Not sure if this belongs properly on "Obscurus" or "Magical Theory" -- but anyway: A matter which has arisen on assorted threads / posts: the possibility that -- the "Potterverse" being a scene which differs in certain respects, from "the world as we'd have known it if JKR had never existed" – are the present condition, and past history, of the Muggle world, different from how they would be / would have been, had "Potter" never been – and how different?

I being given to the notion that in fictional "parallel-world" scenarios, the "original world" is as it has always been, with the "parallel" one doing its stuff "alongside / diverging" (with possible exception of a very few bits of trivial minutiae) – it hadn't occurred to me that the existence of a separate wizarding world would, in any particular, require changes in the mundane world. In the main, reading of the books tends to indicate to me that the 1990s Muggle world was, per the books, very much as it was / had been in reality.

I'm not the greatest of Potter scholars, but from such that I've read, see little in the books to suggest any divergence between "real", and "Potterverse", Muggle history. From what I see, biggest such divergence detected, concerns Tom Riddle in his orphanage in London, time of WW2. It is suggested that "as really happened", the orphanage would have been evacuated from London, for fear of horrendous aerial assaults by the enemy. Confess that when reading the books, such considerations didn't cross my mind; had they done so, I'd probably have rationalised – the country was in a desperate situation, those who ran it would likely have figured, "we're in deep s***, a few low-life orphans and their carers are very low-priority: if German bombs wipe them out, that's a pity, but the orphans are probably no great loss, and the carers are probably Christians, for whom to die and be with Christ will be far better – let them stay where they are and take their chances."

Find intriguing, the thought of "Potterverse" involving a "Muggleverse" different from the way we Muggles know and have known our Muggleverse – just, have seen little evidence in the books, of that being the case. Would be interested by suggestions otherwise…

I don't understand what you are suggesting. Please, in short sentences with small words.

The OT seems to be asking if the Potterverse is an Alternate Earth what historical changes may have happened?

I am not sure they abandonded places like orphanges if they continued to send the kids to school in the first place during WW2.

Sorry, wondering! A vice of mine, for sure. Sometimes I feel that I need Snape -- or Umbridge with her notorious pen -- to teach me to express myself simply, briefly and clearly.


I was thinking basically of evacuation:to a large extent in Britain in WW2, children, and the various "institutions" they were in, were (with assorted "detail" ins-and-outs) moved out of the big cities into rural areas; looking for the greatest possible degree of safety from aerial bombing.

Oh, I thought that the evacuations were somewhat more personal - sending family members to live with others in rural areas. I've read erefences to the tube stops being used as massive fall-out shelters during air raids.

Didn't WWII coincide with Grindelwald's attempt to gain power? I thought the defeat of Grindelwald coincided with the end of the war, 1945. Or course, there is also the Nurmengard wizard prison and Nuremberg, a seat of Nazi power. I always thought these events were chosen to mirror each other, to show that the wizard world and the muggle world were closely entwined.

When the underground train was bombed in London a few years back, my one child thought it was the work of evil wizards.

Wondering, that crossed my mind as well, that the defeat of Grindelwald was "mirroring" the defeat of Hitler. I also had to read the name of the prison a couple of times because I was reading Nurmengard, but thinking Nuremberg.

Hasty post (short of time) -- Evacuation of children from cities was officially organised in WW2, on a massive scale (also of students -- I have an uncle who was studying at the Royal College of Art in London early in that war -- the whole establishment was evacuated to the Lake District).
The use of Underground stations as air-raid shelters was initially a spontaneous thing on the part of Londoners -- but was allowed, and assisted, by officialdom. Unfortunately, this ploy didn't always work: there were a couple of instances of lucky (from the enemy's point of view) direct bomb hits on Tube stations, with many casualties.