Jumping the Puddle - Wizardry in the States

[lunar_music]

I've always been a voracious reader. In upper elementary school, I discovered the Harry Potter books, and loved them to pieces - literally, in the case of my first copy of Prisoner of Azkaban. I was, therefore, rather non-plussed when my eleventh birthday came and went without a Hogwarts acceptance letter. It took me more than six years to realize

Comments

[hobbits_friend]

I think you actually believe what you're saying *lol* ;)
Anyway, great essay!
There's only one thing I disagree with:
After all, it seems that if there's even one magical parent, the children are almost always magical. Wizarding America would, for the most part, be a nation of half-bloods.
I think there are a lot of kids, who have a magical parent and they don't have magic, we just never see them, because they are - of course - not at Hogwarts and Harry hasn't any close friends who are half-bloods, where we could find out about siblings. (I can only remember Seamus, but we don't know if he has siblings. If he had brothers or sisters who attended Hogwarts, he would have probably mentioned it in the first book, when he told about his parents.)

[contrail]

Actually, according to JKR's website, "A Squib is almost the opposite of a Muggle-born wizard: he or she is a non-magical person born to at least one magical parent. Squibs are rare; magic is a dominant and resilient gene." (Emphasis mine; You can read the quote in context here.) So most of the time, a wizard and Muggle marriage will produce wizards.

- Contrail

[lunar_music]

^*^ Maybe I half do. I live inside my own head far too much of the time.

Two reasons I have for my half-blood claim:

The definition of squib (which Contrail already dug out for you)

And if not all children of magical/muggle unions are magical, then wizarding seclusion would have to he a lot less strict than it seems to be to have as many half-bloods at Hogwarts as there are.

[snape_in_lurve]

How interesting. I have a fan fic series about Snape's son - who grew up in America - and I made the American Witching World different in similar ways that you describe. Fiercely independent, no ministry to speak of, more mixing in with the non magical population, no need to register as an animagus, etc etc - much more fast and loose than their English cousins

[lunar_music]

Sorry I didn't reply earlier... I meant to, but then I had to get to chemistry...

Anyway, I guess great minds think alike, then, eh? XD The bits about apparation are good; I guess I hadn't thought that part through.

Could I get a link to the fanfic series? I don't generally read much fanfic, but it's mostly because I get frustrated trying to dig through the badfic.

[snape_in_lurve]

Tx - sorry if I got a bit stroppy - but I thought I was being ignored.

The fan fic series is not finished and probably will never be - I wrote it for my Goddaughter - who despises HP by the way - but wanted me to write her into some fics - so I did.

They are rough there are typos and I don't feel like editing it - but I'll put it on my LJ for a couple of days - I'm not good at linking - just go to Snape_in_Lurve journal -

I hope you won't think it's crap - but it's ok if you do - I think most fan fics are crap as well - but I think these are ok - superficial and silly - but ok - but most people aren't interested in them because it's not about the 'current' characters - funny thing - I have the whole 'HP Next Generation World' all worked out - but I stopped writing because - what's the point - the series will be over soon - and - eventually - no one will care!

[lunar_music]

I dunno about that. The Lord of the Rings series has been over for fifty years, and people are still writing and reading LotR fanfic.

And actually, I prefer fanfic that uses original characters well - except, you know, when they're Half-Veela-Werewolf-Vampire-Transfer-Sues-From-Japan. Those get annoying after a while.

[ebailey140]

They wouldn't call the Wizarding Government a "Ministry", certainly, as we don't have those in the States. America would have a Department of Magic and the Supernatural or a Magical Congress. It's always been a pet peeve of mine whenever I see characters refer to the American Ministry

[lunar_music]

If seclusion is looser, maybe the Department of Magic is actually a department of the non-magical government - just one that we muggles don't generally hear about. The way that the only communication between the muggle and magical governments in Great Britain is so limited drives me crazy.

Oz and Disney, eh? I'm curious - is there any support in canon for your "Otherworlds" theory, or is it just a pet theory of yours?

[ebailey140]

Well, the Otherworlds are a vital part of the Celtic mythology that Jo is drawing from. Plus, we know that Merlin and Morgan are important figures in the history of the Potterverse, since they have Chocolate Frog cards. And where there's Morgan, there is Avalon. Harry and Tom certainly appear to be having their final confrontation in an Otherworld on the American cover for DH

[lunar_music]

That is cool - I'd known a little about that, but I hadn't realized just how much of it JKR had been pulling from it. I wouldn't be surprised if an Otherworld showed up in some way in HBP.

Oh! Isn't the boundry between worlds sometimes referred to as a veil? Now, where have we seen a veil recently...? :D

[drunkencarousal]

this is really interesting, i've always had a curiousity about the american wizarding world mostly because like you that's where i live, and that would be a much more grounded and looser system.
i always thought that new orleans would be a magical hotspot, since it practically already is.
i never thought of san fransisco but you're right it would be a welcoming environement for magic i think.

[lunar_music]

Good thought on New Orleans. Like I said, I've always lived on the west coast, so that's the area I know best. There's probably quite a few cities that are magical hotspots - San Francisco is just the first one I thought of, because it's the one I'm most familiar with.

[ginamariewade]

I read a fic or a mention in someone's fic about "Marie Leveau's Academie of Magic" in New Orleans, and got kind of a giggle out of that. (Marie Leveau being a famous voodoo witch of 18th or 19th century New Orleans.)

[brookmctirre]

Ooo, could I have a link to the fic? I created a list of fiction where Harry attends another school other than Hogwarts but even if he didn't go there I still love reading what other authors come up with in the HP world.

[incunabulist]

Here from hogwarts_today *waves*

I've never honestly given this a whole lot of thought, but I found myself agreeing with you heartily on most points.
Except:
But why wouldn't wizarding seclusion be as strict in America, you ask? Because it doesn't have to be.I'd think it probably would be looser, as mentioned above. But canon tells us there's the International Statute of Secrecy, which seems to me that there must be some form of seclusion. Unless that's one of those treaties we didn't sign, I guess. But I'd figure any good-sized city would have a magical population of some sort, and maybe it would vary from place to place just how underground it is. I thought of Cleveland, but that's mostly because of Buffy canon saying there's a Hellmouth there. :P

[lunar_music]

It's possible that it's one of "those treaties we didn't sign." I've always thought that British wizards go rather overboard on the whole secrecy thing, though. IMNSVHO, the International Statute of Secrecy is probably more concerned with things like dragon colonies and Quidditch World Cup stadiems and such; things that really require effort to hide, and would tip off massive amounts of muggles. Things like what kind of precautions you have to take against your muggle neighbors noticing something would probably fall under more local authority - and some of that seems to be tradition as much as law. So while it's probably not ok to walk up to random muggles on the street, say, "Hey, guess what, I'm a witch," and put them in a full body bind, America might have looser rules and customs about living in muggle neighborhoods sending your kids to muggle elementary schools and interacting with muggles.

[quidditchmaster]

Unless that's one of those treaties we didn't sign, I guess.

We have a knack for not following our treaties, even when we sign them. =D