Belgium

Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is country in Western Europe. Belgium hosts the Muggle EU's headquarters as well as those of several other major international organisations such as NATO. Belgium has a population of about 11 million people. Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Latin Europe,

Language

Belgium is home to two main linguistic groups, the Dutch-speakers (about 60%), mostly Flemish, and the French-speakers (about 40%), mostly Walloons, plus a small group of German-speakers.

Belgium's two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region, officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia.

Magical Culture

Witches and wizards from Belgium quite often attend Beauxbatons for their education.

The Ministry in Belgium shares resources with the Netherlands and Luxembourg. This includes an international floo between the three countries, which suits them far better for their local traffic and sharing resources, being smaller countries. The Belgian floo network has not lost anyone in a hundred and four years, as of 2009.

Legilimency is used to help heal in Belgium, as explained by Gerard Gries:

"You bring up two important points to the broadness of Legilimency. One for medical use, the other for the analysis of an unconscious subject. Legilimency can be used if a healer is trained for conditions against the mind, beffudlements and lost memories, things of that sort. Amongst France and Belgium our Legilimens healers have taken great strides towards magical assistance though parts of the practices are still new. I am not familiar with how or if the service is administered here." [1]

There are lingering Voldemort supporters in Belgium, according to Auror John Dawlish.

"I have also been informed that He Who Must Be Named had some Belgian fans. A nasty little fanclub who fled from Belgium when their Council of Sorcery sent representatives from the Committee of Magical Justice Management to apprehend them. This organization goes by the name of Heres Resurrectionis Consortium, it's latin and mens 'The Society of the Heir's Resurrection'. Undoubtedly this is a reference to the Heir of Slytherin. In other words, He Who Must Not Be Named. They were not Death Eaters, but they believed in his cause. My sources tells me that they did not like his fall from power." [2]

In 1974 Belgium faced Wales in the Quidditch World Cup, hosted in France.

Drammes Apotheke operate a number of apothecaries in the country.

At Absit Omen

Wandmaker, Wilton Wickwood travelled to Belgium to collect wand materials, and became fluent in some of the language.

Johann Storm and Petra Pendrick-Talonen passed through Belgium by floo to visit the Ministry in the Netherlands to help architect Maarten Bergen finish a property purchase. [3]

Jacoba Schlagenweit sent a postcard from Belgium to her brother Sasha Schlagenweit [4]

Characters Born in Belgium

• Gerard Gries
• Hercule Gries, father of Gerard Gries
• Lenore Gries nee Giraud, mother of Gerard Gries
• Henry McAvoy, Quinn McAvoy's father
• Camille Storm nee Duerr, Johann Storm's mother