What would the wizarding world look like in 2017?

[author_by_night]

September 1, 2017 - nineteen years later.

Since some of my friends are still reading the books, I'm putting the rest of this under a cut. 


You guys tell me what the wizarding world would look like.

Some possible starters:

- How would tech-savvy Muggleborns deal with the tech-nonexistent Wizarding World?

- Would Wizards and Witches have their own equivalents of what we have?


- How did the characters change? How did they not change? What are the trio and Ginny like as parents? As coworkers and employees? As people?

- What is the relationship between Slytherin and the rest of the Houses? (Whether or not you factor in The Cursed Child.)

Looking forward to hearing/reading what everyone thinks! And don't feel you have to limit yourselves to those questions - or even answer them at all.

Comments

[lunabee34]

I find it really hard to believe that the anachronisms of the Wizarding World would be allowed to persist this far in to the 21st century. Some Muggle-born kid will either find a way to make tech compatible with magic or develop the magic version of the internet and the iphone and everything else.

I think that kind of stuff is so cool that any eleven year old raised in a world where they can find out anything they want to know in less than a second on their phone is going to find the wizarding world a huge downgrade.

[pauraque]

I agree! The HP series is set at just about the latest possible date where it actually makes sense for it to be, IMO. Even by the early 2000s I think the "magic" of Muggle tech was starting to outpace wizard magic, which is presented as relatively stagnant; it doesn't seem that there are huge leaps of magical innovation each decade. The limitations of magic also seem very arbitrary and influenced by the time period in which JKR was first writing. Why should the kids be looking for information by manually paging through book after book? Why not some form of magical search engine that could bring the wizarding world its own Information Age? But the revolutionary potential of that was probably not even on her radar in the early 90s.

[lunabee34]

I completely agree! I can't fault JK for not realizing in the 90s the way that technology would rapidly take off in all directions in the 21st century; I think if she'd started writing those books in the early 2000s, they'd be very different on this front.

[conuly]

I think that kind of stuff is so cool that any eleven year old raised in a world where they can find out anything they want to know in less than a second on their phone is going to find the wizarding world a huge downgrade.

Agreed.

[hildigunnur]

Yeah, I would imagine that they would find ways to make electronic technology work better in the Wizarding World or figure out some kind of equivalent. Especially when it comes to communication.

I've just finished reading The Cursed Child (first time I've read the play through but I did see it a year ago) and I like the version of the trio and Ginny we get there. Ron is perhaps a little more light-hearted than I would have imagined but he seems like a great father and a favorite among his nieces and nephews. The whole thing of the Potter household being sugar-free, suggests that Ginny is slightly more uptight than I'd thought but for the most part, I think my mental image kind of matches up with what we saw in The Cursed Child. I saw this post about Harry, Ginny and their kids on tumblr today and I thought it was great. I think it captures the fact that the way a child is alike their parent, can often be what a parent struggles with (hence Harry and Albus in The Cursed Child).

My guess is that there might have been a more of a thaw in the relationship between Slytherin and the other houses in the years after Voldemort's fall. The past isn't forgotten though, this is always the house with the reputation of championing purebloods and where Voldemort was housed.

[author_by_night]

I found it odd that Ginny would be uptight, considering her personality in the books. But then, maybe it's a bit fitting? After all, she was hoodwinked by Voldie. Maybe she's just a bit extra cautious with her kids, figuring when they're old enough to use extendable ears without her permission, they will, but while they're still young and impressionable she needs to be there. I dunno. That's not how I see her as an adult at all, though.

I think you're probably about right about Houses.

[hildigunnur]

Yeah, I did feel that The Cursed Child painted a little more high-strung than I'd imagine her as an adult. I mean, I do think she's the type to shout at her kids a bit (way less at Albus than the other two though) but ultimately she wouldn't be particularly strict and definitely not the type to have a sugar-free household. It was Harry who mentioned it in the Cursed Child - it might have been some kind of attempt at the "ball'n'chain" sort of thing and if so, ugh! There isn't anything else in the play that suggests that Harry finds Ginny restrictive and that would definitely not be my idea of their relationship as the grown-up parents of three children.

[star_healer]

I think I've spent most of my time thinking about them either during the series, or in a time frame shortly post Hogwarts (like maybe in their early 20s, but usually in an alternate reality fanfic or something like that). As the epilogue was so brief, it only struck me as an afterthought, and I didn't pay the details mentioned in it much mind. Cursed Child did give me more of a sense that the events in the epilogue actually were meant to be part of the story, but, it really didn't feel the same, and I understand it wasn't actually penned by JKR, so that may be why. I will admit I was a little surprised about how Harry was presented as a parent in Cursed Child. I'd like to think that Muggleborns could put together some useful, searchable databases of spells and magical artifacts and the like.

[author_by_night]

I was a little surprised by Harry, too, though not his outbursts - sadly I could see that. In the books Harry could be very hurtful towards his friends when he was upset. But Harry seemed... almost a little guarded and stifling at times.

[rhoda_rants]

I saw a reviewer suggest that Sirius's magic mirror is basically the Wizarding equivalent of Face Time, so my guess is those would come back into style. Quidditch wouldn't change, nor would transportation, because being able to literally teleport trumps most types of travel, IMO. The fact that technology flat out doesn't work in an area so heavily steeped in magic would mean a lot of busted and/or confiscated Muggle cell phones, and that would suck. I can't imagine anyone being okay with writing every damn essay by quill. I'm frankly amazed people weren't running to Madame Pomfrey complaining of writer's cramp every single day in the books, especially the 5th and 6th years. So typewriters would also come back into style.

I could see Hermione or Luna working on creating a way to update the way they send and store information in the Wizarding world so that's in an even keel with the Internet, even though I have no idea what that would look like. Hermione because of the way it would affect research; Luna to reach a wider audience with the Quibbler.

I'd like to either see the Houses disbanded entirely, or more inter-House mixers and social clubs that don't foster resentment and competition. Again, I don't reckon Quidditch needs to change, but the Heads of House need to really chill out on leaning on the kids to bring those trophies home at the end of the year. That really bothered me in the books. It's just a game, guys.

[author_by_night]

I LOVE Sirius's mirror as Face Time!