Our Muggle Friends

A Muggle, called Non-Maj in the United States or Non-Magic in France, is a person without magical powers. Most Muggle people do not know about the existence of magic, except if they are related to wizards or witches. Muggles should not be confused with Squibs, who certainly do not have magical powers, but are born to witches and are aware of the existence of the wizarding world.

The term “Muggle” is used in the wizarding world and is generally not meant to be offensive. For example, it is often used affectionately by Arthur Weasley who has a great fondness for Muggles and wishes to learn about them and their way of life.
 

Muggles and the wizarding world

Witch’s rights

Since the International Statute of Secrecy created in 1692, witches and wizards have to hide the existence of magic from Muggles. In order to make the Muggles believe that magic is only a childish dream and not fear it, witches and wizards take great care to hide their universe.

However, if a Muggle witness comes into conscious contact with wizardry or magical creatures, their memories will be erased as quickly as possible by spells of confusion or amnesia, usually by Obliviators.
 

Overlapping worlds

The Muggles’ world and the magical world are still linked to each other in various ways. Muggles can marry witches and wizards and thus become aware of the wizarding world (as it happened with Seamus Finnigan’s father when he married a witch).

When Muggles give birth to a child endowed with magical powers, they are warned of the existence of the magical world and of their child’s invitation to join a wizarding school around their child’s eleventh birthday.

Some Muggles are aware of magic but prefer to ignore it, such as Vernon Dursley, who was aware that his sister-in-law was a witch. But he preferred to ignore the wizarding world, leaving even his nephew Harry Potter in the dark.

There are secret liaisons maintained between Muggles and sorcerers at the governmental level. For example, the Minister of Magic occasionally informs the Prime Minister of Great Britain about events in the wizarding world that concern Muggles as well.
 

Muggle Minister

The Muggle Prime Minister is, like his predecessors, the only Muggle to officially know of the existence of the magical world. The Minister of Magic warns him of the possible dangers coming from the world of sorcerers, which was the case when Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban or when Voldemort returned.

Muggles often pays the consequences of the wizards’ bad actions. Thus, during the second war against Voldemort, Death Eaters regularly attacked Muggles, considering them inferior to them.
 

Muggles Attitude towards magic

Historically, in ancient times, Muggles considered those who practiced magic as evil beings. On the pyres, some sorcerers used a spell to make the fire harmless (Flame-Freezing charm). Wendelin the Weird, for example, was always delighted to be burned alive, so much so that she managed to be condemned forty-seven times under various disguises.

Thus, most of them looked at the efforts of the Muggles as completely useless. It was after such acts that the sorcerers decided to go into hiding.