how many muggle born kids showed up at hogwarts like, “i get you’re into magic and don’t get me wrong, magic is awesome, but please don’t try and tell me quills and inkwells make more sense than pencils. i realize you have an aesthetic going, but admit it’s that. admit it’s just for looks.”
Imagine how many muggles parents looked at the supply list and went “Parchment? Quills? INKWELLS? Fuck this we’re going to staples.”
And then imagine if the muggle parents start getting into arguments with the teachers when they start getting messages telling them their kids aren’t using the proper materials.
“Okay look we can accept working with frog livers, turning mice into fine china, and whatever the fuck ‘arithmancy’ is but we’re not going to let you shame our kids just because they choose to use a bic pen instead of this ‘ye old inkwell’ bullshit. Also. it’s called a spiral notebook and I’m not gonna make my Abby drag around five hundred feet of loose parchment just because you people have a theme going.”
Aesthetic or death
“Also, you’re going to need to make assignment length a lot more clear. ‘5 inches about werewolves due Tuesday’ doesn’t make any damn sense. Also, the reason Susie is turning in assignments on lined paper is that she can’t write in a straight line to save her life without it.”
This makes my magic theory obsessed little soul shrivel, because half the point behind that kind of writing is that writing with quill and ink takes more effort. It takes more intent. More will. You’re effectively scribing magic on the page as you write, and that’s half the idea. You have to concentrate on those spells – understand them – mean every little bit of them to get them to work. It’s not just about not changing things. It’s about magic and what it is and how it works. Pen is objectively a terrible shortcut to take because you’re cutting out half of what makes the magic work, and pencil is even worse because it’s not even permanent. And then of course there’s the consideration of what the ink is made of and will it react with magic when you don’t intend it to and… the point is that there’s complexity going on here. Maybe Muggle ink in Muggle pens does weird shit when combined with written incantations, you ever think of that?
Although admittedly the whole thing on length rather than word count is bullshit, considering handwriting sizes differ wildly.
Meg's Mumbles 