The young sleuths had no hope, had they? It's actually Ella-Jane who grows up to become a private detective.

You're right: with a little help from Charity Burbage's Muggle connections, Callum will find a job as a BBC cameraman. He might just go on to write computer game programs later still. Kevin's personality was suggested by St Kevin of Glendlough (http://saintspreserved.com/Kevin/St_Kevin.htm). Thanks for reviewing!

Thanks for crying with them,

. I deliberately omitted the Obliviation episode because I thought it was so important and complex that it deserved a story of its own. Other people have written such stories - I think there's more than one over at Checkmated. Thanks for reviewing, GhV

Thanks,

! It was meant to be comedic (is anyone really as blatantly materialistic as their Dad?) despite the darker issues that surround the deception.You'll be glad to know that Dumbledore and Burbage did exploit their connections in the Muggle world to help Callum, and he eventually became a cameraman for the BBC. So it was actually a better (and better-paid!) future for both brothers.Thanks supporting my writing, GhV

Dear

,Hearthlinks and Banebrewer are both archived here (although Banebrewer is the fourth instalment of a lengthy series, so I don't recommend going to it cold). I wrote in Hearthlinks that the Perks ladies agreed to wait a few months before revealing the truth to the Muggle boys so that they could establish themselves as a family first. Unfortunately, as I reveal here, they just weren't able to hide their real selves as effectively as they assumed they could!This story is a comedy, since the issues are fairly superficial and the stepfamily becomes a happy one (unlike the other three stepfamilies in Hearthlinks). The next four stories about Muggles who married into magic are much darker.Thanks for your support, GhV

Thank you! The two young sleuths did their best, but of course they could never, ever have worked out the truth all by themselves.

Dear

,I don't like the deception either, and I did question whether it was really the kind of thing that Charity Burbage would do. But I don't doubt that some wizards would do it. Mr Entwhistle is very materialistic (though I hope I made him likeable in despite) so it isn't really a violation of his values to send his child off to a classy boarding school that will set him up for a suitable future. I didn't think a gentle child like Kevin would be able to carry off the deception all by himself at the tender age of eleven, so hence the arrival of an older brother - technology-mad, money-loving and streetwise, but with just enough understanding of the real nature of science to vote in favour of Hogwarts.Thanks for writing in, GhV

Dear

,Not only the parents but also the children are divided along magical lines in this household.  I indicate in Hearthlinks that two of Sally-Anne's grandparents (father's mother and mother's father) are Muggles, so she and especially her mother are quite used to negotiating a half-blooded family. I'm glad you found the children "responsible". Jeremy and Sally-Anne both fit the eldest-child stereotype to the point of caricature, although Christopher and Ella-Jane are transparently second-born. You'll see what I mean if you read the other story.Thanks for writing in, GhV

Dear

, That's an interesting observation about the siblings. I've only written one story about a spiteful sibling, while there are at leat three about unsupportive parents.You can certainly question the ethics of tricking the Entwhistles like that, but somehow, I feel elements of the wizarding world would do just that: not totally assaulting the parents' values, but exploiting their materialism and lack of education to elicit an uniformed consent.The next few stories move away from the theme of the-day-the-Hogwarts-letter-came and deal instead with people who married into magic. Each narrator will be related to one of Harry Potter's classmates.Thanks for your support, GhV

Thanks,

(what does your username mean?). I think there are a few Grangers-as-Wilkinses over at Checkmated. JKR manages to imply that the Wilkineses have a pretty unexciting life; the really interesting question would be how they felt when they met Hermione again and remembered her. Yes, I've always perceived little Hermione as a child who would have been ostracised at primary school.Thanks for writing in. Next up is a comedy! GhV

Sorry for the delay, most of my fanfic-ing is done via my iPad or iPhone and for some reason I cannot select the review box and type in it. Who know why, but alas that is it. My name is a mix of an Irish name I love and Lio is based of my first name Cliona and since I'm such a big Potter fan, especially in High School, my friends called me Lio. I have absolutely loved this fic! The way you write the characters and really make it real, especially for those of us who are not in the UK, with the accents and everything. I'm definately waiting anxiously for the next chapter!!

She did it because he made her laugh...

Thank you so much for inferring that. I just wrote how it must have seemed to Mrs Granger - but let's hope that the mother's intuition was correct.

Thank you! And, yes, there is no-one who knows the truth like a sibling...

Certainly there is! I see Lisa's mother as simply someone who didn't learn from her first mistake. Her husbands were both the kind of men who rejected whatever frightened them - anything, in fact, that they couldn't control. Lisa will do very well without them, I hope!

I think it's true that Hermione begins as a misfit in the wizarding world. At first she doesn't have the social skills. Then she is a despised Mudblood. Then come the string of fights with Harry and/or Ron. Harry is annoyed by her bossiness and argumentativeness - I think there's a moment in PoA when he's annoyed with her for bossing him even though she does it to save his life! It isn't until HPB that Harry becomes as good a friend to Hermione as she is to him. Ron is more tolerant overall, and their endless sparring annoys Harry far more than it annoys either of them; but even when we allow for all Hermione's faults, Ron takes a painfully long time to grow up. Despite all this, however, Hermione fits in better among wizards, where she has some friends and where her magical abilities are deemed normal. We know this from canon, because Hermione chooses to spend so little time with her parents and doesn't seem to have any Muggle friends. So I think we can only infer that by the time she grew up, she was perfectly happy in the wizarding world and found a place for herself that worked. As you say, it's her parents for whom the story is a sad one.

Hmm.... I have always thought that it was actually Ron who found Hermione far more annoying by his words and behaviour towards her than Harry ever did (especially since Harry`s POV was the one we read about; but of course, reader`s perspective is everything, isn`t it?). And Harry was not the only one who found their spats infuriating. Very often, I felt like clubbing Ron over the head, even if Hermione was not perfect either (particularly when they interact). While perhaps not as irritating to both Hermione and Ron, their spats surely hurt Hermione more than they ever did Ron or Harry. Ron might make Hermione laugh sometimes, but he more often than not made her cry and gave her bad memories as well (e.g., Yule Ball fiasco). LOL, sorry, it might be apparent that I am another one of those vehement anti-HrR shipper. Frankly, I am not sure Hermione is all that happy in the WW, though that is surely the logical deduction as you mentioned (i.e. the decreasing time she spent with her parents etc), because I always felt it just seemed to be the way JKR wanted it to happen for the sake of her plot.While saddest for her parents, I think it`s bittersweet for Hermione as well, as her parents, being the persons who loved her unconditionally no matter who she is/was, and was willing to let her live her life the way she wanted, deserves a more present daughter in their life as well, something Hermione should not neglect. Thank you.

That's the really interesting question, isn't it? Does Hermione as a character behave organically, or is she squeezed into a spouse and setting that don't suit her in order to meet the demands of the plot? I.e., should JKR have written a different kind of character for that role?I can't see Hermione as being happy in the Muggle world (always having to hide who she is and put up with people who just don't know the truth about reality), and I can't see her as the kind of negative person who is never happy anywhere. I do feel she could have been happy as a wizarding lawyer, even if we have to take that on trust.I know in canon Hermione starts arguments with nearly everyone she encounters (she probably does it with Muggles too) but I doubt that makes her unhappy. Debate and argument are probably what she craves. Ron doesn't love argument in the same way, but he grew up a Weasley and a he's a chess-player; although he's loud about it, I actually think he really doesn't mind Hermione's foibles. (Harry does, but he loves Hermione despite them.)The only times Hermione seems actually unhappy are when Ron doesn't seem to reciprocate her love. Unrequited passion is indeed a great source of human misery, but in this case it doesn't have much to do with the magical or Muggle culture - it can happen to anyone. Hermione was probably philosophical enough to accept that nobody is morally obliged to fall in love with her. That is a very difficult thing for a teenager to accept, but I think Hermione would accept it and deal with it better than most.I agree that Hermione's parents, slightly sketched as they are in canon, do seem to put up with a lot without complaining. It wasn't until DH that it was even clear that Hermione recognised this and cared (although she probably did - JKR didn't have room to write every detail). This sadness from Hermione's PoV is probably material for a completely different kind of story.

Thank you!

I think you're right, but I think it takes maturity. No matter how much they know they have done the right thing for their child, I think people like the Grangers must feel that it hurts to give her up to strangers. We do learn from canon that Hermione's parents love her, so we can only hope they lived happily ever after post-DH.

Thanks.

There's always a sadness about Mr and Mrs Granger in canon, isn't there? Thanks for writing in and being sad with them.

Dear

,I think the dichotomy was absolutely deliberate on JKR's part. She didn't have to make Justin an Eton boy, so she was telling us something when she did. Then she paired him with Ernie and Hannah, apparently members of the wizarding "aristocracy", yet untitled and unconnected among Muggles and, my impression is, neither coming from a family that has money. Justin has to lay aside all his pretensions to join the wizarding world, and he does so with a grace and confidence that tell us exactly what kind of person he is.Accidental magic is indiscriminate - if magic repaired the castle, it wouldn't know where to stop and what not to repair!Thanks for writing in,GhV

Dear

,Interesting comment... Yes, I did mean to suggest that Trevor started out with good intentions. Unlike Vernon, he didn't know about magic when he committed himself. Having said that, I can't see Vernon as being the kind of man who would agree to being anyone's stepfather or uncle-guardian if he'd had a choice, so perhaps Trevor does emerge as (marginally) the better man.Turpin/Thorfinn was child's play. I'm glad I'm not the only one who obsesses over that kind of historical or etymological detail!Regards, GhV

I just finished my MA in English Language and Literature, with heavy emphasis in Old English and a smattering of Old Norse. To say that I obsess over that kind of detail is to describe me very, very well!

Thank you! We all have our passions, don't we? And I've always seen Lavender as the kind of girl who had ballet lessons pre-Hogwart

Dear Tenoh,Yes, it's tricky to hit off the upper classes when you don't know them. I don't think Lady Eleanor was opposed to magic as such - only to the thought of engaging with anything outside the world she knew.I'm glad you recognised the contribution of the betas. There are two stories in this series that I won't be posting, because I couldn't find suitable betas, and the difference in quality really shows.Hermione is next, and she's from the same culture as me.GhV

Thanks for taking the trouble to write in, tenoh. I knew it was a risk to write about an almost-OC like Lisa, but I've always seen her as a Muggle-born, a scientist and a Viking, so I had to commit her to paper somehow. I'm so glad this story worked for you.

, I'm so glad this chapter pleased you, because I was wondering whether it would be interesting - or even comprehensible - to the average reader. The baroness's dilemma is quite culture-specific - not even primarily about her attitude to magic - and I wouldn't have dared write about it if it weren't canon. I've always had a dilettante interest in history, though. As for "capturing the tone," I thank my beta for that - she was born into that culture and she caught my every error.JKR dioesn't specifically say anything about Justin's background beyond the snippet I quoted, but there was something about his tone that shouted "second son". He just didn't sound like someone who expected to inherit the estate, and that was presumably the reason he was pursuing an alternative career in magic.I have finished eleven episodes of this story  so updating will be fast. (There are two additional chapters that I won't post unless I can locate culturally appropriate betas.) Hermione is next.

Well, I have to admit that I'm a history geek and went to uni with quite a few people from this 'world', so I was guaranteed to be interested - but what was good about this (and all your chapters) is how well researched and authentic it is.  And I think, regardless of your culture or prior knowledge, everyone is pretty nosy about the strange world of the upperclass!  Although I see why you focus on the cultural aspect of the Baroness' dilema, I think that the reasoning behind it is something alot of parent's would feel - ''This isn't what my child was supposed to be doing!  What will I tell everyone?'' In the case of the Baroness, where the prospects are good and they have money (and strong expectations from others), this is probably more difficult to overcome than in families where the best the child can hope for is that rough local comp she mentions!  But the dilema is no less real for these families.  I think that it must be easiest for a more middle class family, one where they have enough money that it isn't surprising that a child is sent to private school, but not so much that there is a particular expectation as to which one.  Not that I can imagine people wouldn't be interested, most people I know are interested to the point of obsession with which school and what the OFSTED report said etc etc! 

AAarrgh, don't mention OFSTED to me. The conversation will become political. I'll write things that I'll regret tomorrow. I'll state a complex case in simplistic terms. We might even mention L**g** T*bl*s, and then the Petulant Poetess would throw us off her board for using foul language.

Lol, I'll back away slowly shall I?!