Happy 35th birthday Harry Potter: This is your Muggle life




Happy birthday Harry Potter and thankyou for saving the world.
You're 35 today and even though you may not be listening to Radio 1 anymore (you switched to 6 Music in your late 20s) we've decided to mark the occasion in our own special way.
What would you be doing if you weren't the most famous wizard of all time? From renting to childcare, Harry: this is your life.

Harry's housing situation...

Like most young people in the UK, Harry isn't likely to be a homeowner.
The average age for first time buyers is now thought to be 36 so Harry and Ginny are probably not on the property ladder yet.
Inside the Burrows
Image captionMoving close to Ginny's mum and dad would cost Harry and Ginny
If we assume Harry and Ginny live in Devon near The Burrow, the Weasleys' family home, then they could be waiting for a few years yet.
For people in the south-west the average age of first time buyers increases to 41.
Life was so much simpler back then...
Image captionLife was so much simpler back then...
Meanwhile, rental costs in the UK are the highest in Europe. So Harry is probably part of what has become known in the media as "generation rent."
Hopefully his inheritance from James and Lily is still tiding him over.

Employment

From the epilogue of The Deathly Hallows we know Harry became an auror (a member of an elite unit of highly-trained, specialist officers within the Department of Magical Law Enforcement of the Ministry of Magic) and eventually rose up to become head of the organisation.
Harry is now 35
You'd think he'd be pretty well off, but if the Ministry of Magic decided to followGeorge Osborne's example and freeze public sector pay rises at one per cent then he might have had to tighten his belt in the last few years.
Especially as we have no idea how the banking crisis affected Gringotts, where Harry's savings were kept.
Harry Potter
Image captionDaily Prophet has almost definitely gone online
We know Ginny became a professional Quidditch player and then a sports journalist, but is the Daily Prophet suffering as much in the digital age as our muggle newspapers?
Ginny
Let's face it, when you get the latest news through Snapchat, a moving picture in a paper becomes less impressive. She's probably a social media editor now, struggling to tame a newsroom full of grumpy older Prophet journalists.
The sorting hat is probably OK, it's survived years of heads
Image captionThe Sorting Hat is probably exactly the same, it's survived a thousand years already

What about their kids?

The average cost of putting a student through university is now £44,000.
There's loans available from Muggle government but even then, for James Sirius, Albus Severus and Lily Luna to go to uni, it's going to cost £150,000.
Muggle Quiddich at university
Image captionMuggle Quiddich at university
If the Ministry of Magic isn't able to help, then there's millions more apprenticeship schemes available as George Osborne announced earlier this year.
Could Harry's offspring turn their backs on magic and become plumbers and engineers?
There's good news for Harry and his family as well: life expectancy is going up.
Plus men's life expectancy is catching up with women. Estimated at 81 and half years in 2012, average life expectancy could reach the late eighties by 2030. So Harry's grandchildren are going to life to a ripe old age.

Meanwhile at home...

Harry's having a crisis. Studies suggest the mid-life crisis now begins at 35, so Harry is about to enter a few years of cringeworthy decision making.
So that's what the sports broomstick and leather robe are all about.
Harry's still hanging with Hermione and Ron
Image captionHarry's still hanging with Hermione and Ron
Perhaps he'll go all the way and get a tattoo of everyone he went to Malia with.
He's probably got a decent amount of mates as figures suggest 95% of people in the UK say they have friends that they can count on.
Only wizards in Iceland and Ireland have stronger social circles.
We love you Harry ...and they love you too
Image captionWe love you Harry...and they love you too
So at least trips to the pub with Ron and Hermione are still happening. Let's toast a glass of Butterbeer to that!

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