In the year 1990 AD, nearly fifteen years after the Potters had given away their eldest born son Harry, things are never what they seem…
He was nervous; it was two months before the end of the school year at Hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry. He signalled to the headmaster to remain where he was as he approached.
"I need some time off"
"Why?"
"You'll see at the beginning of next year"
"Is this good or bad?"
"I have no idea, but it is a personal matter"
"Very well; but you had better explain later"
"Of course, I would have to anyway."
With that potions master Severus Snape stalked off, into his quarters. Once inside he starts to read the essay of the newest sensation in the literary world; Harold Sebastian Jameson
General Comparisons of the Muggle and Magical World
In many respects the muggle and the magical world were opposites. In general, the muggle world believing in science, the rational and the logical. They don't like the unexplained many preferring to believe that there is always an explanation, that they just hadn't found it yet... they were not advanced enough to explain the world. That which could not be explained rationally was chalked up to religion or spirituality where a supreme being/s caused life, people and their surroundings, religion was a powerful though more and more could be explained people liked the idea that their was someone out there greater than them looking after them, a being that more or less had their characteristics. Their world was one which constantly changed due to technology but because cultural ideas, and moral values and ethics took longer to integrate and change there was constant friction in what and how much should change or stay the same. Their current century alone proved that the rate of change and advancement were in dichotomy.
However this is not about the muggle world this is about the magical, the irrational, illogical where the impossible exists, where objects defy the laws of physics, the realms of sanity and rationality, where human being are not the only intelligent beings capable of thought. A world of magic and wonder, a place that muggles can only dream about, see in their imagination or read in their fantasy books. A place where giants, elves, centaurs, unicorns exist where creatures and intelligent beings that muggles have never dreamed of co-exist. Where in the space of a couple of words and a focus of will and wand something can be created or destroyed. Lives healed, created, mutated, tortured or abused. A place of light, dark and shades of grey.
The thing is when all is said and done humans whether magical and muggle are irrational, illogical walking contradictions. Within them all is the ability to have at the same time contradictory perceptions on war and peace, to cause life and death; they are capable acts of kindness and compassion but also of great acts of cruelty and mercilessness, great destruction or works of creation. They want order and harmony at the same time they want freedom and chaos. They create societies that are in some ways open but also in many ways prejudiced. Their fears create boundaries, sometimes logical and reasonable often times not. When measures come up that make what was previously dangerous not, what was once rational and reasonable not, it can take many generations before perceptions change and in the meantime prejudice comes up because of fear.
Problems arise when the mixing of cultures arise, there is immediately a struggle for a sense of balance, equilibrium, before this can happen there is a tension of what should be melded, discarded or saved, sometimes it can take centuries and millennia and still not be resolved. Sometimes when the balance is struck it is unequal and unfair. Questions arise, should it be for the individual or the whole? If the whole should there be some attempt for preservation of what is unique? If the individual, how can there be mutual respect and tolerance, especially if values and morals are contradictory and uncomplimentary which values upheld? Who should hold the power?
These problems are best seen in when muggle born students or magical children raised in the muggle world first enter the magical school. Everything they previously learnt about technology and their cultures are rendered obsolete. They are faced in a sink or swim situation, where they are suddenly in a whole new world with different rules, traditions and abilities, one where they must now survive. Questions are raised what should do, how do they incorporate what they previously learnt or even if they should, do they forget everything and try learn the new customs and laws that the magical children were raised with from birth, should they hold onto what they know and try and mix old and new.
Then there are the questions for later on in their life and education, as they grow older and learn to think as they mature. What if they don't want to stay in the magical world, how could they survive the muggle world, what new technologies have come up, how do they get qualifications even simple ones like completion of muggle high school, where would they learn such things do the magical world even offer such things? Or what if they want to stay in the magical world how would they learn about the subtle bylaws that those raised in the culture know unconsciously and look down upon those who now live there but don't know. Is there a guide, book or class to introduce and teach them about this new world, or are they required to learn all this by observation and research individually is so how could they? What about holidays and previous acquaintances or relations when these muggle raised students go back to their parents, what do they say, is there some sort of cover story like their in a special school, do their educational qualifications have a muggle equivalent that they can use and are recorded or do they make these up themselves?
This is not simply one sided of course, there are the influences muggle raised children bring in, previous ideas and also prejudices how do these get assimilated by the magical children are they simply ignored or they influenced even unconsciously? How do muggle raised children react when they learn of interspecies relations when they're raised to can't accept some of the coupling's of their own species. How do conventions of aesthetics fit in to the ability to accept previous ideas?
There are always problems when cultures and worlds collide because this upsets the previous precarious balance and a new equilibrium must then be met. These are just some general observations of the two worlds as a whole between the muggle and magical, the magical isolated and completely secret from the magical. There is no mention of how cultures within these worlds interact with each other and the next world, though it would be an interesting analysis.
"Hogwash! first years could write better than that" was the last thought of the potions master as he drifted off to sleep.