Highlights
- Muggles can learn about magic at any time, especially through relationships with wizards or witches, but it's surprising that more Muggles don't know about the wizarding world.
- The secrecy of the wizarding world is maintained by the Ministry of Magic and international acts, with rules such as wearing Muggle clothes and enchantments to hide wizard structures.
- The two worlds of Muggles and wizards are unlikely to ever live harmoniously due to deep-rooted negative attitudes and the potential for violent conflict if dark wizards were to dominate.
One of the stranger aspects of the Harry Potter series is the fact that Muggles have no idea that magic exists. Somehow, the entire wizarding world has remained a tightly kept secret from the world of Muggles, and that’s despite numerous attempts for wizards to take over the world. With great danger and the unexplained all around, it’s shocking the Muggles of Harry Potter haven’t begun to suspect something.
All it would take is one group of rogue witches or wizards to go to a prominent Muggle and demonstrate that magic is in fact real. That kind of thing could easily be manipulated in order for a dark wizard to take over the world, and yet no one makes use of it. Muggles get to remain blissfully ignorant of the horrors that the likes of Gellert Grindelwald and Lord Voldemort nearly inflicted upon the world, something that confuses more people than one might expect.
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Could Muggles Have Learned About Magic Before?
Realistically, Muggles can and do learn about magic at any point and time. Relationships between Muggles and witches or wizards aren’t all that rare, meaning that every day in the wizarding world, at least one new Muggle is learning that magic exists in some form. Muggles have long and happy relationships with magical folks, often resulting in magical children. This further extends the Muggle’s knowledge of the wizarding world as they will then learn about things like Hogwarts and Diagon Alley alongside their child if they haven’t already. A perfect example of this would be Hermione Granger’s Muggle parents who would have had to grasp everything about the wizarding world upon their learning that Hermione was a witch.
At the same time, there are key positions in the world of Muggles that crossover into the magical, meaning that those who earn those positions are likely to learn about magic. The most obvious position in which one would learn about the wizarding world is the British Prime Minister. This role connects to the Ministry of Magic through their Muggle Protection Act which actively informs the Prime Minister about any potentially dangerous events ongoing in the world that may have some kind of impact on Muggles. Outside of those instances, it’s a bit of a surprise that more Muggles don’t know about magic.
How Do Wizards Keep Their World Secret?
Somehow managing to keep the existence of an entire second world existing among the Muggle world should be no easy task. Somehow, the concept of keeping magic a secret really doesn’t seem to be a major struggle for the wizarding public. For the most part, the Ministry of Magic for each region is responsible for overseeing the secrecy of magic, and there were even international acts passed to keep all witches and wizards on the same page about secrecy. There were simple rules like magical folk being forced to wear Muggle clothes when in their presence or having limited participation in Muggle events.
When necessary, like in the case of Hogwarts, magical concealment spells and enchantments would be utilized. This would keep Muggles from being able to properly see wizard structures, often resulting in them seeing nothing more than bland ruins. In other instances, certain aspects of the wizarding world were so magically protected, like Diagon Alley, that the average Muggle would have no way to accidentally wander into it without the aid of a witch or wizard.
Generally, the entrances to the most important wizarding world locations are the trickiest to access, with the person trying to enter having to follow a series of steps a Muggle never would. Even something as simple as getting to the Ministry of Magic requires the use of old phone boxes or toilets in order to get there outside of other magical means. The most uncontrollable aspects of the wizarding world, various fantastic beasts, simply end up as mythical creatures to Muggles that are reigned in by the wizarding world.
Will The Two Worlds Ever Mix?
It doesn’t look likely that the two worlds will ever be able to live harmoniously with one another. Wizards were initially out in public, and only turned to hiding themselves from Muggles after the Muggles turned violent. This caused a rift between the two worlds that has endured for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The worlds have been brought close to reintegrating with one another on a variety of occasions, but they haven’t ever been particularly good instances.
When looking at the conquests of Gellert Grindelwald and Lord Voldemort, it’s clear that both men sought some kind of twisted domination of wizards over Muggles. Had either of these dark wizards managed to get their way, the Muggle world and wizarding world would have collided in the worst way possible. Wizards would have been attempting to subjugate Muggles, and Muggles would have likely been trying to violently resist, causing all manner of violent war. All of this gets even more complex when considering the fact that Voldemort’s two rises to power during the Wizarding Wars were only in England, leading to the various magical communities around the world having to contend with him and his goals if he were successful.
It really just comes down to the attitudes of the two groups, and sadly, there is too much negativity from each side toward the other for the two worlds to coexist peacefully in the open. So many wizards believe that they are better than Muggles purely because they have the ability to utilize magic or simply because they're pure-blood. At the same time, many Muggles who learn about magic are horrified and consider those capable of magic to be dangerous freaks who need to be dealt with in some way. It’s possible that the two worlds will come together one day, but with the always-existent danger that magic can pose to Muggles, it just doesn’t seem likely.