Extended family aren't supposed to know that is true, but it's not like you go out bragging. "Hey my bitch in-law just told me she was a witch." I'll bet if prior to the HP timeline if Vernon had mentioned that he knew about magic he would have been obliviated.

 

Hard to say really. We don't - as far as I know - hear anything about Hermione's family beyond her parents, who obviously know. The Dursleys' know before they take Harry in, which could mean they're within acceptable limits or simply that James and Lily didn't really care too much about the Statute and it never caused a problem. Marge gets obliviated, but that's probably more to do with the circumstances than the fact that she knows about magic. The only other insights into Muggle families that I can think of are the Creevey boys, only mention their dad, who obviously knows, and Seamus, whose mum doesn't tell her husband about magic until after they're married.

I'd guess that a) limits probably vary in practice depending on how traditional those in power are - within reason.
B) it's self enforcing. On the Muggle side, the more who know, the more likely you are to be tight crazy. On the magic side, most won't want to take the risk of being exiled or something.

 

Actually, Vernon definitely knew before Harry arrived on their front porch. This is from the first chapter of PS:

If he connects owls, curious weather patterns, and robes with the Potters, then he definitely knows about magic.


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Edit: I'm an idiot, please disregard this entire post. I misread Shinysavage's early post.

 

When I say "the Muggle world" I mean it along the lines of "the United States is well aware of [insert piece of classified info that average bloke on the street doesn't know]". The British PM is aware that the magical world exists, and in PoA we can infer that at least the upper echelons of Muggle law enforcement knew that Sirius was a "special" kind of criminal. And since "What would happen if the Statute of Secrecy was broken?" is a question to be answered by people like them rather than plebs like us, the conversation goes something like "Oh, you mean the magical world we've actually been dealing with on and off for the past few centuries? Whoops, our bad" rather than "Destroy them all!!!1!!"

And then there's family and in some cases extended family of witches and wizards. Harry is a very special case; most people have rather more functional families. Personally I can say that at least a couple of my aunts and uncles would have known that I was a witch, if only after I'd turned seventeen. And not all families are as average as the Dursleys; it's not a stretch to think that quite wealthy and/or powerful people have had their kids receive wizarding school letters over the years. In canon there's Justin Finch-Fletchey, with the double-barrelled name and the allusion to Eton.

 

Personally, I think it could be done with only one guy. He just needs to have a good gun and luck with aiming.

IF he were to hit the brain or heart of the nundu, it would die, right? It's not like it has the hide of a Nemean lion. Magic doesn't penetrate it very well, but nothing is said about solid objects.

 

failing that, there's nothing to prevent that muggle from using something more high ordnance like RPG and whatnot, sure the impact might not kill it, but the explosive force would certainly have a fair chance

 

A twist on the muggles vs wizards concept: Could the muggles defeat Gringotts? How would the Ministry react?

 

I don't know that we know quite enough of Gringotts' defenses* to be able to answer that. But an Ocean's Eleven-style 'fic, where muggles (or, well, Squibs, at least) are kitted out with resources and a mission to retrieve some artifact from some Gringotts vault? Sounds like it'd be an interesting read, to say the least.

*We do know that Gringotts in general has:
- aggressive questioning/ identity confirmation by goblins (wands required?).
- a very hostile dragon that can only be pacified by a seemingly simple noisemaker.
- "The Thief's Downfall", a waterfall that washes away enchantments.
- frightening cart rides on rickety rails.
- vaults that require goblin magic (?) to open.

 

Surely it depends on what you mean by defeat? Gringotts is a bank, muggles are hardly likely to go to war with a bank. Could a muggle rob Gringotts? I doubt it, but I don't think we know enough about what defences are in place on the vaults to say for certain.

 

We know that goblins are enough of a threat to wizards that their rebellions are a notable part of at least the UK's magical history, so presumably they would pose a significant threat to Muggles too.

 

Simple. Goblins hire wizards to fight for them. Wizards Imperious the President of the US. Have the President start a thermonuclear war. Watch Muggles murder each other.

 

In Darth Mars Firebird trilogy the opposite happens Wizards get the PM to send them soldiers to invade Gringotts with them of course if they'd had more wizards they wouldn't have needed the help but then again with all the goblin rebellions there must be a reason why they aren't just extinct like shinysavage said also its likely that in some of the latest treaties they're laws against goblins harming muggles since that'll reveal the statue of secrecy's stuff an likely the goblins had previously tried to steal muggle gold an such

 

Eh, I read a story the other day that took the clichéd "Gringotts arrests Harry's family" trope and had it nearly lead to a war with the Muggle government.

 

A lot of stories give Gringotts amazing power that usually only government should have. Controlling inheritance, will reading, setting fines against people, reclaiming stolen gold, doing inheritance test. Gringotts is treated like a separate government entity in charger of finances; they have their own soldiers, so why not have the ability to declare war.

 

It's always seemed to me that the main reason Gringotts gets those powers is because in modern society, most of those functions are performed by the government/banks/lawyers. The Ministry of Magic doesn't seem to have a branch dedicated to the functions, there are no other banks, and I don't remember wizarding solicitors in the books. So, who else is going to do them?
And with regards to the Goblins, they seem to have a well-ordered chain of command and very efficient organization, so that would give them a huge leg up on the hilariously ineffective wizarding government regardless of their abilities.

 

In the Muggle world probate matters (that is, wills and the administration of estates) are generally handled by the courts, acting through lawyers. Wizarding Britain certainly has courts, accordingly it must also have lawyers in one form or another. So there's no reason to think probate is handled differently.

 

Muggles would win easily.

The wizarding world is incredibly racist and if a war broke out then muggleborns, alienated and ostracized, would flock to support the world that they were born into, that their families live in. All it would take is a few muggleborns to jump ship for the government to find out and bomb most of their magical-heavy locations. Even with the fidelus charm you can use tech to triangulate a location. While wizards are far stronger at close distance, they are also so behind on technology that they would have no idea where to begin.

Only so many wizards can cast avada kedavra. Any muggle can hold a gun. Muggles would win simply because they have more manpower and more resources - six billion of them against a far smaller group of technologically illiterate wizards.

And it wouldn't even be that difficult to gain support among the population, considering their disdain for muggles, their violent history, and their casual use of obliviation as a measure of keeping their crimes hidden.

I don't think that they would exterminate the entire wizarding race, because genocide, but if they wanted to they could.

 

Obviously any muggle can take a wizard; bullets travel faster than the speed of sound. People dodge spells all the time, you don't see people getting out of the way of a bullet.

Vernon with a gun vs Voldemort = Vernon stomps. Take that, freak.

And don't get me started on nukes. Radiation exterminates wizardkind; there ain't no wards that can stop that.

 

Trigger me timbers.

 

This thread makes me want to scream:

MAKE DLP GREAT AGAIN!

How is this argument still a thing?

People are entitled to their opinions and opinions don't matter. I say that the muggles have already won since I've yet to see a wizard no matter what I smoke.