1st JULY 1997 • The Wizarding World's Beguiling Broadsheet of Choice • 5 κ
MUGGLE-BORNS AND THEIR PLACE AMONG US
By Charity Burbage
With each passing day I hear the cries of muggle-borns. They are being speedily ejected from their true place -- That is, among wizardingkind. The muggle-borns that have rightfully been educated alongside those of half-blood and pure-blood are being fired from their jobs. Those that lived alongside their peers are being counted enemies of the very culture that they are inheritors of. What does it matter that they were not born into magical homes? What does it matter that they grew up with a mother who washed dishes with her hands instead of spinning the plates and cups into the suds with a wand?
I tell you this -- It does not and cannot matter.
Too long have we allowed pure-bloods to make claim to the culture of wizarding kind themselves. It has been the great aim of many who have pure-blood to squash any development of the magical world. They would have us remain ignorant of the world beyond the wall of Diagon Alley. They would have their children grow up without a sole muggle friend. Such closure of mind and heart can only lead to ignorance and hatred. It is time, therefore, to learn to embrace the Muggle world as well as the magical.
The first step is to accept muggle-borns. Do not allow You-Know-Who and the rumors of his power cause you to step away from aiding those who need you most. You must protect your brethren, for muggle-borns are born with the great right and power of magic just as any other wizarding child was. Though they grew up in a different culture, it is the luck of their birth that has made them a part of our world, and there is no power on earth nor in heaven that can change this fact. You-Know-Who and his followers would cause you to believe in fiction. With their vileness and hatred they have begun spreading a terrible rumor that muggle-borns are thieves of magic. This is a lie. There is no thievery here. Where would the magic be stolen from? Squibs? There are hardly enough squibs to account for the dozens of muggle-borns in the Ministry alone.
Do not believe these rumors. The truth is that magic is a wondrous thing. A great gift that all muggle-borns, myself included, should consider themselves lucky for having it bestowed upon them. And I do, I assure you. But coming to the magical world did not mean that I would forgo the life I had lived before me. I had family who knew the truth but could not speak of it, friends who felt betrayed when I left them without explanation, and dreams that would never be due to this change in my life. True, I felt awe at the opportunities and world that had opened to me, but there were losses all the same.
I met the wizarding world with the culture of a Muggle. And I do not regret that. I make no apologies for it. My entire life among witches and wizards has been shaped through the lens of my life as eleven years as a Muggle. And there are those who would say that I should have been ripped from my home as an infant and raised within a wizarding home. And still others who say I should not have ever been allowed to come to the wizarding world and pollute it with my other ideas and experiences. What, then? Should I have been left to die from accidental magic?
The magic that, according to many a pure-blood, I have acquired through the act of stealing.
It is good for all of us that the pure-blood lines continue to dwindle. With their death comes a resurrection, a freedom. With their death we can be free of the bonds that have tied the wizarding world into a suffocating black hole of development. Muggle medicine can be used to cure illnesses that both witches, wizards, and juggles all experience. Witches and wizards can marry muggles if they desire without scrutiny. Let us spread magic through all the world. Let us bring peace and understanding between witches and wizards. Let us no longer live in fear of what may come when the two worlds converge.