I have a question.

[conuly]

Why do the wizards in Harry Potter live like they do?

If I were a member of a group of wizards back when there isn't much of a magical community and our kind was being persecuted, I wouldn't go back to live next to the people who 1. I didn't trust and 2. I would have to hide out from. The wizards in Harry Potter can expand space! They can hide things, even big things, completely from muggles. So why not collect the entire wizarding population and put it on an island or island chain somewhere in the ocean? There'd certainly be no need to limit the population growth, as long as you can expand space and build upwards. Okay, there might be a limit to how much they can expand space... but how high could that limit be? If they had several people working at it? Why would Hogsmeade have to be the largest wizard community in Britain? Why not collect all the wizards in one place from the beginning?

No sense, none at all.

Better question: Why don't the wizard supremacists/separatists separate more? Given how long the two worlds have been separate, you'd expect far more divergence in their language (even with a steady influx of muggle students, who after all could've been taken from their parents at birth, and the birth parents could've had their memories modified - memories are modified all the time), and their devices. Why toilets that flush into the lake (eww!)? Why not some sort of teleportation field - maybe an always-open floo - that opens into a volcano? Why sinks? Why not a magical "all purpose cleaner" for your hands? Why do they have to lug ink and pens around? Couldn't they find a way to, say, dictate their papers? Well, that one's a bit far-fetched.

Comments

[joannablack.livejournal.com]

Well, one thing's for sure in the Wizarding world, they aren't very organized and like their privacy. I think that if something like collecting all the wizards in the world (or even one country) was proposed, wizards wouldn't stand for it.

And um, hi! I'm JoAnna, I saw this post on my friends' friends page and thought I'd respond.

[conuly]

Well, one thing's for sure in the Wizarding world, they aren't very organized and like their privacy

Well, we know that they aren't very well organized, but I'm not so sure about privacy. Wizards NOW like it. Wizards way-back-when? Who knows? If I were building my new society from the ground up, the first thing I'd do is make sure my society is together.

And hi. Which friend?

[joannablack.livejournal.com]

I think xxrosencrantzxx maybe? I was just perusing my friends' friends (http://www.livejournal.com/users/joannablack/friendsfriends) page at large, but when I check your info, she's our only mutual friend.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

I figured that age 11 was the earliest you could reliably determine whether a half-Muggle kid was going to be magical or not. And losing your parents at that stage would be awful. Perhaps they tried isolation previously, but ended up with whole villages full of Lucius Malfoys and realized how bad that would end up.

I also figured the lake was magically cleaned, since nobody would want to swim in a cesspool. And not everyone can master the Scouring Charms right off--you have to have provisions for people who aren't as quick to pick up the magical ways of doing things. And I think the pens-and-ink is best explained as the "hardship is good for the soul" thing, since they're not allowed self-stirring cauldrons any more than Quick-Quotes Quills.

[conuly]

*shakes head slightly*

Let's think very logically.

You decide on an arbitrary cut-off point: kids over a certain age can't learn to become wizards. You take only those with powers strong enough that you can tell within a reletively short amount of time, maybe by the age of five. Modify their memories, while you're at it. Why not?

That's the logical, sensible thing to do. A bit heartless, maybe, but it makes sense. More sense than the current situation, anyway.

[tinchen.livejournal.com]

That's the logical, sensible thing to do. A bit heartless, maybe, but it makes sense. More sense than the current situation, anyway.
Logically, yes, but I always had the impression that the "good" wizards act very caring and "soft". If they wanted to build an army of wizards, they would support your plan, but they all seem to go by the philosophy that being like water is in the end far more powerful than being the stone. All through the books Dumbledore is very nice and friendly with the kids and he only shows his true powers and strength when faced with grown-ups. No matter how dumb or dangerous the action of the pupils are, he's never overly hard or something like that. It's the exact opposite of the Dark Lord, they act with warmth and forgiveness and He acts cold and when you make a mistake you're history.

As to why they aren't in one place: I guess that's because the time where the Dark Lord was in power isn't that long ago. A small village like Hogsmead was easy to protect, especially since it was close to Dumbledore, but all the other wizards had to hide before Him and that was easier between lots of muggles.
And there's always the fact that there is a part of the wizarding world that really wants to be closer to the muggles again and end this isolation.
Plus I sometimes even got the impression that the muggles are some kind of pets for the wizards "oh, look how silly those are... isn't it cute?". There are a lot of muggles who know that there are wizards. There seem to be two groups, those who say nothing because they're friendly towards them or at least are not hostile and those who hate wizards but those just try to ignore the fact that the wizards are real. (Or it's just that those who'd talk are laughed at by other muggles or mind-wiped by wizards...)

Quills:
I think that's some kind of nostalgia. On the one hand, they don't want to make it too easy for the pupils and on the other hand they like the flair that goes along with quills and such. They like a great big castle to live in, they have fireplaces and they dress in those robes. It got style and a certain flair of agelessness, I guess.

[joannablack.livejournal.com]

Well, one thing's for sure in the Wizarding world, they aren't very organized and like their privacy. I think that if something like collecting all the wizards in the world (or even one country) was proposed, wizards wouldn't stand for it.

And um, hi! I'm JoAnna, I saw this post on my friends' friends page and thought I'd respond.

[conuly]

Well, one thing's for sure in the Wizarding world, they aren't very organized and like their privacy

Well, we know that they aren't very well organized, but I'm not so sure about privacy. Wizards NOW like it. Wizards way-back-when? Who knows? If I were building my new society from the ground up, the first thing I'd do is make sure my society is together.

And hi. Which friend?

[joannablack.livejournal.com]

I think xxrosencrantzxx maybe? I was just perusing my friends' friends (http://www.livejournal.com/users/joannablack/friendsfriends) page at large, but when I check your info, she's our only mutual friend.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

I figured that age 11 was the earliest you could reliably determine whether a half-Muggle kid was going to be magical or not. And losing your parents at that stage would be awful. Perhaps they tried isolation previously, but ended up with whole villages full of Lucius Malfoys and realized how bad that would end up.

I also figured the lake was magically cleaned, since nobody would want to swim in a cesspool. And not everyone can master the Scouring Charms right off--you have to have provisions for people who aren't as quick to pick up the magical ways of doing things. And I think the pens-and-ink is best explained as the "hardship is good for the soul" thing, since they're not allowed self-stirring cauldrons any more than Quick-Quotes Quills.

[conuly]

*shakes head slightly*

Let's think very logically.

You decide on an arbitrary cut-off point: kids over a certain age can't learn to become wizards. You take only those with powers strong enough that you can tell within a reletively short amount of time, maybe by the age of five. Modify their memories, while you're at it. Why not?

That's the logical, sensible thing to do. A bit heartless, maybe, but it makes sense. More sense than the current situation, anyway.

[tinchen.livejournal.com]

That's the logical, sensible thing to do. A bit heartless, maybe, but it makes sense. More sense than the current situation, anyway.
Logically, yes, but I always had the impression that the "good" wizards act very caring and "soft". If they wanted to build an army of wizards, they would support your plan, but they all seem to go by the philosophy that being like water is in the end far more powerful than being the stone. All through the books Dumbledore is very nice and friendly with the kids and he only shows his true powers and strength when faced with grown-ups. No matter how dumb or dangerous the action of the pupils are, he's never overly hard or something like that. It's the exact opposite of the Dark Lord, they act with warmth and forgiveness and He acts cold and when you make a mistake you're history.

As to why they aren't in one place: I guess that's because the time where the Dark Lord was in power isn't that long ago. A small village like Hogsmead was easy to protect, especially since it was close to Dumbledore, but all the other wizards had to hide before Him and that was easier between lots of muggles.
And there's always the fact that there is a part of the wizarding world that really wants to be closer to the muggles again and end this isolation.
Plus I sometimes even got the impression that the muggles are some kind of pets for the wizards "oh, look how silly those are... isn't it cute?". There are a lot of muggles who know that there are wizards. There seem to be two groups, those who say nothing because they're friendly towards them or at least are not hostile and those who hate wizards but those just try to ignore the fact that the wizards are real. (Or it's just that those who'd talk are laughed at by other muggles or mind-wiped by wizards...)

Quills:
I think that's some kind of nostalgia. On the one hand, they don't want to make it too easy for the pupils and on the other hand they like the flair that goes along with quills and such. They like a great big castle to live in, they have fireplaces and they dress in those robes. It got style and a certain flair of agelessness, I guess.