How can wizards identify Muggles?

[lobelia321]

So how can a wizard tell whether he's confronted with a Muggle or another wizard? When in a situation where this isn't obvious from context?

Say, you're standing in the middle of Trafalgar Square and there's a bloke sitting on the edge of the fountain. How do you know that bloke is a wizard? Or a Muggle? Is there some special aura crackling off the wizard or, conversely, off the Muggle? Is it clothing only? (But what if it's a Muggle dressed up for halloween in a magician's robe?)

There seem to me to be two options.

a) You can't tell them apart at all. Or: you can tell them apart by clothing only (all those weird robed folk in Book 1) which is really just another way of saying that you can't actually tell them apart. In which case, I presume, you'd have to perform some sort of trick to find out, e.g. point your wand at them and mumble a spell: if it's a wizard, you'll find yourself disarmed and turned into a trout; if it's a Muggle,he'll stare at you in confundment.

b) You can tell them apart by some sort of external sign, e.g. an aura, pointy ears. (Well, it doesn't specify anywhere in canon that wizards do not have pointy ears so what if the film got it wrong, huh? They gave everyone pointy ears in Lord of the Rings, and they're not mentioned once in book canon! I'm just saying.) In which case you would either see this all the time, or you would need to perform some sort of reveal spell to discover it.

Conversely, can Muggles recognise wizards? Presumably, most Muggles believe wizards don't exist so the question doesn't crop up. But some Muggles do know, e.g. those that have wizarding children. And there exists a whole lot of witchy lore among Muggles (well, irl anyway, possibly not in canon...) so maybe they have some inkling...?

Are there ever any cases of mistaken identity? (Mrs Figg shocked Harry but she's not a real witch.)

The question boils down to this: are wizards (and witches) a visible, or an invisible, minority? What clues does canon give us?

And, much more interestingly, what solutions has fanon proposed? Any intriguing fics on the matter?

Comments

[tvillingar.livejournal.com]

Ah but I have to contradict you at least on the subject of hobbit ears. I once asked about this on a mailing list and someone sent me a reply that Tolkien himself had given instructions to an illustrator to "make Hobbit ears pointy but less pointy than the Elf ears." No idea how accurate the quote is and where it is from, though.

are wizards (and witches) a visible, or an invisible, minority?

I think Muggles see what they want to see - or not to see. Think of the Dursleys: in the first book, when Voldemort was defeated and even Vernon realized something odd was going on (owls flying at the daytime, strangely dressed people gathering at the streets), he dismissed them as freaks because the idea of a whole another society living parallel to his didn't even enter his mind. I'm not entirely sure he connected all this "strange behaviour" to Harry's appearance even when he found out about his parents - and btw, did he know that Petunia's sister was a witch when he married her?

I'm pretty sure the Ministry of Magic doesn't run around Obliviating Muggles on a large scale, all the time (I'm sure some Muggles explained the flying car as a UFO, for example), but Muggles simply don't want to see what's in front of them. If you think of the witch hunts, it's pretty clear that there's always the risk of mob mentality taking over when people encounter something they don't understand... and wow, but I'm suddenly taking this seriously.

Also, pureblood wizards seem to avoid Muggle influence at all costs and what about the Weasleys? Though Arthur is clearly fascinated by the Muggle world and his job gives him the chance to indulge in his hobby, he's still quite clueless about the everyday life of Muggles (or so I've gathered). Maybe the situation is changing with more Muggle-born witches and wizards coming to study in the wizarding schools: for some reason I have the impression this is all quite a recent development. Of course, I may be wrong.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Yes, the not wanting to see what's in front of their eyes makes perfect sense to me. Psychological sense, too. But how about wizards being able to tell who's a wizard and who's a Muggle? In canon, this does not seem to crop up.

Also, the hobbit ears. I'd need to see this quotation by Tolkien in black on white and properly referenced first. And even then I would probably say, huh, non-book canon, and dismiss it. Being an obdurate round-ear hobbit believer. :-)

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Personally, I really like the idea that you can't tell Muggles and wizards apart, except by clues such as fashion sense and behaviour. And I'd say more but my head hurts this morning. Ow.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Does your head still hurt? If not, can you say more please???