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In Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows we see Hermione essentially erase her parents' memories of her and all they know of the magical world; she does this to protect them against retribution from Voldemort. Prior to this though, they are seen interacting with the Wizarding world here and there. This poses a question...

Are Muggle parents, spouses, siblings and family who are connected to the magical world somehow "prevented" from leaking the secret?

And if so, how?

Is it "presumed" any Muggle person closely connected to a magical child would keep the secret "out of honor", are they charmed into silence, or are their memories erased?

In the case of Harry's family, we see they outright deny his existence almost, telling friends and family he's off at some "boarding school for wayward children," or some such nonsense. This is unique to the Dursleys though; they wish to maintain the appearance of "normalcy" and purposefully separate themselves from the Wizarding world, hiding Harry somewhat begrudgingly [and seeming to do their damnedest to make him feel the outcast because of his magical heritage].

They can't be seen as the "standard" for all Muggles, though.

Considering human nature, and the amount of Muggle-born wizards and witches like Hermione, wouldn't it be likely some human would be tempted to "spill the beans" about the magical world, just to get famous for exposing it?

Note: I can buy that higher ups, such as nation leaders [hence the reference to the "Muggle Prime Minister" in some books] would know, and keep it under wraps as a governmental courtesy and not to cause a panic. This makes sense, as common folk knowing there is magic in the world would have serious repercussions from science and technology to class wars to finances. But that says nothing for the unknown numbers of regular humans who would have been exposed to magic through a family member, but not allowed to take part in it. That would likely build some resentment in some Muggles at least, which would increase the possibility of exposure.

Was this ever touched on in the books?

TheLethalCarrot
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Russhiro
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  • I closed this as a duplicate, as your essential question (in bold) seems to be the same as the other. If it’s not, you can edit to clarify the difference. – Alex Oct 24 '19 at 12:15

1 Answers1

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The books touch on this indirectly, yes.

At this, Fudge had actually laughed.

'My dear Prime Minister, are you ever going to tell anybody?'

Still chortling, Fudge had thrown some powder into the fireplace, stepped into the emerald flames and vanished with a whooshing sound. The Prime Minister had stood there, quite motionless, and realised that he would never, as long as he lived, dare mention this encounter to a living soul, for who in the wide world would believe him?

--- Chapter One, Harry Potters and the Half-Blood Prince

It isn't a courtesy the PM is granting to the Minister for Magic, or a question of avoiding panic: he just doesn't want to be treated as if he were insane. This rationale applies just as much to the parents of Muggle-borns as to the Prime Minister.

Also, we know that the Ministry has infiltrated Muggle institutions such as the Post Office; they likely also keep a watch out for Muggles who have been hospitalized or institutionalized as the result of magic. In fact, we see one possible example of this later in the same chapter [abridged]:

'Now, about Herbert Chorley - your Junior Minister, ' he continued. 'The one who has been entertaining the public by impersonating a duck. He has clearly reacted to a poorly performed Imperius Curse. A team of Healers from St Mungo's Hospital is examining him as we speak. So far he has attempted to strangle three of them.'

As well as taking care of the victims of magical attacks, or unfortunate encounters with magical creatures, they would certainly watch out for anyone who had been institutionalized as the result of trying to tell people about the magical world. They could then be warned or Obliviated as circumstances dictated.

Addendum: infiltration of the Muggle world probably includes the major newspapers as well. Wizards have their own papers, so they would understand the risk there.

Second addendum: I had assumed that you were asking only about the time period the books were set in; if we're talking about the modern day, I think we have to assume that the wizarding community has by now figured out a way to monitor or jinx the internet. I don't imagine this comes up in Cursed Child and apart from the one scene at King's Cross we don't have any other canon information past Harry's school days.

Of course, there is another reason why it might not be as hard to keep the secret nowadays at you might expect. The basic idea is borrowed from the Dresden Files, but it has a basis in Harry Potter canon: it was established in Goblet of Fire that electronics don't work at Hogwarts because the magic interferes with them. As far as I'm aware, the boundaries of this interaction haven't been clarified in canon, but it is at least possible that if you point a digital camera at a wizard doing magic the most you're going to get out of it is static.

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Harry Johnston
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  • That makes sense in a big, official capacity. But Come on man! This was the 90s; the internet was nascent, and information was being shared faster and faster. Alien conspiracies saw a huge leap with the advent of the internet, so why wouldn't magic? Granted, a lot of people wouldn't wanna risk being seen as nuts, yea... but its impractical to think some jealous, or even admiring sibling wouldn't see a magical brother/sister and take a video showing "look what my sib can do!" to get famous. Not to mention reporters, con artist, performers or anyone else who'd want to expose it for profit. – Russhiro Oct 24 '19 at 01:43
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    As I recall, there was also a passage somewhere about muggles being really bad at recognizing magic when they see it. Instead they'll just try to rationalize it away even when it's right in front of them. But also, I think any explanation isn't going to be wholly satisfactory, as this is yet another example of having to suspend your disbelief for the narrative to work, and there's millions of those in Harry Potter. – Kai Oct 24 '19 at 03:45
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    @Russ, YouTube didn't launch until 2005, and while the technology existed to post videos on Usenet, exposure was limited. More importantly, it wasn't anywhere like as easy to record digital video as it is now. Given the low number of Muggle-born wizards it isn't implausible to suppose that none of them had the opportunity. Besides, everyone would think it was faked. – Harry Johnston Oct 24 '19 at 04:49
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    Perhaps more to the point, we don't know that in Harry Potter's world there aren't conspiracy theories about witches and wizards, alongside the ones about aliens, the birthers, truthers, and whatnot, and pretty much ignored the same as all those ones are. Perhaps more so in the Cursed Child timeframe than in the original series, because YouTube etc. but perhaps by then the Ministry has figured out how to Jinx the internet so videos of wizards won't play? :-) – Harry Johnston Oct 24 '19 at 04:53
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    ... for what it's worth, my own feeling is that conspiracy theories about witches and wizards wouldn't see all that much enthusiasm, because they would sound old-fashioned. Believing in aliens might make you sound weird, but it doesn't simultaneously make you sound like a fuddy-duddy as well. :-) – Harry Johnston Oct 24 '19 at 04:56
  • @HarryJohnston Granted Youtube wasn't around, bro, but My Space was. Email was. Hell, the Space Jam website from 1996 is still active, if not in use, and there were porn videos up since 1994 or 95. So someone could have used a camera to catch something and send it via email, admittedly with some difficulty. It still doesn't explain how every parent, spouse, child, sibling or friend of a muggle born wizard just "kept quiet" about magic being REAL! And it definitely doesn't explain how that's still possible today. I could buy that in Grindlewald's time, maybe... but not these days. – Russhiro Oct 24 '19 at 05:00
  • @HarryJohnston With the upswing in Goth sensibility and rise in popularity of Wicca and alternative lifestyles in the 90s though, dude? Supernatural subject matter would have been a pretty big deal, especially if it could be proven. And in the last book and films, the Death Eaters had gotten very bold, attacking muggles blatantly; its likely someone would have pointed out how weird these new "Weapons" were, and even with governmental help, keeping such public displays secret would be more than difficult without SOME explanation. – Russhiro Oct 24 '19 at 05:03
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    Maybe? I don't know. Real magic is kind of banal when it comes down to it, doesn't seem like the sort of thing Goths or Wiccans were into at all. More like the sort of parlour tricks that haven't been in fashion since Victorian times. (I'm not sure what you mean by "new weapons"? I don't think the Death Eaters left many witnesses to their attacks, and any survivors would have been Obliviated by the Ministry.) – Harry Johnston Oct 24 '19 at 05:12
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    A quick calculation suggests maybe a few hundred Muggle-borns each year world-wide, so say a thousand close relatives. If even as many as one in ten of those attempt to expose the wizarding world, that's still only a hundred attempts per year. Shouldn't have been too hard to keep the lid on that during Harry's school years. (It would be harder nowadays, of course, but I had thought that was out of scope of the question, which talked about the books in particular.) – Harry Johnston Oct 24 '19 at 05:26
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    Also, someone wrote a series of 7 widely publicized and well known books about the Wizarding world, and presented it as fiction. Now if anyone tried to reveal the existence of magic, others will think "wow another JKR fan who cannot distinguish reality from fiction". – vsz Oct 24 '19 at 08:05
  • nobody was going to believe him before the first wizarding MeToo wave... – Pavel Oct 24 '19 at 08:12
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    @RussRainford Where's your proof, though? Do you believe every video you see on YouTube? Even if you see something with your bare eyes, where do you make the leap from "Huh, weird" to "DEFINITE PROOF OF MAGIC EVERYONE!"? People are pretty good at ignoring or rationalizing weird stuff, and that's before you even account for all those people at the Ministry who are running around obliviating people and removing the evidence. Was there any scene in HP that would make you think "MAGIC!" rather than "huh, cool trick"? Heck, the movies were (presumably :P) faked; what did you think about them? – Luaan Oct 24 '19 at 08:28
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    "electronics" not working in Hogwarts is a part of the whole romantic medieval setting. For example, they write using quill on parchment instead of modern paper and ink pen/pencil. There is no logical reason to do that. They obviously use paper (they have newspapers and books). We probably shouldn't care too much about the details. It's a book for children and the canon already has lots of holes. – Sulthan Oct 24 '19 at 09:24
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    To take a photo of a wizard, you don't have to use a digital camera: a film-based one would be sufficient, and that can be fully manual (not even using a film advancing motor or flashlight). – Ruslan Oct 24 '19 at 09:42
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    Colin Creavey was constantly taking pictures during his first year at Hogwarts - presumably with an ordinary manual Muggle film camera. – Wallnut Oct 24 '19 at 09:53
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    These days, wizards would have to be a bit more astute about Muggle technology. For instance, there's every chance that someone disappearing through the wall on the way to Platform Nine And Three Quarters might be picked up on a security camera. – Wallnut Oct 24 '19 at 09:54
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    @vsz Of course, this brings us to the question whether J K Rowling was hired by the ministry to cover this all up as fiction. – Reader Manifold Oct 27 '19 at 05:55