#*juggling

[lizasweetling]

Huh. Sad.

so... this English version of Boris is probably not gonna stick around long then.

On account of being a villain fit for confronting the Heterodyne boys.

[societyformuggleborns]

The Problem: Extended Family

Of course, the Statute of Secrecy will always be a hindrance to muggleborns more than it is to anybody else. The muggles who are allowed to know are parents, siblings, and any other dependants or guardians living under the same roof as the wizard or witch. Grandparents and other family members not living in the house are not supposed to know, no matter how close they are. For this reason, many muggleborns feel as if they are living double lives.

One muggleborn, who wishes to remain anonymous, tells his story:

“When I found out that I was a wizard, I already had my place at a muggle secondary school. All my family lives in the area, and I had a lot of friends who were assuming I would be going to that school with them. The idea of going anywhere else wouldn’t have occurred to any of us, before I got my Hogwarts letter, but between all these dozens of people who knew what my plans were, only my parents could know why they were changing. There wasn’t a good enough excuse to give them, so even with all the lying I have done over the past years, they still don’t understand. My parents were left with most of the job of trying to explain where I had gone, which was hardly fair on them when they didn’t really know for certain where I had gone.

“Every summer, I came home, and had to lie about what I had been up to at school. It became hard to keep track of what I should have been doing if I had been at a muggle school, and I just have to thank heavens that my mother being a teacher gave me a bit of a better idea about this. Now, things are even more complicated. I have left Hogwarts, so I can see people more often, which mutes some of their questions and takes the pressure off my parents, but it creates a whole hoard of new lies and secrets. What am I doing for a living? How am I affording certain travel costs? These are all things made terribly difficult, simply because I do not want to lose all contact with my family.”

[societyformuggleborns]

The Problem: Money

For muggleborns, there is often a need to keep two forms of currency going. Constantly converting money can be costly because of uneven exchange rates, and handling two different forms of money - especially two different forms which cannot be handled with just one bank - can be difficult. Questions arise over when is the right time to open a Gringott’s account (most appear to go for when they get a job in the wizarding world) and how much money to keep in each form of currency. Muggleborns have stated that this is much easier for them in the muggle world than the wizarding. Why? Credit cards.

In the wizarding world there are two ways to pay: hand over hard cash, or fill in a cheque to transfer money from their Gringott’s account. In the muggle world, there are many. Hard cash and cheques are still options, but they can also have cards which are linked to their accounts. Rather than having to fill in their bank details every time they want to pay someone without cash, they can simply present their card, which is scanned (by electronic means - a magical variation would be easy to imagine), sign a receipt, and the transaction is complete. Rather than having to carry around multiple chequebooks and tons of cash, two small cards which fit into a wallet sounds a lot more convenient.