Muggle-borns are that minority which have both parents be muggles, but there’s also intermarriage between muggles and wizards/witches, so that there’s a significant number of halfblood children.
And in all of UK there’s only one village (Hogsmeade) that’s solely composed of wizards/witches, in the rest of the country it seems that wizards/witches are surrounded by Muggle neighbours, probably with charms around them so that the Muggles don’t notice anything strange, but nonetheless interacting with said Muggles...
I never got the impression that the non-Hogsmeade wizards interacted significantly with their muggle neighbours; they seem far too ignorant of muggle life for that. If anything, wizard settlements (notice how it’s generally a number of families that settle in a village, rather than just one?) seem to be akin to ethnic enclaves.
Half-bloods… wonder how much effect they’d have.
IRL, if there is a significant degree of intermarriage between speakers of two different languages, do a large number of children grow up bilingual? That would be a good place to start looking, I guess.
I never got the impression that the non-Hogsmeade wizards interacted significantly with their muggle neighbours; they seem far too ignorant of muggle life for that.
Half-bloods...
I’ve never put these two things next to each other before, but that’s a bit of a head-scratcher. If I remember correctly, a very large proportion of Hogwarts students are half-bloods. So… do wizards and muggles actually get along, or is there something strange / sinister / squicky going on there?
So… do wizards and muggles actually get along, or is there something strange / sinister / squicky going on there?
Hmm, how many half-bloods are there? Do we ever really meet a typical half-blood? (Harry isn’t really half-blood, and Harry, Snape and Voldemort all had unusual childhoods...)
Muggle-marriers may be a tiny minority. Their existence does not imply that wizards in general get along with muggles, even if there’s nothing squicky going on.
Half-bloods are the most common wizard blood, far outnumbering pure-bloods and Muggle-borns. Rowling has stated that of the Hogwarts annual intake, 50% are half-bloods.
Though yes, ‘half-blood’ here refers to any wizard that isn’t muggleborn or pure-blood. So a great deal of them might just be descendents of muggleborns.
Muggle-borns are that minority which have both parents be muggles, but there’s also intermarriage between muggles and wizards/witches, so that there’s a significant number of halfblood children.
And in all of UK there’s only one village (Hogsmeade) that’s solely composed of wizards/witches, in the rest of the country it seems that wizards/witches are surrounded by Muggle neighbours, probably with charms around them so that the Muggles don’t notice anything strange, but nonetheless interacting with said Muggles...
Alternate explanation: “It’s magic.”
I never got the impression that the non-Hogsmeade wizards interacted significantly with their muggle neighbours; they seem far too ignorant of muggle life for that. If anything, wizard settlements (notice how it’s generally a number of families that settle in a village, rather than just one?) seem to be akin to ethnic enclaves.
Half-bloods… wonder how much effect they’d have.
IRL, if there is a significant degree of intermarriage between speakers of two different languages, do a large number of children grow up bilingual? That would be a good place to start looking, I guess.
I’ve never put these two things next to each other before, but that’s a bit of a head-scratcher. If I remember correctly, a very large proportion of Hogwarts students are half-bloods. So… do wizards and muggles actually get along, or is there something strange / sinister / squicky going on there?
Hmm, how many half-bloods are there? Do we ever really meet a typical half-blood? (Harry isn’t really half-blood, and Harry, Snape and Voldemort all had unusual childhoods...)
Muggle-marriers may be a tiny minority. Their existence does not imply that wizards in general get along with muggles, even if there’s nothing squicky going on.
From Wikipedia:
Though yes, ‘half-blood’ here refers to any wizard that isn’t muggleborn or pure-blood. So a great deal of them might just be descendents of muggleborns.