Non-Magic People

"*Non-magic people (more commonly known as Muggles) were particularly afraid of magic in medieval times, but not very good at recognising it.*"
— *A History of Magic* by Bathilda Bagshot

**Non-Magic People**, commonly known as **Muggles**, are humans who are born to two non-magical parents and were incapable of performing magic. Non-magic people were not to be confused with Squibs, who also lacked magic but were born to at least one magical parent.

Most non-magic people had been unaware that magic and the wizarding world existed since the establishment of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy in 1692, as wizards had organised their own society largely separate from the non-magic world. Exceptions included close relatives of wizards and witches and heads of government (such as the British Prime Minister).

## Naming

Non-magic people were known by different denominations and nicknames across nations.

In the British wizarding world, the term "**Muggle**" was widely used to refer to a non-magic person. Some might consider it derogatory, but it was often used affectionately. Arthur Weasley, for example, who had a great fondness for Muggles and learning about them and their way of life, often used that term. "**Mudblood**" was an extremely offensive and derogatory term referring to Muggleborns and Muggles.

In the United States, they were known by the clipping **No-Maj**, whose plural may be either **No-Majs** or **No-Majes**. Other English-language terms for non-magic people included **Can't-Spells** and **Non-Wizards**.

In France, they were known as **Non-Magiques**, which was a simple translation of the term "non-magic".

## Muggle and Wizarding Worlds

### Wizarding Law

"*Each wizarding governing body will be responsible for the concealment, care and control of all magical beasts, beings, and spirits dwelling within its territory's borders. Should any such creature cause harm to, or draw the notice of, the Muggle community, that nation's wizarding governing body will be subject to discipline by the International Confederation of Wizards.*"
— Clause 73 of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy

Since the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy was enacted in 1692, wizards and witches had hidden the existence of magic from Muggles. Thus, in the modern age, most Muggles believed magic to be nothing but a childish fantasy. Wizards and witches hid their world with Muggle-Repelling Charms, and if a Muggle witnessed a magic event or saw a magical creature, their memories were erased. Confundus Charms were also occasionally employed to encourage Muggles to ignore any magic they witnessed. Violations of the Statute of Secrecy were prosecuted by the Improper Use of Magic Office, and the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office tried to keep bewitched items away from Muggles.

The Muggle Liason Office was a division of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes presumably responsible for wizard-Muggle relations. Given the lack of Muggle awareness of the wizarding world, in accordance with the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy of 1692, it can be presumed that the Muggle Liason Office fulfilled its duties in a very one-sided manner. Those who worked in Muggle Relations presumably worked with this office.

Wizards and witches thus organised their own society, known as the wizarding world, distinct from that of Muggles. There were some exclusively magical settlements, such as Hogsmeade, but also magical communities are hidden within largely Muggle ones, such as in Ottery St Catchpole and even in London. Magical people also had a separate currency system and government. The British Ministry of Magic maintained relations with the Muggle Prime Minister, but they did not appear to be subordinate to the Muggle government.

### Overlapping of Worlds

"*Most wizards these days are half-blood anyway. If we hadn't married Muggles we'd've died out.*"
— Ron Weasley discussing blood purity

However, the Muggle and magical worlds were tied together in some ways. For instance, Muggles sometimes married wizards or witches and thus became aware of the wizarding world, as occurred with Mr Finnigan when he married a witch, or Hope Howell when she married Lyall Lupin.

Muggles also occasionally produced a magical child. It was generally believed that this occurred due to a Squib having married into the family at some point in the past, thus introducing the potential for magic into the bloodline. This potential often surfaced many generations later.

In Britain, these Muggleborn wizards and witches would often join the wizarding world when they were invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Muggle parents would thus be informed of the existence of the wizarding world, and might even enter it on occasion, as Hermione Granger's parents did when they accompanied their daughter and the Weasley family to Diagon Alley to shop for school supplies in 1992. It is unknown if Muggle parents were allowed to visit Hogwarts Hospital Wing or St Mungo's when serious illness befell their child. However, Muggle parents were allowed to see wizarding pictures of the school, as Muggleborn Colin Creevey was known to take numerous pictures and send them home to his father.

Some Muggles were aware of the magical world but chose to ignore it, such as Vernon Dursley, who was aware his sister-in-law was a witch but otherwise remained intentionally ignorant of the wizarding world until he was forced to recognise it with the arrival of his nephew, Harry Potter.

In addition, there were secret connections maintained between the two societies at the governmental level; for example, the Minister for Magic occasionally consulted with the Prime Minister of Great Britain on issues affecting both societies, and it is clear that the Prime Minister was aware of the wizarding world. Each Prime Minister, on the day they were appointed to office, got a visit from the current Minister for Magic. The visit encompassed telling the Prime Minister of the existence of magic and that they would only ever need to meet when something was going on in the wizarding world that might affect the Muggle world.

## Muggle Attitude Towards Magic

Historically, Muggles tended to consider those who practised magic to be evil, leading to the burning of witches during the Middle Ages. In response, some wizards and witches managed to use Flame-Freezing Charms to render the fire harmless. Thus, most considered the Muggle efforts completely useless. Some innocent Muggles were being burned as witches, magical children born to Muggles were often persecuted when their magical abilities surfaced, and some Muggles tried to make magical people perform magic for their own ends.

Magical creatures left the Muggle world too, as many of them were extinguished, probably because of over-hunting and ecosystem destruction. In addition to Muggles being a threat to magical creatures, it was also vice versa, with magical creatures being a threat to Muggles as well. Giants, for example, were responsible for some of the First Wizarding War's worst atrocities against the Muggle community. Also, Muggles believed that dragons were a mere myth, but had been known on occasion to glimpse these beasts. To prevent dragons from being seen by Muggles, the beasts were kept on dragon reserves around the world, most of which were far from human habitation.

In the modern world, few Muggles believed in magic to actually know of its existence and were rather ambivalent with that knowledge. Some who were aware of the wizarding world were accepting of and even fascinated by it, such as Hermione Granger's parents and Jacob Kowalski. Others, however, responded negatively. For instance, the Dursley family had a "*very medieval*" attitude towards magic. Petunia Dursley considered her sister, Lily Potter a "freak" for her abilities, although this was originally prompted by envy of them. She would not have thought of her sister like this if she too had those powers. Petunia, her husband, and her son were suspicious of magic, thus they treated their wizard nephew, Harry Potter, badly and distrusted anyone associated with magic. They also tried to prevent him from learning of his magical heritage, without success.

In the United States, the Barebone family (who were a No-Maj family that descended from one of the Scourers who escaped justice during the 17th Century) were marked by a profound belief in the existence of magic and an equally deep hatred of it, which they passed down the generations. Bartholomew Barebone had an intensely deep hatred of witches and wizards that caused his desire to expose the existence of the wizarding world, which propelled one of the largest ever breaches of the International Statute of Secrecy. In the 1920s, his descendant Mary Lou Barebone was the leader of the "fanatical" anti-witchcraft group the New Salem Philanthropic Society, also known as the Second Salemers, which sought to expose and destroy wizardkind.

Ariana Dumbledore was attacked and severely traumatised by Muggle boys after they saw her use magic and she was unable to show them how to do it. Tom Marvolo Riddle also once suggested that his Muggle father abandoned Merope Gaunt, his pregnant wife, because he discovered that she was a witch.

It had been suggested by some wizards and witches that Muggles chose, on some level, not to believe in magic, since there were inevitably some occasions at which they were exposed to magic but seemed to ignore it or attribute it to other causes.

## Wizarding Views

### Negative Views

"*Alecto... teaches Muggle Studies, which is compulsory for everyone. We've all got to listen to her explain how Muggles are like animals, stupid and dirty, and how they drive wizards into hiding by being vicious toward them, and how the natural order is being re-established.*"
— Neville Longbottom on Death Eaters' while Lord Voldemort was in power

Many magical people, particularly Purebloods, considered their world superior to that of Muggles. Some considered Muggles little better than animals and hated them. For example, Araminta Meliflua once proposed that the British Ministry of Magic make Muggle hunting legal.

The Dark Wizard Gellert Grindelwald originally intended to conquer the world and make Muggles subservient to wizards. He did not have any hostility towards Muggles as a whole but, due to his abilities as a Seer, foresaw a major Muggle war involving catastrophic weapons that could be used against wizards. He would reveal this to his followers at a rally, using it as an example of the kind of violence that could be checked if Muggles were under wizard guidance.

Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters had a far more extreme ideology. They tortured and killed Muggles for amusement during the First and Second Wizarding Wars. They often extend this hatred to Muggleborns as well, considering them to be unworthy of magic and not "real" wizards. During the Second Wizarding War, Muggleborns were rounded up by the Ministry of Magic (on Voldemort's orders) and accused of stealing magic from wizards; a way of thoroughly humiliating them instead of killing them outright. In 1997 during the height of the Second Wizarding War, a statue was created that illustrated Muggles in their "rightful place", crushed by the might that is magic. This statue resided in the Ministry atrium and acted as a symbol of Lord Voldemort's new regime.

Purebloods who had such prejudices, such as many members of the Malfoy and Black families, considered those sympathetic to Muggles "blood traitors" for their belief in Muggle equality and attempts to protect them. Brutus Malfoy once claimed that it was a sign of weak magic to enjoy the company of Muggles, and his descendant Lucius Malfoy tried to sabotage Arthur Weasley's career after he proposed the Muggle Protection Act in 1992.

#### Muggle-Baiting

Muggle-Baiting was an activity that used magic to confuse or humiliate Muggles without the Muggles realising that magic was involved. When Willy Widdershins rigged up regurgitating toilets, he and others were referred to as "*Anti-Muggle pranksters*".

Shrinking keys were an example of a mundane object enchanted by unscrupulous wizards for "Muggle-Baiting". The keys were sold to unsuspecting Muggles, who then couldn't find them and, being unaware of magic, believed that they kept misplacing them. Similarly, a biting kettle was an enchanted object which looked like an ordinary teakettle, until an unwary person attempted to use it, in which case it bit the user. Arthur Weasley turned up one of these on one of his nighttime raids, which indicates that they were Muggle items enchanted illegally as opposed to joke items one might purchase at Zonko's Joke Shop.

In more serious cases, such objects might cause serious harm to their victims. In 1995, two Muggles had to be admitted to St Mungo's after losing fingers to biting doorknobs that they had purchased from Widdershins. Their bones were regrown and their memories were modified, after which they were presumably released. Arthur Weasley believed the incident would result in legal consequences for Widdershins.

#### United States of America

In the United States, non-magic people were known as No-Maj(e)s. Unlike in Europe, where a degree of covert cooperation and communication between No-Maj governments and their magical counterparts was common, MACUSA acted independently of the No-Maj government, working diligently to keep the wizarding world a secret. While culturally, wizarding America did not hold supremacist views against No-Majs over blood purity, their fear of exposure led to further division.

Rappaport's Law was instituted by Emily Rappaport, the 15th President of MACUSA, in 1970 after one of the most catastrophic breaches of the International Statute of Secrecy of all time occurred that year. This event caused the No-Maj population in America to become as a whole unusually suspicious of magic. As a result, unlike the European culture of witches and wizards often underestimating the intelligence of Muggles, seeing them as incapable of comprehending the existence of magic, American wizards came to regard No-Majes as a major threat. This led to Rappaport's Law completely segregating the No-Maj and magical communities in the United States. Mixed marriage between magical and non-magical folk was illegal under this law until 1965 when the law was repealed.

Interaction with the No-Maj population was only allowed for everyday activities. Due to the law, students from Illvermorny were not allowed wands before they entered the school, nor to take them home during vacations. By the 1920s, MACUSA had several special offices responsible for enforcing Rappaport's Law. Among these was a sub-division focusing on No-Maj Fraternisation and an office that issued and verified wand permits for every witch and wizard in the United States.

### Positive Views

"*Fascinating. Ingenious, really, how many ways Muggles have found of getting along without magic.*"
— Arthur Weasley's appreciation for Muggles and their technology

Others, however, had more favourable opinions. The Ministry also tried to protect Muggles from the Dark Arts and other potentially harmful magic with its Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office. Muggle Studies was also an optional subject at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that strove to educate magical children about the Muggle world and to foster understanding of it. One witch, Carlotta Pinkstone, famously advocated for the repeal of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy. She believed in the idea that Muggles should know about magic and performed magic publicly on several occasions.

Arthur Weasley was very interested in how Muggles function without the aid of magic, and collected Muggle items, though he often got their names and other facts wrong. He had a large collection of batteries and electric plugs. He was ecstatic to meet Hermione Granger's Muggle parents, inviting them to have a drink with him at the Leaky Cauldron. During Harry Potter's stays at the Burrow, Arthur often sat next to Harry to ask him questions about Muggles. He was also interested to learn how the Muggle post office and telephone work, and his greatest ambition was to learn how aeroplanes stay up. Whenever he got the chance to use Muggle artefacts, he enjoyed himself immensely.

Some Muggle pastimes had also found favour with those in the wizarding world. Famously, Albus Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog Car proclaimed his liking of the Muggle sport of ten-pin bowling, and he also developed a fondness for a Muggle sweet called sherbet lemons. Some elements of Muggle pop culture had also bled over into the wizarding culture, such as rock and roll music, which was performed by groups such as the Weird Sisters. The concept of "tabloid journalism" was also alive in the wizarding world.

## Studying Muggles

The Institute of Muggle Studies was a wizarding institute that studied and researched Muggles. Recently, the Institute of Muggle Studies had made research about Muggleborn wizards' wizarding ancestry and Muggles' knowledge and perception of magic.

The Museum of Muggle Curiosities was a museum in Carkitt Market, in the wizarding quarter of London. Items on display included several Muggle electronics, such as microwaves, old televisions, radios, electric fans, and desk lamps. It was located between Dr Filibuster's Fireworks and Cogg and Bell Clockmakers.

## Characteristics

Although Muggles had no magical abilities, they had technology to make up for it. But many forms of sophisticated Muggle technology, such as electricity, naturally did not work well inside the wizarding world. The technology in question had to be magically powered, such as Arthur Weasley's Ford Anglia. Muggles very rarely understood magic, even going to extreme lengths (and sometimes making themselves seem rather foolish to wizards) to ignore obvious occurrences of magic, and wizards very rarely understood technology.

Even though the Muggles lacked magic, they still posed a threat to the wizarding world. During the 17th Century, as wizard-muggle relations hit their lowest point, the newly-created British Ministry of Magic enacted the International Statute of Secrecy to attempt to permanently separate the wizarding and Muggle communities. In the modern-day, the Minister for Magic and the Prime Minister maintained a good relationship to ensure the safety of both worlds.