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The Harry Potter series takes place in our universe, the real London and Scotland and so on. It is clear that, for the most part, Muggles are supposed to be unaware of the existence of the wizarding world (what with the statute of secrecy and all). Measures are taken to hide the real Hogwarts from Muggles, but what about the fake Hogwarts in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park attractions?

If Hogwarts exists in our world, then the Hogwarts theme parks must exist in the Harry Potter universe as well. Those attractions exist in our world in plain sight and loads of us Muggles have visited them. Isn't this a violation of the statute of secrecy? Does the Ministry know about this and, if so, why haven't they shut it down and Obliviated all the Muggles who've gone there?

Real Hogwarts vs fake Hogwarts

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    "If Hogwarts exists in our world, then the Hogwarts theme parks must exist in the Harry Potter universe as well." No, and the Harry Potter books don't exist in the Harry Potter universe either.
    – Molag Bal
    Commented Apr 18, 2016 at 19:04
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    Plausible deniability; youtube.com/watch?v=gT-Vf_x4Dc4
    – Valorum
    Commented Apr 18, 2016 at 19:27
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    Ever heard of Barry Trotter? Interesting book that plays with the idea that "Barry" Is a celebrity. "Rowling" is a character and iirc the plot revolves around them making movies of his life.
    – Mac Cooper
    Commented Apr 18, 2016 at 20:02
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    @Alarion In-universe, J K Rowling is a renowned historian and biographer.
    – Mike Clark
    Commented Apr 18, 2016 at 20:50
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    If the books took place in our world, then the statement that “Muggles are supposed to be unaware of the existence of the wizarding world” is quite untenable, since basically everyone knows about Harry Potter nowadays. Also, if it takes place in our world, why do almost none of the (main) places that are mentioned in the books exist in our world? The basic premise of this question seems to be flawed, and I think it's up to you, as the asker, to prove from canon that HP does take place in our world, rather than just one more or less identical to it.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Apr 18, 2016 at 22:39

3 Answers 3

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The Ministry of Magic would presumably see this as a way to discredit future attempts to expose the existence of the wizarding world.

In the the TV show Stargate: SG-1 season 5 episode 12, "Wormhole X-Treme!", an individual named Lloyd has inside knowledge about the existence and workings of the top-secret Stargate program. Llyod then releases this information in the form of sci-fi/fantasy entertainment for everyday civilians to enjoy.

From Wikipedia:

The military tracks down Lloyd [...] and discovers that he has become the creative consultant for a television series whose concept he sold to a Hollywood studio, Wormhole X-Treme!. The parallels between Wormhole X-Treme! and the real SGC are clear. The Air Force had decided that while being a breach of secrecy, the show could prevent any future leaks of information about the Stargate program from being taken seriously.

In the same way that The Air Force decided to ignore the breach of their secrecy since the show would prevent future leaks of information about the Stargate program being taken seriously, it's possible that, in the event of someone with knowledge of the wizarding world basing theme park attractions on the life of Harry Potter and events of the Second Wizarding War, the Ministry of Magic would ignore the existence of said Harry Potter theme parks for the same reason - to prevent future breaches of the statute of secrecy from being taken seriously by the Muggle community. If some Muggle tries to expose the existence of the wizarding world after that, people will just laugh and say "You're clearly taking the Harry Potter theme parks much too seriously; it's just pretend" or something like that.

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  • This reminds me of a James Bond biography I read where the author interviewed the real spy and discovered the Fleming had written about his real missions to try to confuse enemy agencies and create an aura of confusion around 007. Once the books came out they had no idea if their missions were being sabotaged by the real 007 or if MI6 were simply using it as spin
    – Liath
    Commented Aug 22, 2018 at 14:12
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The point of movies and comic books or novels which are set in "our world" is that they only exist up to the point that the fiction has been written. While the author "may" include connections (such as "Watson" giving his manuscripts to A. Conan Doyle, they will not exist to the extent that they overlap. In this case, JKR is not writing her fiction in the Harry Potter universe. Similarly, the "current events" of the Potter Universe have split from ours as of the moment that Voldemort first had a measurable effect on the muggles of that universe.

In fact, JKR probably does not exist there.

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It's not our universe. As any other fictional universe that takes place on Earth, it is an alternative universe. Meaning, it's a universe that resemble our to the point when it starts to interfere with the plot. For example, that bridge that was destroyed by Death Eaters in the 5th book in HP universe, was not destroyed in our universe. Hence it's actually two different universes.

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