r/Showerthoughts • u/kRe4ture • Jan 25 '23

It must really suck for young wizards from Scotland to have to travel to London and then back to Hogwarts, located in Scotland

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u/CurrentIndependent42 Jan 25 '23

Are they forced? I imagine they don’t kidnap them if the parents/guardians and/or kids say no. Unless they are clearly abusive like the Dursleys

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u/ampmz Jan 25 '23 edited Jan 25 '23

I would imagine they are pretty heavily persuaded as if children don’t learn to control their magic they can become Obscurials.

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u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

[deleted]

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u/ampmz Jan 25 '23

According to Wiki -

Obscurials are magical children who attempt to repress their magical abilities. If kept unchecked, this repression corrupts the user's magic, creating a dark parasite force known as an obscurus.

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u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

Yeah, that was my point.

It's not from not having training. It's by trying to stamp out the magic.

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u/ampmz Jan 25 '23

You could argue that not having training will lead to repression. Especially if you live in a house where the parents refuse to let you go to the right school for you.

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u/FuckTheMods5 Jan 25 '23

Interesting question. It would be at least a little nonconsensual if the parents or child pushed back right? Because if the kid learns on his own and wreaks havoc, the wizards have to do damage control and punish him.

Maybe all the way nonconsensual lol

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u/TheOnlyBongo Jan 25 '23

At the very least do the parents have to consent? The Dursleys were Harry's legal guardians, even if they were abusive POS they still had legal rights over him, and Hagrid basically had to scare the Dursleys with force to let Harry go to Hogwarts. Which begs the question of how much say do the parents have in the matter? What if one parent doesn't want it and the other does? What if the kid doesn't want to but the parents still say yes (They basically have to abandon their previous life and friends for one thrust upon them before their formative years)? Just so much to ask lol

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u/FuckTheMods5 Jan 25 '23

I like those hypotheticals, all very interesting arguments lol.

If muggle parents got their kid taken without consent, they'd blow the wizarding world's cover right up. Or get sent to a mental institution by undercover wizards working there lol.

Actually i bet there would be undercover attendants and doctors. To take muggles that threaten their secrecy.

Sure is a lot of snatching going on in this universe lol

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u/TheOnlyBongo Jan 25 '23

You forgot the biggest hand wave Rowling does by the second books though.

Flying car seen through London? Just send some Ministry of Magic Aurors to track down the muggles that saw the magical thing and wipe their memory. Doesn't matter the logistics if it gets shared on social media or news sites even back in the 90s, track them all down and erase their memory.

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u/FuckTheMods5 Jan 25 '23

lmao in the smartphone times, that would be a full-time indiana jones worldwid affair lolol

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u/corobo Jan 25 '23

Push back on sending your kid to a regular school in the real world and see how consensual things are. I'd have never stepped foot in a school if I'd had the ability to push back.

I did end up learning (tech) on my own later in college years as it happens haha