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The Upper Class
The magical world’s upper class is comprised of families with great lineage and, in general, great wealth based on large estates. These families are generally not involved in industry, although some of that is changing. The magical world doesn’t have manufacturing on the scale non-magicals have achieved, but that’s partially due to the way a magical environment interacts with synthetic materials.
Some families, such as the Weasleys, are still considered Upper Class despite Arthur Weasley working for a living due to their long history in the magical world and the family participation in Great Workings (see The Weasley Scandal).
Many of the first families of the magical world received the honor, acreage, and accolades by participating in the Great Workings of history. (see The Great Workings) If they were part of a Great Working, then they have an hereditary seat on the Wizengamot.
Guardian families were accorded the status (and land) of the Upper Class if they had not participated in a Working. These families watched the borders between worlds, protecting the secret of the magical community. Notable Guardian Families include the Prewetts, the Blacks, the Fairfaxes, and the Morningsides. All four notable families participated in the Workings of history.
Members of magical society also entered the upper class at later dates by way of the Sacred 28. While essentially meaningless, it conveyed some cachet upon those listed. The Sacred 28 tend to be the absolute crushing snobs of the magical world, unless the family was part of a Great Working. Then they’re just regular snobs.
Members of the upper class tend to dress from nearly all previous eras. A family will have a certain style they generally stay with down the generations. The oldest families, like the Blacks, tend to favor medieval styles. The Malfoys favor the late Georgian and Regency periods, with forays into the late Edwardian period for Narcissa.
One can enter the UC by participating in a Great Working. The last families added were added in the mid-1940s. They came from muggleborn stock but helped shore up the boundaries between worlds after the Blitz.
The Middle Class
The magical middle class is comprised of those who work for a living but who also enjoy a great deal of leisure time and money. Some of them may be extraordinarily wealthy, but are not UC due to family history. The top of the MC tend to be artisans of some sort - artists, musicians, inventors, etc or politicians elected to the Wizard’s Council. Those who work in the Ministry, St. Mungo’s, or who own a shop in one of the shopping districts round out the magical middle class.
The Middle Class tends to be more concerned with manners and morals than the upper class. Behavior may be more constrained. Members of the middle class tend to favor mid-to-late Victorian styles but eschew the more flamboyant versions. A cage crinoline may be worn, but only of moderate proportions. Puffed sleeves may not be of the largest type worn.
The Lower Class
Due to having magic, many of the lower class magicals don’t live with the kind of poverty seen in the non-magical world. These are the people who work in shops, restaurants, factories, on farms, in service, or as tenant farmers among other jobs. These are also the country people who make up the vast majority of the magical population. Most of the LC children won’t go to Hogwarts; they go to one of the smaller schools or to a day school. Most larger towns have a magical day school.
Clothing tends to be more modern, if by modern we mean late 19-teens through the early 1940s.
The Great Workings
The Great Workings were feats of magic worked in unison by large groups, sometimes across the globe.
The Great Working of 1692, known as the Statute of Secrecy to muggleborn students, was a global effort that removed the magical world from the non-magical one. From the 13th century through through the 17th century, global magical society saw a rise in violence against those viewed as or accused of being witches. Most of those tortured and murdered, however, were not magicals.
To, hopefully, save non-magical people from a terrible fate, the global magical community devised The Great Working of 1692. They prepared for this feat of magic for five decades - devising the ritual, researching the runic sequences needed to shield entry points to the magical world, and preparing themselves - before they were ready to cast and chant.
For seven days and seven nights, magicals around the globe joined together to pool their magic in one of the most difficult and dangerous undertakings in their history. In the end, the magical world receded from the non-magical one. The combined magical power created a perfect copy of the non-magical world in 1692, tethered at specific entry points.
The English magical community had several more Great Workings over the decades since, mostly to update their cities. London, in particular, was selectively updated over the years to include such places as the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and Almack’s, as well as the various city parks.
The Weasley Scandal
Septimus Weasley, known as a man who would wager on anything, managed to gamble away a sizeable fortune and go into a great deal of debt (the scandal). This wasn’t an amount of debt one might clear given enough time. It left the Weasley children with no dowries and what felt like no future (the Scandal part deux).
Upon his father’s death, Arthur discovered the depth (and breadth, and height) of the issue. After selling off everything not nailed down, except for the entailed land, he managed to clear most of the debt but had nothing left. So he went to work at the Ministry, determined he would never take one cent he hadn’t earned. Molly agreed with him. They supported his younger siblings until they could make their own way in the world.
They built The Burrow slowly on part of the old Weasley demense lands and rented out some of the farms. Much of the area where they live is their land - the Diggorys and the Lovegoods both rent land from them. Molly keeps the old home farm and orchard going and brings in a bit extra selling cider, jams and jellies, pickels, and other things. They are, slowly, managing to pay down what remains of Septimus Weasley’s profligacy
