The town itself was in an area of Scotland few people wish to go to, or even think twice about. It lays on one of the northernmost inlets of Scotland, almost foolishly close to the sea. To the casual observer, there would seem nothing wrong with the town; it was small, certainly, but what wasn't in that part of Scotland? It was clean enough, the cobblestone streets were free of rats or bile, and all of the almost ridiculously large houses that paved the cobblestone street had little flowerboxes in their shining windows filled, interestingly enough, mostly of thistles. If someone were to look harder at the little town, however, they would notice some singular facts about it. First of all, absolutely no one seemed to be awake before noon, and most people seemed to rise at about one to one thirty in the afternoon. Secondly, there were absolutely no shops anywhere. Where did these inhabitants get groceries? How did they make a living? They couldn't all be fishermen.
In 1634 a group of young female Witches were proved to have been committing unspeakable charms on a group of young, handsome, and swarthy Muggle men. The Witches who committed these crimes were also shockingly young, the oldest one being just sixteen. For this reason they were pardoned being sent to Azkaban, which although at that time was not guarded by Dementors, was still a horrible place for any young lady to be sent to – although it was arguable whether these Witches could be called "ladies".
So the women were exiled far away from any villages. They were told to settle far away in northern Scotland, where it was assumed that they would die, or at least live alone and obscurely, until their death.
One year later, a band of Gypsy Witches and Wizards magical powers was found guilty of stealing bread and other food from Diagon Alley. Giving them the normal misdemeanor fine for shoplifting was too easy for them, because they were, after all, Gypsy Wizards, but sending them to Azkaban was, again, to harsh a punishment for stealing simple foodstuffs to feed one's poor children, no matter how racist the judge. The sentence? Why, they would go to the same location in Northern Scotland, and be exiled with the women of last year.
Soon, anyone "low class" enough in the Wizarding world who had committed a small enough crime to warrant them an alternative to Azkaban was sent to the remote location in Scotland, which had gotten the name, because of the horrible poverty of the area, as simply Slumland. By 1690, when the policy of sending criminals to Slumland had been abolished, Slumland had over 1,000 inhabitants.
It was illegal to send a Slummer, as the inhabitants of the town became to be called, to a formal school such as Hogwarts, and it was looked down upon to employ one for anything respectable. For unrespectable things, well, it seemed that the Slummers were made to be employed in unrespectable ways. To all respectable Witches and Wizards, all the Slummers were shockingly bad and evil people. Rumors about horrendous "rites of passage" ceremonies, forced prostitution, and bizarre vampire-related myths circulated about them so densely that they were soon regarded as fact. It was considered better for the Slummers to stay and live in Slumland, in the control of the Minsitry of Magic. They were a danger unto themselves. A Slummer was branded with a curly "S" tattoo on their upper back shortly after their birth by a member of the Magical Enforcement Control, and they were not allowed to move out of Slumland.
Approximately 250 years later, the Slumlands were populated with about 5,000 inhabitants. (The slow population rate was due to a high infant mortality rate and the general refusal of St. Mungo's to admit anyone with a tattooed "S" on the back.) Most of the inhabitants claimed themselves as a mix of Scottish, English, and Gypsie, and they had constructed a small tartan flag with a green "S" emblazed on it to show their patriotism to the Slums.
Inside one of the largest houses in all of Slumland, a shambling Victorian looking house with an odd brightly red roof, Claire McGonagall had a wicked hangover.
