I have seen a common theory floating around that Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews' Mary Poppins- 1964) is a witch who attended Hogwarts. This seemed like a really cool idea to me but I was always wondering why was she a nanny if she was a super powerful witch? I do believe that she is a super powerful witch (on par with Voldemort and Dumbeldore) because she has the power of flight (which could be due to her umbrella), talks to the dog Andrew (I don't know if he could be an Animagus or something) and she doesn't visibly use a wand so her non-verbal skills are impressive. I think that her umbrella with the talking parrot is her wand disguised as a muggle umbrella (much like Hagrid's) although hers is likely not broken but disguised because she spends a lot of time in the non-magical world. Now why does she spend so much time with muggles? I believe, although I don't have much evidence to back it up with, that she works at Hogwarts and her job is to help transition muggle born wizards to the wizarding world. Specifically, she is sent to families of young witches and wizards who have parents that would likely not accept/believe in magic and would not let their children go to Hogwarts. I can't remember if we ever found out in the books how muggle born wizards are told they are magic and how to get to Diagon Alley and Platform 9 3/4 but I don't think a letter would convince a parent like Mr Banks to send their kids off to magic school.

And yes I do think that both Jane and Michael have the magical gene. It is genetic so it is common to show up in siblings and throughout the movie they perform magic, not advanced magic. But magic that is uncontrollably and largely connected to feelings, similar to the emotional magic that underaged wizards perform. They fly upwards from laughing and fall back down when sad- this is obviously connected to emotions and is slightly similar to what Harry does to Aunt Marge in the third book. The other piece of magic we see them do is clean up their room, which isn't really connected to emotions but Mary Poppins did it first so it could be performed through instruction.

The timing of when the movie takes place is very helpful to this theory. Jane isn't far from her eleventh birthday and would be soon expecting a letter. Obviously when the letter arrived Mr Banks would not send his child to wizarding school and even if a witch/wizard showed up to convince him I doubt it would work. As this movie is set in the 1910's and the relationship between the two communities would be a lot worse. Dumbledore or somebody in the Ministry would undoubtedly be aware of this as I don't think Mr Banks would be the only person opposed to magic in the 1910's. So Mary Poppins, and quite likely an entire department of people are sent around the country to help subliminally change the minds of parents.

Mr Banks starts very obtuse, mean and ignorant to his children and wife but after a character arc he flies kites with them and stands up to his bosses at the bank. It is after this character arc that Mary Poppins leaves, she left because of a change of heart, not a change of the winds (it should be noted that winds changing doesn't take as long at the upwards of a week that Mary Poppins stayed at the Banks' house. So if she really left because of the wind she should not have stayed nearly as long).

If an acceptance letter were to be delivered to the Banks' residence by the end of the movie it would be much likelier that Mr Banks would be happy for his child and consent to her studying magic.

Other interesting connections to the wizarding world, Mary Poppins' carpet bag behaves similarly to Hermione's bag in Deathly Hallows and she wears a scarf that is striped with two orangey colours. I propose that this is a faded Gryffindor scarf. I know this is a stretch and I personally believe that if she did go to Hogwarts she would definitely be a Slytherin or Ravenclaw.

Other pieces of magic we see Mary Poppins perform, (aside from the flying and maybe control of the wind as the other nannies are suddenly blown away by wind and we do see the wind change when she leaves), is disappearing into the paintings. I don't really have a very good explanation for this other than it could have something to do with pictures in the Harry Potter world, the people in the pictures can move around and are shown as sentient, as Dumbeldore continues to give Snape instructions form his portrait in the headmaster's office.

Also Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious could potentially have some magical connection as well. I doubt its a spell but the wizarding world has lots of fun long words.

I am so sorry for such a long message but I have to continue because there are very obviously many flaws with this theory. Namely, Uncle Albert, Bert and Mr Dawes Sr all do the same floating from laughing, emotional/uncontrollable magic that Jane and Michael do. I propose that Uncle Albert is a wizard but one that was never trained. He/his family decided not to go to Hogwarts for some reason so he has magic but was just never taught how to use it. I think that Uncle Albert is actually Berts' biological uncle, Bert is clearly named after him (Bert being short for Albert). And he also for whatever family reason didn't attend Hogwarts. Though I think he is less happy with this decision as he clearly tries to do magic when he attempts to jump into the paintings. My sister thought he might be a squib but squibs can't produce any magic so he wouldn't be able to perform the emotional laughing magic. Now the Mr Dawes Sr one really annoyed me because I completely forgot this moment happened and I had formulated this theory and I thought that this one moment debunked it. Of course he could also be an untrained wizard, maybe his father refusing to let him go to Hogwarts was the impetus for starting a program like the one Mary Poppins is likely part of. But I have a more fun idea, based on one line. When Mr Banks was talking to the bankers about Mary Poppins, Dawes Sr has an interesting reaction. He asks 'Poppins?' in a way that first might seem like he was just confused because it was an interesting name, but I think that Poppins is potentially a famous wizarding family. So he was not an untrained muggle-born wizard but one who grew up in the wizarding world and recognised the name Poppins. The Poppins family being famous wizards helps to solidify just how powerful Mary Poppins is, because in Harry Potter many of the most powerful wizards come from long and famous wizarding lines. Now back to Mr Dawes, he clearly does not have control over his magic, as laughing so hard that he floated is ultimately what killed him, but I believe that he once did. He was a trained wizard who grew up in the wizarding world and could recognise the name Poppins but after graduating he fell in love with a muggle women and chose to give up his magic. A lot like Minerva Mcgonagall or Seamus Finnagan's parents. Although luckily for him, his son Dawes Jr was non-magical so he never had to reveal his secret or practice magic and eventually his training was just forgotten. He is of course visibly very old so not practicing magic for upwards of 80 years would probably lead to the same control over it that a 10 year old has. Although the first option is much more likely and would provide a better connection to Mary Poppins' job now, the second option is also really cool and definitely possible.

So long theory short, Mary Poppins is sent by the Ministry or Hogwarts to convince parents of muggle born witches and wizards to let their children go to Hogwarts. However, she does it in a subtle way because of the relationship between the two communities at the time. She is sent to the Banks family when Jane is nearing 11 (Karen Dotrice the actress who played Jane was 9 during filming and the age of Jane in the movie is officially listed as 11ish). And Bert and Uncle Albert are untrained wizards and Mr Dawes Sr is a wizard who has given up his magic and has distant memories of the magical world, like the name Poppins and the word Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Again I am so so so sorry for such a long message but I think this is a really cool and interesting theory I know there are a lot of flaws and this post is likely a grammatical nightmare but thought I'd share.

Also I don't agree with the Harry Potter author's disgusting posts. It is absolutely horrible that she created this world where many people found friends and acceptance and then promptly ruined that experience for a large community of people. Trans women are women, their is no debate. I hope that we can seperate the creator from the creation and keep Harry Potter a loving and welcoming community for all people. And if you don't agree well I kindly ask you to leave this post and not to comment down below.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5803487&forum_id=2Reputation#49466945)