Realistically, what would life be like for a wizard who was born mute?

What would Hogwarts probably have been like for this person? (Post 1998.)

 

Potions and herbology would be focuses, with a potential for astronomy, ancient runes, and arithmancy depending on whether they actually lead to any magic, or just a deeper understanding. CoMC and divination could be picked up, too. Transfiguration, charms, and defence would be limited to theory, unless...

We know that silent casting is possible, even if it is advanced, so there is something that the wizard could aim for. If it's possible to get to silent casting having never cast a spoken spell, then I can see it being the mute wizard's family have to hire a private tutor for early on, so that they don't have to wait until fifth year to learn it.

Hogwarts doesn't seem to test for much before going in - Harry's name was down since he was born. All that it seems to need is having magic, and I don't think we've seen any indication that a mute child would be less prone to accidental magic - it would just be harnessing it deliberately that could be difficult.



I've read a few HP-fanfics with a mute protagonist, and generally they're shit. Either Harry overcomes his muteness without much difficulty, in which case it isn't an issue; or he doesn't overcome it, in which case I'm getting a story about schoolkids, not magic (or even a hurt/comfort angst fic). There have been decent enough ones, but none jump out at me from memory.

The worst one had Harry pretending to be mute because his best friend died when he was seven, and he felt really guilty about it. Everyone thought this was perfectly fine, and let him continue.

One that stuck with me went on about how spells have multiple components - the mental, somatic, and spoken. As Harry couldn't use the spoken component, all his spells were weaker, and would fizzle unless he put larger amounts of mental focus, and got his wand motions perfect. In which case his spells weren't anything brilliant, but they did the job.

 

Couldn't muteness just be cured? Assuming it isn't some kind of psychological thing.

 

What if it's caused by a magical disease that can't be cured?

 

Then what Thaumologist said would apply I guess.

 

I mean, a story about how a wizard has to work much harder to cast even the simple spells because they can't use the vocal component could be interesting, especially if we start looking into a well thought out background of magical theory. Certain phonemes having psychological links with concepts, as a form of synasthesia (think Bouba/Kiki) which might be weaker due to the wizard never saying the sounds themself.

But I don't think that would be a great story - it would work as a shorter piece, or as a pre-Hogwarts arc - but extend it too long and it gets boring.

And then, once the wizard can cast spells to a similar level as their peers, the story doesn't gain much from the wizard's muteness. There would be difficulties in communication, which could cause issues, but if you aren't deaf/mute yourself, you'll likely end up thinking the protagonist is being stupid for refusing to use a whiteboard/TTS/notepaper to communicate. Unless they do use that method... In which case they might as well not be mute - everyone around can understand them anyway.

You could, of course, just write a story where the mute wizard never communicates with anyone, because nobody knows sign language, and they don't want to write because reasons. And they never get their magic working well, so they have to use their wits to stay ahead. And it could be really interesting. But there's a lot of difficulties to overcome in writing it, and a disabled protagonist isn't always one the reader will care about.

 

In this case, the mute wizard is a side character. He was born mute because of a side effect of a curse that was cast on his mother. They did try to cure him, but it didn't really work.

What I am trying to do is map out this character's backstory. Currently, he's an Intern for the Ministry. What led him to this point?

 

Paperwork. Cushy, cushy paperwork. That and most communication being done through magical paper aeroplanes. I'm sure he wouldn't be the only one in the Ministry who never has to say a word.

 

Good point.

---------- Post automerged at 03:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:08 AM ----------

This was my bad, and I promise to do so in the future. And if a mod could move this thread into the HP Questions that don't deserve their own thread, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Honestly, you don't even need to go that far. Harry, for example, never had his eyes cured by magic, and I think it is perfectly reasonable that certain birth defects are impossible or hard to cure by magic.