This Q/A ( Does Hogwarts teach non magical classes? ) made me realize that I can't seem to remember a single HP wizard/witch who had a Muggle job with a Muggle company, aside from Kingsley's bodyguard cover as the Prime Minister's secretary.

Everyone whom I recall being mentioned as having a job is either employed in some magical company or the Ministry of Magic (which seems to employ more magical people than every other employer combined) or be self-employed - again economically interacting with wizards.

Am I merely forgetting someone, or was Kingsley really the only magically capable person with a paycheck from the Muggle world (which doesn't count since the job was a cover)?

UPDATE: Just to clarify - I didn't necessarily mean "working a Muggle job while using magic to help you" - it could also mean simply doing a Muggle job. So there's not necessarily a concern about Statute of Secrecy (plus, you can use the magic, say, to learn - e.g. Hermione could magick herself to learn how to do dentistry in 1 month or something). So no need to answer how having some wizard doing a Muggle job would be contrary to HP universe rules. I merely want to know if there's an example, NOT why there should't be one.

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    It's hard to imagine someone with actual magical powers settling down to be a payroll accountant. – DJClayworth Dec 2 '11 at 20:34
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    @DJClayworth - I know winners of national math contests who are very happy doing boring low level programming jobs. I know people who can write high level viruses who are happy to drive wrecking equipment on construction sites . Also, I'm sure there are PLENTY of accountants at Gringotts :) – DVK-on-Ahch-To Dec 2 '11 at 20:42
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    Regarding your edit, I don't think wizards can "use the magic to learn," or else Hogwarts could just be a 1-week crash-course on learning the learning spell. – Kevin Dec 3 '11 at 4:06
  • @DVK You know Peter Gibbons? Awesome! : ) – Meat Trademark Dec 17 '13 at 16:52
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    @MeatTrademark- Nope, but I know someone with similar career path (sans dating Aniston, alas) – DVK-on-Ahch-To Dec 17 '13 at 17:08

Isobel McGonagall, mother of Minerva McGonagall

The Pottermore section on Minerva McGonagall talks at length about her mother, Isobel. After she eloped with a muggle, Isobel kept her magical heritage a secret from her husband, lived in isolation from the wizarding world, and voluntarily chose to lock up her wand.

By the time she was eighteen, [Isobel] had fallen in love with Robert. Unfortunately, she had not found the courage to tell him what she was.



While no occupation is mentioned, it seems that Isobel neither used magic, nor associated with anyone who used magic, since she got married. Even after she revealed to her husband that she was a witch, Isobel kept herself isolated from others in the wizarding community (the fact that she was married to a minister probably influenced that). It's clear that by the time Minerva was accepted to Hogwarts (at least 11 years after they were married), Isobel still hadn't rejoined the magical community.


So while Isobel McGonagall didn't necessarily work in the muggle world without magic, she did live 100% in the muggle world without any use of magic or connections to the Wizarding World.

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I can only think of three possibilities, but two, quite frankly, are a stretch.

  • The Weasley cousin who is an accountant. It's not outright stated he's a Squib; Ron only says the family doesn't talk about him much.

  • The portrait of the "froglike little man wearing a long silver wig who was depicted in a small, dirty oil painting in the far corner of the room" in the Muggle Prime Minister's office. Portraits likely don't receive paychecks, although perhaps they're occasionally reconditioned as special compensation ;)

  • Slytherin Blaise Zabini's mother is a "famously beautiful witch" who has had seven husbands, all whom have died mysteriously and left her substantial wealth. I'm not sure if being a Black Widow qualifies as a Muggle profession. Besides, she's referenced as inheriting gold, not pounds, so the assumption is that she has married all wizards.

Like I said, a stretch, but fun to think about. Other that that, I can't think of any non-Squibs who work in the Muggle world. Perhaps I'm forgetting someone, though!

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    Ms. Zabini was a typical Slytherin and therefore IMHO highly unlikely to associate with lower life forms...er... muggles. As far as PM's office, I'm unsure but wouldn't that likely be a dead wizard's picture? – DVK-on-Ahch-To Dec 2 '11 at 19:46
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    @DVK -- Where in canon does it state that Blaise Zabini's mother was a Slytherin? That said, I agree with you that, judging by Blaise's prejudiced views, she wouldn't associate with Muggles . . . but I said that she likely married wizards in my post. And, yes, the portrait is likely of a long deceased wizard. If it wasn't clear from the post, I'll clarify that it's mostly tongue-in-cheek. Quick answer: Aside from the Weasley accountant, no I cannot think of any witches or wizards who held exclusively Muggle jobs. Others may come up with some examples, though. :) – Slytherincess Dec 2 '11 at 20:51

One of the recent answers here (in the spoilers):

referenced the fact that Merlin was a Slytherin. As such, he'd have held a wizarding job, but in a Muggle world (he was a court wizard for King Arthur's father and Arthur if I recall my Arthuriana correctly).

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    And he preceeds the adoption of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy in 1689. – ohmi Dec 3 '11 at 0:00
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    I looked on HP Wikia, and was about to say he was born just late enough to attend, but I looked at the citation and it was based on the fact that he was in Slytherin. The actual events in the legend took place in the late 400s to early 500s. I suppose this is just another example of JKR not begin good at math (as she's said herself). – Kevin Dec 3 '11 at 0:00
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    @ohmi - sorry, I don't see how Secrecy Statute relates to my question in any way. – DVK-on-Ahch-To Dec 3 '11 at 0:44
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    Plus Merlin was actually an Ancient who was fighting the Ori (woops wrong universe!:-)) – Steven Wood Feb 26 '14 at 8:41
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    As a youth, Merlin could easily have attended Hogwarts and been in Slytherin. It was only when he was much older that he would have lived long before Hogwarts was founded. (T.H. White's magisterial history is the final word on this.) – Stan Rogers Oct 1 '15 at 8:16

According to information from Rowling's old site, there is reason to believe Dean Thomas' father might have left the wizard world and lived like a muggle until he was murdered by Death Eaters:

Dean is from what he always thought was a pure Muggle background. He has been raised by his mother and his stepfather; his father walked out on the family when Dean was very young. He has a very happy home life, with a number of half-brothers and sisters.

Naturally when the letter came from Hogwarts Dean's mother wondered whether his father might have been a wizard, but nobody has ever discovered the truth: that Dean's father, who had never told his wife what he was because he wanted to protect her, got himself killed by Death Eaters when he refused to join them. The projected story had Dean discovering all this during his school career. I suppose in some ways I sacrificed Dean's voyage of discovery for Neville's, which is more important to the central plot.

Another possible interpretation is that he didn't tell his wife, but kept working in the wizard world until he got killed by Death Eaters.

Btw, not an answer, but interesting enough to mention:

Hookum, Daisy (b. 1962). Author. Wrote bestseller My Life as a Muggle, after giving up magic for a year. Married to celebrity gardener Tilden Toots. JKR's Wizard of the Month for June 2006

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It would be perfectly possible for a child born to non-magic parents to be denied, or decline, the opportunity to go to Hogwarts. They're still wizards/witches, having the innate ability for magic and spellcasting, but they have chosen not to pursue it. Perhaps if Harry wasn't the wizard he was, and the Dursleys were more likable and/or had taken more care to keep Harry in the dark, Harry might just have said "no thanks". But because the Dursleys were so perfectly horrible to him, Harry jumps at the chance for a different life.

One could imagine an average middle-class family with a child brought up comfortably but not extravagantly, who's been taught that nothing is free and that sweat makes things happen, who upon receiving a letter from this supposed "school of magic" he's never heard of let alone applied to would simply chuck it in the trash with the rest of the "get rich quick" junk mail.

It's also perfectly possible that a child of non-magic parents who gets himself expelled from Hogwarts would simply try to bury that fact and apply to some "normal" secondary school. He'd be behind by however many years he'd spent at Hogwarts, but there are valid explanations.

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    Letters to Muggle-borns are hand-delivered by the Hogwarts staff precisely to prevent them being treated as junk mail. But you're right in general; Muggle-born might still prefer to live at home, or reject going to Hogwarts for other reasons. – E. J. Jun 24 '15 at 18:14
  • Yeah, there are some inconsistencies about how the letters get delivered; Dumbledore visited Tom Riddle personally, while Harry, also an orphan in the care of Muggles, got owls first before Hagrid hand-delivered one to Harry. What happens when a letter isn't opened and read by its addressee, however, is explored in the opening chapters of the first book; getting one the first day, you as a Muggle-born might chuck it, but when fifty come down your chimney, maybe you start paying more attention. – KeithS Jun 24 '15 at 18:46
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    My guess is that the visit is only for Muggles who have absolutely no knowledge of the wizarding world. The Dursleys knew about it--Petunia especially--and were supposed to tell Harry. Even Dumbledore thought that they would have been honest with him, at the very least. Yeah, right.... – E. J. Jun 25 '15 at 4:39

And there are wizards working under cover in Postal System . (As Aunt Petunia was able to deliver a letter to hogwarts) . They should be doing normal muggle jobs right ?

“You didn’t think it was such a freak’s school when you wrote to the head- master and begged him to take you.”

Petunia turned scarlet.

“Beg? I didn’t beg!”

“I saw his reply. It was very kind.”

“You shouldn’t have read—” whispered Petunia, “that was my private—how could you—?”

Lily gave herself away by half-glancing toward where Snape stood nearby. Petunia gasped.

“That boy found it! You and that boy have been sneaking in my room!”

“No—not sneaking—” Now Lily was on the defensive. “Severus saw the envelope, and he couldn’t believe a Muggle could have contacted Hogwarts, that’s all! He says there must be wizards working undercover in the postal service who take care of—”

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  • It's also possible there are spells or Muggles at work here. If I recall, I think it was Lily and Snape that guessed Wizards were working in the postal system. – user87732 Aug 4 '17 at 16:51

I think the canonical/textual answer is no. Enforcement of Clause 73 of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy would seem to preclude that possibility, in the UK at least.

Rowlings made a running joke out of the ignorance of wizards about the Muggle world and went to some length to establish that most wizards would never and had never needed to interact with Muggles. How would such persons know what to do to live successfully as a Muggle w/magic by themselves even if such a wrong-thinking idea occurred to them? Even Harry and Hermione did not flee to, say, Manchester or Paris and live life on the run in nice hotels.

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  • I didn't really restrict things to "use magic in your work" in the question. And plenty of wizards know muggle world - as you yourself noted, Harry and Hermione would be one example – DVK-on-Ahch-To Dec 3 '11 at 0:39
  • erm ... two examples? – Stefan Dec 19 '12 at 13:22

A JKR Pottermore writing says Sir Cadogan had a Muggle job.

Sir Cadogan, the knight whose portrait hung in Hogwarts, was said to have had a Muggle job. His only mentioned job was being a knight (perhaps a Knight of the Round Table), and he’s also armored like a knight would be in his portrait, so presumably that means that being a knight was considered a Muggle job.


Sir Cadogan (Pottermore)

He did seem to be still using magic despite not having a wizarding job, since he’d taken his wand with him to battle the Wyvern of Wye, and it bit his wand in half - likely meaning he had it out so he could use it in the battle.

Sir Cadogan (Pottermore)

However, his job itself wasn’t magical in nature.

Another writing says Armand Malfoy had a non-magical job.

According to a different writing on Pottermore, Armand Malfoy was part of the invasion led by William the Conqueror.

The Malfoy family (Pottermore)

While he most likely used magic in his job, he would have worked among Muggles, and presumably worked in the service of a Muggle (there’s nothing that indicates William the Conqueror was a wizard).

This also implies it’s less common after the Statute of Secrecy.

The Pottermore writing on Sir Cadogan says that before the wizarding world was forced into hiding (therefore before the Statute of Secrecy) that it wasn’t unusual for wizards to live among Muggles and have a Muggle job. This implies that, conversely, after the wizarding world was forced into hiding, it became somewhat more unusual for wizards to live among Muggles and have Muggle jobs. (This doesn’t mean it’d never happen, just that it’s less common after the Statute of Secrecy was implemented.)

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    A Malfoy working for a muggle? Shame on them... :D – BMWurm Aug 14 '18 at 9:33

Well, let’s see, they wouldn’t become an obscurial because they are presumable an adult since their working and the oldest obscurial known is Ariana Dumbledore or Credence Barebone, while Credence’s age isn’t said from what I can remember, Ariana is 14 when she dies and is hit by a curse so I’m not sure if she could of survived longer but definitely not past 20 or so. I’m sure there is someone, like Arthur Weasley, who ‘likes Muggles so much they snapped their wands in half and joined them’ as said by Draco Malfoy. Maybe someone successfully avoided Death Eaters by joining the Muggle Society, then might of stayed in hiding for about a decade before they got wind that Voldemort was gone. Either way I am sure that there was at least one witch/wizard probably called Matthew the Muggle lover or Maggie the Magic Hater or something, that became a muggle and spent the rest of their life with their wand in the bottom of a lake or in a sharks stomach.

Kingsley does have a job protecting the Prime Minister as Head Secretary or whatever so a witch/wizard can have a muggle job. I think it’s very possible that there is a witch/wizard who works and lives like a muggle without magic

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