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Forty kids enter Hogwarts every year. That’s forty potentially powerful wizards from potentially broken homes, abusive families…orphanages. We all know about Voldemort, and I think that’s reason enough to at least vet potential wizards before arming them, but there’s no vetting at all. Malfoy got in no problem, for example.

The most dangerous are the muggle-borns. Those who know about nuclear weapons, tanks, muggle technology.

It would just take one, one unstable muggle-born to spend a few years in Hogwarts and that would be it. S/he could brew up some Polyjuice potion that would disguise them as an MP, Apparate into Number Ten, use an invisible ropes charm on the Prime Minister, force him to drink a bit of Truth Serum to reveal nuclear codes and…done. The world is aflame.

Wizards could not withstand someone with detailed magic and muggle knowledge. No wizarding community could withstand nuclear bombardment. Even if wizarding structures didn’t sustain a scratch, the surrounding land would be irradiated, the plants killed, the rain poisoned. No food, no infrastructure, they would be exhausted from constant spells to keep the radiation sickness away, completely powerless against a followup attack by foot-soldiers (either magical or muggle).

There is no psyche evaluation at all in Hogwarts. Well, maybe the sorting hat which does literally nothing but put the potentially evil people with other potentially evil people for seven years.

It’s insane. How did anyone think it was a good idea? You could say the same about muggle schools I suppose, but let’s be honest, someone with magic could make a killing in the muggle world. Felix Felicis and the stock market. Time turners. Time and time again we see muggle technology used as a base for forward thinking wizards to make something with: cameras, printing presses, steam engines, motor cycles, glasses, plumbing, radio, record-players, microphones.

What about Avada Kedavra and an M16?

Muggles are a threat to wizards, hence why the wizards live in hiding, but the muggle world augmented with magic would crush the wizarding world.

By an obscene amount of luck, everyone in Hogwarts, even the properly evil ones, even the properly mischievous ones, seem to keep it all a secret.

It would just take one person to, at best, expose the wizarding world. At worst, destroy the entire world in an afternoon.

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    Hogwarts has existed for millennia and the world is still doing fine. There are good and bad guys. The good ones fight the bad ones. Like in real life. – Saturn Apr 15 '14 at 01:39
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    This reads more like an op-ed than a question. If you just wanted to get it off your chest, I think blogging would be a more appropriate medium. – Slytherincess Apr 15 '14 at 04:02
  • I'll just add "40 kids enter every year" is not completely true: Harry's year had forty but Word of God is that Hogwarts holds around 1000 students. Let that affect your thoughts however it will. – Mac Cooper Apr 20 '14 at 09:59
  • There's a certain part of this question which is a dupe of the other, but if this question gets cleaned-up to "does Hogwards put students' life in danger?", and get rid of the rants; then it will be its own independent Q, and then it will receive a VTRO from me. – Möoz Oct 30 '14 at 03:48
  • You teach the most dangerous of magics to first years and don't tell them the danger in the hope that none discover it. By rights there should be a hundred-mile crater by now. – Joshua Jan 07 '19 at 19:12

2 Answers2

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Hogwarts

A student of Hogwarts' cannot do much harm whilst they're at school. There are many counter-measures taken to ensure that their practice of magic is safe whilst at school - including:

  • Anti apparition/disapparition measures,
  • muggle-repelling charms,
  • general distance,
  • controlled environments, and
  • rules and regulations.

Whilst a Student is outside of the school, they are bound by the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery; which utilises a 'Trace' which detects when an underage wizard uses magic. The offence is then investigated and punished accordingly.

Once the young wizard has grown old enough to graduate is a separate matter, but we do know that to perform a range of magical feats, you actually need a licence; such as:

Sneaking into Number Ten

In addition, in order to accomplish your task of sneaking into Number Ten, you might face the following problems:

  • Veritaserum is "strictly controlled" by the MoM (plus it is very difficult to brew).
  • Polyjuice Potion is extremely difficult to brew and its ingredients are not easy to come by.
  • In order to Apparate successfully to a location, one must use the 3 Ds (Destination, Determination, and Deliberation), it would make it extremely difficult to apparate into a location if you don't know where you're going; see How far can a person Apparate?.

Psychopaths

There will always be those who go un-checked and develop psychopathic tendencies; even Dumbledore himself suspected Tom Riddle throughout Riddle's school years (and beyond):

“Did you know — then?” asked Harry.

“Did I know that I had just met the most dangerous Dark wizard of all time?” said Dumbledore. “No, I had no idea that he was to grow up to be what he is. However, I was certainly intrigued by him. I returned to Hogwarts intending to keep an eye upon him, something I should have done in any case, given that he was alone and friendless, but which, already, I felt I ought to do for others’ sake as much as his.

-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (The Secret Riddle)

Voldemort (Tom Riddle) still managed to become infatuated with the Dark-Arts, and many other evil tendencies, how could this have been stopped?

Grindelwald was a very brilliant wizard, he was also Dumbledore's greatest friend (and more); and yet he managed to attend school and despite a wonderful education (at Durmstrang) ended up hurting many in his quest to purify the world and take over (believing that "For the greater good" was ok).

Sorting / Screening

Each student does get sorted into a house. As you mentioned, many students who get sorted into Slytherin do tend to become attracted to the Dark-Arts, but it is not to be said that the house is intrinsically evil; see Is Slytherin Evil?. This is clearly not the fault here.

As mentioned above, Dumbledore pretty much did a "screen" of Tom Riddle's character didn't he? Even deemed him to be noteworthy and a (potential) risk; both to himself and his fellows. But that did nothing to prevent Tom Riddle ultimately becoming the terrorizing Lord Voldemort.

The limitations of screening / sorting is that it happens at a particular time in one's life; things change, people's beliefs and tendencies change (as may their houses; see: Can one's House change?). Do we then screen / sort them every year?

Another limitation is; how do we know that you are going to end up killing/hurting loads of people? the Sorting Hat can determine a witch/wizard's character and personality, but can it determine other things as well (Why wasn't the sorting hat used to prove Harry didn't put his name in the Goblet of Fire?, Could the Sorting Hat Have Told Dumbledore That Harry Was a Horcrux?), but I don't believe it can tell the future of a person's life.

Does Hogwarts put the world in Jeopardy?

No, it provides an environment for young witches and wizards to hone and control their skills, abilities and emotions to be able to use their powers in a positive manner. As Dumbledore tells Tom Riddle:

“At Hogwarts,” Dumbledore went on, “we teach you not only to use magic, but to control it. You have — inadvertently, I am sure — been using your powers in a way that is neither taught nor tolerated at our school. You are not the first, nor will you be the last, to allow your magic to run away with you. But you should know that Hogwarts can expel students, and the Ministry of Magic — yes, there is a Ministry — will punish lawbreakers still more severely. All new wizards must accept that, in entering our world, they abide by our laws.”

-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (The Secret Riddle)

We cannot allow the actions of one (rogue) individual determine that the (Wizarding) education system does not work.
  • Can it be improved? Definitely.
  • Is it putting the world in jeopardy? No
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    Polyjuice can't be that hard to brew if a twelve-year-old- a brilliant, strong-willed one, motivated by the threat of petrification, but a twelve-year-old nonetheless- managed to brew it, and with ingredients presumably used in lessons. – Emily Campbell Jul 04 '16 at 04:39
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    @EmilyCampbell Well it's been said otherwise whether you believe it or not. And there is such a thing as a childhood prodigy. And remember what was said of Hermione in more than one way more than once: She's the brightest witch of her age. The reality is some people are especially gifted and just because a young person does something incredibly difficult doesn't make it not hard. That's simply naïve and doesn't correlate with reality; it also takes praise away from that person and that's not exactly nice and is somewhat disrespectful. – Pryftan Aug 03 '17 at 00:43
  • Another example: Tom Riddle had an amazing amount of control with what he was able to do even before knowing he was a wizard, even before knowing there was a magical world, with wands and the like. Does that mean what he did could be done by Harry? Harry didn't even know he had special powers and Hagrid had to tell him bluntly - and he even feared it might have been a dream. But with your logic those things Tom did must be fairly easy. – Pryftan Aug 03 '17 at 00:45
  • Really, all we can say is the Dumbledore was a horrible judge of character. – Rob Crawford Jun 24 '19 at 21:02
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I'm not entirely sure there's an in-universe answer to the question. What follows is speculation based on the actions of Voldemort in the books.

Very few people, bat-guano crazy or not, actually have a desire to destroy the entire world. It doesn't serve a purpose. I make this assumption on the fact that, despite in-universe magic, the world has not been destroyed in the ways you mentioned.

What these evil people DO appear to want to do (again, based on Voldemort's actions) is take over the world. Now, COULD Voldemort use the methods mentioned to completely destroy everything? Yes. He could. But he is much more reasonable and logical. Instead, he seeks to enslave the muggles through their own, already-established government.

So, why don't they reveal the wizarding world? Speculation, but I believe the secrecy serves a purpose - particularly for Voldemort. If he had exposed the fact that magic existed, etc, etc, then the muggles may have erupted into uncontrollable chaos, which definitely doesn't help Voldemort's cause (that is, making serfs/slaves of them). What does help his cause is overturning the government, then exploiting the muggles by controlling everybody upper-class. The muggles see things as fine, no chance of rebellion.

TL;DR: It's easier to enslave muggles by keeping the wizarding world secret, and easier/better to control/enslave muggles (and place wizards at the top of the hierarchy) than it is to destroy everything.

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  • Sorry, but I have to go with -1 for speculation. Stack Exchange doesn't encourage speculative answers. I'd definitely be willing to upvote an answer based on canon facts, though. – Slytherincess Apr 15 '14 at 03:50
  • While I understand the downvote, I would argue the speculation is required to answer this question, and that the speculation is based off of canon facts. For instance, we know that Voldemort is clever and smart. We know the method he is using to conquer the world, ipso facto there's a reasoning behind it. I offer one possible solution as to what that reasoning may be. – Helpful Apr 15 '14 at 06:34
  • It remains that speculation is discouraged. I'm not just randomly trying to be a hard-a$$ about it; I care about the quality of the site. This is an extremely poor question that you chose to answer, instead of backing away from the sleeping lion, so to speak. If you knew an answer would require extensive speculation, you shouldn't have answered it. Period. I see that you are new. Answer good questions. Then you won't get caught up in speculation and pleading special snowflake status, while the rest of us are trying to work within the site's guidelines. KWIM? Regardless, welcome to SFF. :) – Slytherincess Apr 15 '14 at 10:29