Why do acts of "accidental" magic only seem to happen around Muggles?

Question

There are several times in the books (and movies) where it is either mentioned or depicted that magical people, in moments of stress, are capable of accidentally causing magic to happen. The biggest examples are probably in the first book when Harry makes the glass disappear from the boa's tank at the zoo (it is also mentioned that accidental things have happened before earlier in his childhood), and in the third book when he inflates Aunt Marge.

The thing I've noticed, though, is this only ever seems to happen when they're out in the Muggle world, surrounded by non-magic folk. It is fairly obvious Harry faces some extremely stressful situations while at Hogwarts (the books wouldn't be very exciting otherwise!), and yet throughout all of those situations, Harry (or the other characters for that matter) never once make anything accidental happen like what happened with Aunt Marge. Is there a particular reason for this?

Note: Canon answers would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The reason why there seems to be a bias is simple: Harry didn't grow up with wizards, and Harry's experiences are the ones we know. Given that the Dursleys gave him an inordinate amount of stress, it's understandable that he would have a few outbreaks like this while in their care.

Accidental magic certainly doesn't require muggles - Neville mentions his Great-Uncle Algie, also a wizard, who attempts to scare him into performing magic. Indeed, he succeeds by dropping Neville out of a window, causing him to bounce unhurt down the road.

Answer 2

Let's not forget Dumbledore's sister Ariana accidentally killed her mother in a magical accident. Not all accidental magic is funny, nor does it only occur when muggles are around.

Answer 3

I think there's a bit of bias in the medium.

We certainly have accounts of accidental magic by wizards and witches around other wizards and witches, but those are by nature not nearly as interesting. In those cases, we often get a hint of the comedic outcome, but the event itself isn't as funny/interesting/dramatic as it would have been if there were muggles around, in particular muggles who are ignorant of magic. In fact, in the movies we have several montages of this kind of thing happening in classrooms and such, so there are LOTS of occurrences, but they're only interesting enough to show about 3 seconds of in a montage ;-) The accidents that happen with Harry while he's at "home" wouldn't be nearly as interesting if they'd happened at Hogwart's, amusing maybe, but not worth writing about.

All of which is to say, the fact that it's a story means that the author is interested in telling the interesting bits, not the mundane bits. And accidental magic around muggles is much more interesting than accidental magic around witches and wizards.

Answer 4

This is not true. Remember when Neville was telling how his uncle used to try to scare him into showing signs of magical ability and one day when he was hanging Neville out of a window and dropped him, he started to bounce. This event happened in the presence of Neville's wizard family and not muggles.

Answer 5

Wands seem to be a tool explicity for the focused use of magical ability, and magic lessons are to help young wizards learn to use that focus. This is why spontaneous spells would seem so chaotic - they're unfocused, and dangerous because of that lack of focus.

So it stands to reason that a young wizard completely unaware of their powers, or in very stressful situations, could accidentally release some of their magic, especially if they have long periods of time where they can't use their magic at all (which would be true for Harry during his long stay at the Dudleys each Summer).

Answer 6

So this is how I see it. At a young age, you are more susceptible to fantasies.. like being chased down a street, Harry could have wished, he could just fly onto the roof..Neville being dropped from the window, could have thought what it would feel like if he were a ball and would just bounce around. Such accidental magic would probably not happen with a level minded person like Hermione who was mostly in control.. As they grew up, they started realizing what is possible, and started reigning in their fantasies. Like I used to have this recurring dream growing up that I am running over a big green ground a few feet above the ground (levitating).. But now its been years since I have had that dream now... I remember it cause I had once written it down as soon as I woke up..