 left side (been here all along!) - agreeing
Hope had arrived at History of Magic class just in time and had taken one of the few empty places on the left side, since that one seemed like it had less people than the right.
She felt it to be a bit ironic that they would be debating this particular topic, which had a lot of relevance to her. Because her home village in Virginia had chosen not only to keep itself secret from Muggles, but from everyone else, too, even other wizards. In fact, there had been a lot of debate at home over whether she would be allowed to come over to England and go to school at Hogwarts (and she herself was not sure if that had been a good idea or not).
Anyway, she felt qualified to speak for keeping the Statute of Secrecy when it was her turn to stand up and speak. "The Statute of Secrecy was set up for good reasons and, even though at the personal level it may seem restrictive, many of those reasons still exist today. It's been said that some recent events in the wizarding world put Muggles at risk, but the same can be said for some events in the Muggle world. Even though Muggles no longer hunt out witches to burn them at the stake out of fear and superstition, they have developed a lot of other weapons and technology thanks to modern science that could be a threat.
Wizarding folk tend to discount Muggles because they have no magic, but think what could be done with some of the modern Muggle weapons that exist--even against wizards. People fear what they don't understand, and if Muggles knew that such a thing as magic really existed and that some people had it and the rest didn't, many of them would become so alarmed that they might try to get rid of what they saw as a threat at any cost. Wizards are still greatly outnumbered by Muggles--could magic really protect a small group of wizards from something like a nuclear bomb? And the Muggles might harm themselves as well in their panic to get rid of magical people.
No, until people of all kinds, Wizard and Muggle, gain a lot more maturity in the way they think and act, the Statute of Secrecy should remain in place."
There. Thank goodness that was over. Hope couldn't believe she'd managed to make such a long speech in front of all these people--three years ago when she was a first year, she'd probably have fainted with anxiety before she managed to get out a few sentences. |