Jordan

Blaise Zabini

Angelina Johnson

Padma & Parvati Patil

Cho Chang

Kingsley Shacklebolt.

POSSIBLY Kendra Dumbledore. (she's described as "looking like photographs Harry had seen of Native Americans. So, idk, that isn't nothing?)

And of that list - Blaise, the Patils and Kingsley seem to be purebloods, Dean's a muggleborn (I know there's a cut backstory where he's a half-blood who thinks he's a muggleborn, whatever, in the book he's a muggleborn.) And Kendra's muggleborn. Also, Hermione is has been played by a black actress in both of the most recent Harry Potter projects, and... idk, that probably means something. Probably that JKR has become fonder of that "racism" read of "muggle-born."

Alright, since we’re getting intense, I’m going to get intense too, because I’m honestly sick of people having such a bourgeois, neoliberal understanding of vulnerability and privilege.

First of all, Lily wasn’t a proletarian or an oppressed minority by the standards of the wizarding world, but rather part of the dominant class within it, especially considering that muggleborns didn’t actually face any kind of real systemic discrimination until Voldemort took over the Ministry in 1997.

The magical system is, essentially, a highly stratified class society. At the top you have the “pureblood” wizards, owners of inherited wealth — both economic and cultural prestige — and a monopoly on culture, though not political power, which is key here because they don’t hold absolute legal or political control, but merely symbolic superiority in terms of status. Just below them sit the half-bloods and muggleborns who, despite being considered “lower” by pureblood discourse, still enjoy the same legal rights (access to Hogwarts, jobs in the Ministry, the ability to own property, bank accounts, economic independence…) as their pureblood peers. And then at the margins, you have squibs, muggles, and in an even more precarious position, non-humans (house-elves, goblins, giants, werewolves).

Lily, therefore, was never born into those margins: she had full access to the elite reproduction system, shared class privileges, and could actively participate in the structures of magical power. From the very start, her position was that of a “plebeian nobility,” granted selective inclusion mechanisms but at every moment, she had the same rights and opportunities as any pureblood, because there was no social or systemic tool that actually excluded her from anything.

And let’s be clear about what those rights and privileges were, because this matters: she had full educational and professional rights. Being muggleborn never closed doors for her, neither for education nor for any job she might have wanted in the wizarding world. She had the same rights and resources as any pureblood and on top of that, she was favored by several professors. So not even in that sense did she suffer discrimination or barriers.

Lily also had a solid family structure and relational capital. Her muggle parents had enough resources to support both of their daughters decently, they adored her and treated her like some kind of prodigy. And then she went on to marry James Potter, who came from a wealthy, influential family with generational wealth and social capital tied to his blood status and last name. All of this guaranteed Lily a political, economic, and social safety net that no exploited or marginalized member of any system possesses.

And let’s not forget that she didn’t just have the right to study, work, and marry whoever she wanted like any pureblood, she also had the same privileges as any wizard, including the capacity for exploitation. Lily could’ve literally owned a house-elf if she wanted to. The capacity to exploit sentient life is a clear marker of a position at the top of a social pyramid, only those with power or privilege have the legal and social right to decide over others’ lives.

And this is exclusive to magical humans. Not all humans are treated equally in Harry Potter’s world: squibs have no access to magic or respectable jobs, muggles are treated like useless, clueless children, and non-human beings like elves and goblins aren’t even recognized as political subjects. So talking about Lily’s “vulnerability” is like comparing the position of a landowning noble to that of a peasant: sure, both get rained on — in this case, by Voldemort — but one has the machinery, networks, and capital to weather the storm, and the other has nothing.

The war against Voldemort wasn’t a conflict between oppressors and oppressed, it was a power struggle within the magical bourgeoisie and aristocracy, wealthy families fighting over who gets to define the social order. The Order of the Phoenix wasn’t defending the oppressed masses, they were defending the status quo that had always benefited them. The opposing side simply wanted to reshuffle aristocrats (and some non-human auxiliaries) in the distribution of power quotas.

If there had truly been a revolutionary impulse for the emancipation of marginalized groups, they would’ve dismantled house-elf slavery, ended the marginalization of goblins, and secured political representation for squibs. But the Order never intended to abolish the corrupt, discriminatory, unequal system they lived in, they just wanted to maintain their privileges while ensuring that human wizards remained on top and everyone else stayed in their place.

Painting Lily Evans as a “victim of persecution” serves a clear hegemonic function: it legitimizes the intervention of the upper middle class in the name of the “oppressed,” without ever questioning the system itself. It’s a simulacrum narrative that smooths over the essential contradiction: the same families claiming to “defend muggleborns” were clinging to their feudal privileges. In Marxist terms, it’s classic “moderate leftism” that lends legitimacy to the existing power structures, diverting attention from the real class struggle into a moralist “good versus evil” play between members of the same ruling class.

Lily wasn’t “forced” into the war, she fought because that conflict aligned with her class interests: protecting her social circle, her wealthy friends, and her own status. She could’ve easily left for the muggle world, gone anonymous, and lived comfortably. She wasn’t driven by poverty or systemic repression, but by loyalty to her own class and a voluntarist political impulse that was, frankly, condescending towards the truly oppressed because, remember, she was fighting to preserve her privileges in the wizarding world, not to make it fairer or more democratic for everyone. She wasn’t fighting for a systemic restructuring where, say, free elections would break the Ministry’s plutocracy. She wasn’t fighting to abolish slavery. She wasn’t fighting to grant non-human beings political rights or full citizenship. No, she was fighting to maintain her access to the ruling elite.

If we conduct a realistic sociopolitical analysis, Lily is the embodiment of Hogwarts’ bourgeois elite: she shared with purebloods all the levers of power, held capital (economic, social, and symbolic), and actively participated in reproducing that system. The “danger” only came when that system risked aligning itself with Voldemort. But the real structural oppression was never against muggleborns like her — it was against those not even considered political subjects with rights.

So, if you insist on portraying Lily as some kind of class martyr, you’re romanticizing the “resistance” of a privileged woman against another sector of the privileged. The real revolution, the one that would abolish house-elf slavery, shatter the monopoly of magical humans, grant voting rights to squibs and muggles regarding decisions that affect them, and dismantle the pseudo-feudal society they lived in was never the Order’s concern.

specifically, what got me thinking was this part:

There is no excuse for how [Petunia] treated Harry, but she also didn't ask for this. Honestly, *someone* could have explained how to handle a magical child safely. It probably wouldn't have helped, but no one even tried to hand her the tools (which is very much in line with how wizards operate in general. Muggle safety just doesn't bother them, and children's rights lol).

whilst Muggle safety certainly doesn't seem to be the wizarding world's top concern, they are extremely strict about upholding the Statute of Secrecy:

“But what does a Ministry of Magic do?” “Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there’s still witches an’ wizards up an’ down the country.”

meanwhile, and apparently in direct opposition to this goal, Muggle-born - or otherwise magical kids living in Muggle areas, like Harry/Snape/Tom Riddle - are just left out there doing all sorts of quite obvious things (un)intentionally:

moving objects without touching them (Tom)

controlling animals without training them (Tom)

causing harm to people who annoy them (Tom)

snapping branches to land on people (Sev)

floating/flying (Lily; Harry)

manipulating flower petals (Lily)

turning a teacher’s wig blue (Harry)

shrinking a jumper so it wouldn't fit (Harry)

regrowing hair overnight (Harry)

speaking to a snake in Parseltongue (Harry)

making glass vanish to free the snake (Harry)

that's examples from precisely four kids, most of whom we don't spent a huge amount of time with as kids in the book - and presumably kids like Tom and Lily had done this multiple more times each, having an advanced control of wandless magic for their age - and the wizarding world just sort of... hopes that nobody will notice probably hundreds of kids doing weird stuff like that every year, ever since the statute was introduced, with more and more examples year on year?

I know the series' treatment of Muggles in general leaves a lot to be desired (as does JKR's worldbuilding), and Muggles are "not completely stupid" (read: are typically really stupid) and can't or won't see anything relating to magic as actually magical... but it's still an absolutely insane political decision on behalf of the Ministry to essentially just hope for the best until Hogwarts sends a letter at age eleven. eleven years!! tens/hundreds of kids per year!! it's their main job!! to keep it a secret!! and they do not contact these students!! or their parents!! until the age of eleven!!! that must be actually HUNDREDS of students doing weird magical stuff with absolutely no explanation, just waiting to be seen - and that's to say nothing that multiple years of pre-Hogwarts children are out there wreaking havoc, plus some who accidentally/intentionally use magic even at Hogwarts age (Harry blowing up his aunt vs Snape shooting down flies in his room).

sure, we can say that anyone who speaks up will be ridiculed in the Muggle world - but why not, just for the sake of calming the secretive waters, send a few Arthur types out to say, this is fine, actually, and please keep it a secret? And, if we're going extra-canon, there's a whole book that could be used to try and stop this from ever becoming a problem, plus magic to ensure the secret was never spilled - even if the Muggle parents wanted to, say, go to the press with their magical toddler.

I know it wasn't really so much of a concern back when the books were written, but these days, you can absolutely guarantee something like that would be filmed eventually - and although the Muggles (said with appropriately derogatory wizarding disgust) would probably put it down to camera trickery, the Ministry are entirely unequipped to handle magic being documented using Muggle technology.

Taking a slightly more unhinged approach to this, think of how this might play out with that certain kind of New Age or otherwise highly religious parent with a magical child, or even - god forbid - antivaxxers. (Imagine the very specific subset of Muggle parents who will surely convince themselves that vaccines give you magic because accidental magic starts happening around the same age 😂)

In any case, accidental magic would end up on all sorts of forums and private facebook pages, and the Ministry worker who's never encountered a computer struggling to even so much as open a laptop and see how badly their tip-top secret has been leaked to the Muggles

And, since I've been watching a lot of X Files recently, how long does it take for one of these kids to be taken and/or experimented on? Or become some religious/cult figure? Who's to say they haven't been before?

I was listening to "La Macarena" the other day and for some reason I came up with this scenario randomly, but hear me (or read me) out:

Everyone is having a normal day at Hogwarts, or maybe it's during the yule ball of Harry's fourth year, but it's between Harry's 1st and 5th years for sure, before the 6th.

Everything is normal and randomly, out of nowhere, a famous known muggle song of those that EVERYONE knows the dance, or part of the dance of, starts playing, like La Macarena, or Gamnam Style, or somethinglike that, and EVERY . SINGLE . MUGGLE-BORN, MUGGLE-RAISED, or just anyone with extensive muggle knowledge, starts dancing the correspondent dance out of nowhere, in perfect synchronization, no word exchanged between one another, just a knowing glance.

And the pure-bloods, or just those raised purely in the magical world, or blood purist, or those along those lines, are just watching like "wtf?" but also middly impressed.

And at the end, juts, picture Malfoy aproaching Potter, who also danced 'cause, muggle-raised, and asks him "what was that?" and Harry is like "when you hear that song, you HAVE to do the dance, everyone knows it." and Draco is like "I never heard of that." and Harry like, "it's a muggle thing, you wouldn't understand.".

And from then on, every muggle-related student, just starts playing random famous songs and everyone that knows them starts either dancing or singing and is just a tradition that gets passed down generation to generation, and some of the teachers might be slightly bothered by it because mayority of them were raised in the magical world, but Snape, having been raised in the muggle world, knows a lot of this songs and has secretly been keepping up with the new releases in the music industry, and is actually secretly enjoying the music and actually encourages and sometimes even sugests or even plays some songs, just to piss off the pureblood students and staff .

Lily had been enjoying a quiet evening out by the Black Lake. After classes and dinner were finished for the day, the a Gryffindor had opted for studying under her favorite tree. She was half way through a charms essay when the sound of approaching footsteps broke her concentration.

Sighing, the Prefect looked up from her parchment, unsurprised to see Regulus Black, Barty Crouch Jr., and Evan Rosier staring back at her. She had expected this eventually.

“You’re here to give me the Shovel talk, I presume?”

“The what?”

Lily rolled her eyes playfully at the pureblood ignorance of the Slytherin trio standing in front of her.

“Allow me to rephrase. Are you here to give me the protective brother/best friend talk? I assume Pandora has told you about us.”

“What is a shovel?”

“And what does it have to do with you dating Panda?”

Lily rolled her unfinished essay carefully, before closing her Charms book and placing both items back in her satchel. She would not be getting any more work done tonight, it seemed.

“A shovel is a muggle tool most commonly used for digging dirt. It is also a common muggle phrase for the ‘intentions’ speech given to people when they start dating someone, because these speeches usually contain some sort of death threat if the person mistreats their partner. Muggles often joke about ‘burying the body’ of the offender if they wrong their loved ones. Hence the ‘shovel talk’, I suspect you’re here to relay.”

All six eyes before her widened in surprise and understanding at her explanation.

“You are partially correct in your assumption, Evans.” Regulus was the first to respond in his posh yet curt manner.

Evan spoke next, picking the sentiment up right where Regulus had trailed off; the three Slytherins working in tandem like a well oiled machine.

“If you hurt her, you will have to answer to the three of us, yes. However, my sister is more than capable of taking care of herself, and that is the true warning.”

The Gryffindor nodded in agreement, she understood this well.