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Given the scrutiny that parents find themselves under from social workers, teachers, councils and any other busybody who stick their noses in, How is it possible that Muggle Borns such as Hermione can just "Disapear" from the system? Given that it is a legal requirement to stay at school till 16 the ministry would have to go full time to obliterate all documentation, and obliviate all personages with knowledge of such a child.

Therefore why was Hermione allowed to dissapear from the system?

Steven Wood
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    Note that the books are set a little way back in time, when (I think - I wasn't there) this was less intrusive (/competent), and without computer records it would be relatively easy for paperwork to go astray. (Wizards don't seem to really grok technology, so short of blanking a database entirely or confunding the humans reading it, I don't think they would be able to do a very good job of removing someone from a modern system without trace.) – BoBTFish Feb 14 '14 at 10:22
  • Ok so in the early 90s paper records could "Dissapear" but as Hermiones teacher wouldnt you be disturbed if you never heard anything more about her ever again? My point is that all that would be known is that she went to "Boarding School" somewhere. This would seem a likely excuse that (for example) Joseph Fritzl or similar child kidnapper/murderer may have used and surely would throw warning bells up even 50 years ago? – Steven Wood Feb 14 '14 at 10:28
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    Well, this is the gap between primary school, and secondary school. (And you raise a good point: Fritzl managed it...). But this may be a point where you are expected to display a little suspension of disbelief. They are kids' books after all. I'm afraid there may not be a good in-universe answer. – BoBTFish Feb 14 '14 at 10:46
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    @BoBTFish - Little Bobby Tables. – DVK-on-Ahch-To Feb 14 '14 at 20:15

3 Answers3

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The most likely answer is that, so far as the Muggle government is concerned, Hermione is attending an independent school known as Hogwarts. (This was mentioned in a comment by Bardo.) In British parlance, "independent" or "public" schools are private institutions which are not part of the state education system. Yes, I know this is illogical.

Faking the paperwork would not be too hard -- they just need to concoct reports which say Hermione is studying English and science instead of Potions and Transfiguration. So the only difficulty is when government inspectors want to physically turn up at the school.

The location of Hogwarts is vague, but it's hinted that it may be in Scotland (eg. the Highland landscape seen as the train approaches Hogwarts in the films). If so, inspections would be the responsibility of Education Scotland, not Ofsted. Education Scotland seems to have a great deal of discretion in how it inspects independent schools. From http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/inspectionandreview/about/independentschoolinspections/arrangementsforinspections.asp :

Education Scotland will apply the inspection framework in a way that is responsive to the size, nature and particular aims and values of the independent school concerned. Education Scotland will also ensure that the inspection team includes the necessary experience and skills to respond to the particular educational philosophy of the school.

So all they need to do is ensure that the "right" inspectors attend Hogwarts. The simplest solution would be to have one or two well-placed Squibs at Education Scotland, and fabricate some non-magical reason why these people have the "expertise" required to accurately assess the Hogwarts educational model.

Royal Canadian Bandit
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    Out-of-universe, this is completely and utterly retconned and I doubt that JK Rowling knew or cared about school inspection policy in the early 90s, but it's fun that it can be made to work. – Royal Canadian Bandit Feb 14 '14 at 13:54
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    The "public schools are private" isn't illogical. It's just an artifact of their origins. The "public" bit means that any member of the public (whose parents have sufficient money) can attend the school, as contrasted against schools that were restricted to particular religions e.g. only Catholics or only Church of England members or only Lutherans, etc. – Compro01 Feb 14 '14 at 14:17
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    +1; the muggle-borns are going to school. A boarding school their previous teachers have never heard of, but I know I would have trouble naming even 5 high schools outside the greater metroplex area I live in. And why would a muggle-born witch or wizard's previous teachers be suspicious about not hearing from them again? The only grade-school teacher I've kept in contact with over the years was my high-school computer science teacher. Besides, their previous teachers are busy with the new students! – Brian S Feb 14 '14 at 14:51
  • @Compro01: I'm aware the term "public schools" was reasonable at the time they were founded, but that was several centuries ago. It's a historical relic which doesn't make sense in modern terms, like Oxford University giving Bachelor of Arts degrees in nuclear physics. – Royal Canadian Bandit Feb 14 '14 at 15:14
  • You're not quite right about public schools. Private schools are private, and public schools are a certain particular type of private school. My secondary school was a private school, but it wasn't a public school (for a start you had to pass an exam to get in, which I don't think is true of public schools). – starsplusplus Feb 14 '14 at 15:50
  • @starsplusplus: That's what I said. "Public" schools are a subset of private, non-state schools. But I don't think subtle distinctions between different types of UK school are relevant to the original question. – Royal Canadian Bandit Feb 14 '14 at 16:18
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    Well you didn't say all private schools are public, as I first thought. But I disagree that you already said they're only a subset. Also the phrasing makes it sound like they're the same thing as independant schools, when there are a lot more of the latter. Just picking up on something that didn't quite sound right to me. – starsplusplus Feb 14 '14 at 16:29
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Is obvious that exists some type of cooperation between Ministry of Magic and Muggle Government during the books, although I think this isn't mentioned on canon it has to be, and questions like this prove it.

The cooperation between Muggle and Magic "affairs" would be much easier than "just magically clean the mess everytime". IMHO administrative cooperation is just one more boring part of it, totally unworthy to be mentioned on the canon...

Bardo
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    The new muggle prime minister (don't recall his name) is utterly amazed to be told about magic by Scrimgeour. Making the assumption that he has worked his way up through positions of increasing importance, if this information was shared with even the cabinet, he would already know it. If not even senior politicians know about this administrative cooperation, I doubt your average social worker or LEA admin knows about it. – BoBTFish Feb 14 '14 at 11:04
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    On administrative burocracy it's common to don't be aware of why things happen. I mean that, for the Ministry of Magic is probably easier and cleaner to have some type of agreement with Muggle politics. When a social worker seeks information about Hermione or other Muggle born surely will find on her profile that she is studying on a high level private institution known as Hogwarts, and I'm sure that there are many records for this institution on Muggle administration to make it "unsuspectful". That's quite easier than magically erase every trace of every Muggle born student continuously. – Bardo Feb 14 '14 at 11:22
  • Hmm, yes that's a more likely possibility. But still not entirely workable: "Why hasn't this school been inspected by OFSTED?" "Why has it been inspected by someone who doesn't seem to exist?" "Why has it been inspected by someone who works in the same office as me but nobody knows them?". And so on... – BoBTFish Feb 14 '14 at 11:26
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    It does not need to have been inspected. It only needs a paper that says it has been. – Envite Feb 14 '14 at 11:58
  • That's where the connection exists, I'm prone to think that there is people on specific jobs at the administration that are working with the Ministry of Magic. Probably muggles with magic family obtain a position at specific parcels of muggle administration to help making things run smoothly between both worlds. The Ministry of Magic "put" those people on strategic positions due an agreement with Muggle administration and just let that people manage it. – Bardo Feb 14 '14 at 12:00
  • @Envite Hence the follow up questions. Each potential answer leading to a new question. Anyway, I'm obviously not making my point clear. It is this: there is no way to make any of this work (or at least, no one has convinced me) without leaking information to muggles. And muggles talk. Put it this way; it would be incredibly difficult for me in my real job to sneak a fake entry into a database, or some malicious code into a project, etc, without leaving at least some hint of evidence, even on a one off basis. Doing this repeatedly, over time, and there's no way at all I'd get away with it. – BoBTFish Feb 14 '14 at 12:22
  • @BoBTFish but what if your department is entirely working to slip these records in the database? and I mean not only your coworkers, but also the people who inspects and verifies your team's work. – Envite Feb 14 '14 at 12:33
  • @BoBTFish muggles talk, but my point is that not any muggle is suited to that work, they should be fathers, brothers or very close relatives to mages, so they know and understand why is important to keep things clean and secret. They also obtain a quite good job... – Bardo Feb 14 '14 at 12:46
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It is shown in the first book that a lot of wizards live in the muggle world, with day jobs and muggle clothing to keep themselve discreet. They even forget to swtich into muggle clothing and celebrate openly in their robes, showing that wizards are common enough in the muggle world that people might take notice on a particular day when everyone is excited and not bothering with complicated precautions of subterfuge.

So clearly there are plenty of wizards in the world, running ordinary day jobs, who could guarantee that new witches and wizards have no trouble going to Hogwarts, especially since, as described in the books, it has all the makings of a very typical secondary school, if you ignore that everythign they learn about is magic instead of science and math et cetera.

And, let's not downplay the importance of helpful mudblood parents. Hermione's parents in particular seem very supportive of her being a witch, and they'd likely go along with anything that would make this easier for her. We can assume, with a few exceptions (Harry in particular) that most parents wouldn't even bother to report anythign unusual, and that would probably be enough. It's not as if the students are disappearing - they'd come home every summer and they'd be able to spend time with their Primary School friends. So if they're clearly coming and going to a new Secondary school, and then coming home in the Summer and having no problems at all, why would anyone report anything unusual?

Not to mention, there are always memory charms to deal with particularly difficult cases.

Zibbobz
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