Classic Magical School Drama all F&$#%d Up

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What if your MC was not the story hero?" How different would the Other Harry books have been if it was from the point of view from Ron. Or Neville. Or even Crab.

or Malfoy... Id read the hell out of that, from the antagonist pov 

[Hoyled]

I very much like the concept of a non hero viewpoint. One of my own story concepts is to invert the role of the classic sword and horse fantasy by turning the innocent insert peasent history here kid into the worlds worst nightmare. Anyway, try for an unexpected role for your character if you want to do something differnt with the magic school setting.

[Lanodantheon]

Bildungsroman?

School-based coming of age story. Older than dirt.

Really interesting premise. I like it, but had some questions about how it works. Are these nations actual, geographical locations? How did they come to be? Are they a recent invention, or are they routed in antiquity? (If this is the case, you might need to build an alternate Earth with it's own history. That would be a fun and interesting challenge in itself.)  How do they interact with mundane nations? What's to prevent a mundane nation from annexing them? Likewise, what's to prevent one of the countries from taking over a mundane nation with minimal magical defense? Or do the mundane nations have their own magical armies or security forces?
From what you've described, I envision the AP nations as the heavy hitters that basically keep things in check. Is this right? IE, the US and North Korea have nukes, but the AP nations can call on Cthulu or someone in that league to lay down the law?

A lot of the details of the Allied Nations are still in the design phase. I'm following the, "Outside In" approach to world building. That is, I started with the big picture and am now getting more specific. For example I started with the idea of The Allied Powers, that an actual magical world wouldn't have an end-all-be-all White Council that encompasses everything but a collection of different nations. It also follows the design philosophy that there is always more than one way to do things.

In the world of my story, the world of Mundane humans(The world in which we live) and the world of magic have been magically segregated for a long time. There is a magical apparatus in place(The Great Wall of China of Magic basically)  that automates the Men in Black style procedures of concealing the 2 worlds from each other. When the MC's magical power finally manifest, this apparatus filters him out gradually. When the MC is "Filtered Out" he goes to school like normal at first but then no one recognizes him. Then, people stop noticing him altogether until the things that are allowed to go bump in the shadows of the Mundane World show up to eat him.

This Light World/Dark World segregation has existed for over 2 milennia, but the exact physics don't matter at this point in development. The segregation though is not another culture evolving in a vacuum. Even with memories removed, the new magic users bring their culture and technology with them. The filtering is far from perfect and does let some things slip through. Also, I have designed that the currency for the Magical World is simply Mundane currency. My brother proposed the idea to me that it would be cool if the White Councilesque bookworms in the Hermetic Order of Alchemists had a line of credit in American banks.

The Allied Nations themselves are a collection of both geographic collectives of people and groups of people united only by ideology. Some of the nations are actually the remnants of fallen cultures, religions and military orders that have themselves been magically filtered out of The Mundane World and relegated to history books and popular culture. 

These Lost Nations have since modernized slightly in terms of appearance, language and feel but are mostly unchanged from the way they originally were. That way I can have a Neo-Spartan scout disguised as a street urchin, a god-tapping Praetorian in Kevlar and a Poor Fellow-Soldier of Christ and The Temple of Solomon in an Armani suit.

What are the MCs motivations for attending? What happens when he becomes a member of one of these magical nations? Does he eschew his US citizenship? How does he feel about that?

When the MC crossed over, he started to forget most of his past since the magical segregation goes both ways. He goes there so he can get answers and because he's got maigcal powers and he wants to learn to use them.

How is this implemented? Is is part of the training? Is mindwashing used? If not, there has got to be some serious propoganda involved. 

This is an important question that you must ask yourself: Do you  really want to deconstruct the idea of Harry Potter, or do you want to give Harry a face lift?


You can throw in adult situations, add seedy characters, and add a distinctly American feel, but in the the end, these things are all dressing and variations on a theme. From what you've said, I feel that you really want to do a truly deconstructive piece.

Themes like "love conquers all" and "the end doesn't always justify the means", etc. are pretty prevalent in HP. (not always spelled out as such, but they're usually in there in some form or another.) In fact, many, many authors incorporate this kind of thing into their stories, and the public at large usually eats it up, because we want an escape from the real world which is painted in shades of gray.

Alan Moore truly deconstructed the superhero genre with Watchmen, just like Michael Moorcock deconstructe the fantasy hero with Elric. There're plenty of others, but these ared the two that I'm most familiar with and can recommends. I highly suggest taking some cues from these writers, and dissecting their methods.

That is a fair criticism. The adult situations can be just window dressing. However, in this case they relate to my perception that Fantasy isn't about what isn't real but about what is real.

One of my main problems with HP isn't the themes, like misuse of power, morality of actions, etc. It's the execution. Harry was always told what was right on a silver platter. He never had a situation where he is presented with 2 equally valid points of view and is forced to choose one. Instead there are black hats and white hats and the decision is already set in stone. Harry's moral fortitude is never truly in question even with the spell-slinging near-death incident in Half-Blood Prince where his opponent is only severly injured.
I writing a story where the MC agrees with the philosophy presented to him by the Antagonist to a point, where he lets the bad guy live but gets shot in the back for it and when he finally does kill the bad guy, the entire community is divided on the morality of his actions.

I've got a suggestion for the house structure. Maybe the houses are student formed groups that seek to emulate a specific country or power they hope to be sponsored by.

For example, a certain group really likes a certain AP nation, so they seek to emulate it's culture, principals, etc. This could be a good way to garner attention from recruiters and make connections with liasons from that country. (Basically become suckups and cheerleaders)

If two countries are at odds then the houses that emulate them are likely to be as well. Since these houses aren't official, nothing bars a country from sponsoring someone in a house that doesn't emulate them, but these little sychophant houses make good recruiting pools.

Since your MC decides to start his own house, he decides to try and get sponsorship from his own merit, rather than by reputation of an existing house. Just an idea.

That's better than what I had. It would also be like the Model UN they made us do in Elementary school(The one that never works).

[Lanodantheon]

double post

Good point. I suggest doing a bit of research into how cultures affect food service in general, as well as specifically how students are expected to stay fed. There really aren't any possible alternatives to "service at the table" or "cafeteria-style", since the school would be responsible for making sure that students whose families cannot provide them with nutritious food won't go hungry. The food might look and taste like cardboard, but it will still meet minimum nutritional standards. But please experiment!

In my D&D game, we always have a wizard who uses Presidigitation to make food taste great. We always make a joke that we never know what she puts in the food sge cooks for us and that we don't want to know.
Putting that experience into a Magic school also brings to mind The Last SUpper scene of The Matrix with the bowl of snot. If they served gruel like, I could imagine the MC wanting a soft boiled egg for breakfast. Even if magic made the gruel taste like cocaine-laden chocolate turkey I'd still want a normal, soft-boiled egg for breakfast.

The "hidden cultures" of magic-users will change these cultures, too; extremely racist groups, for example, might assert their superiority by coming up with cuisine that cannot be consumed (or "properly enjoyed") without magic (e.g.: Red Dwarf's "telekinetic wine").

Okay, I cam see that. A bit ectreme but I can see that.

Exactly! Just because he has suddenly discovered that the "laws" of physics have suddenly become "very flexible suggestions" does not change his reaction to other elements of the 'supernatural' world. I'd suggest exploring the situation in the other direction, as well: The Other Harry got a couple of chances to demonstrate his familiarity with "non-magical" culture (explaining the British monetary system), so be sure to toss in a couple of examples for your MC. "That's the Batman symbol. He's a fictional character, not a bat-worshiping cult leader!"

I like too. I'll use that since I still haven't put together a good list of feasible things he could still have on his person when he goes to the Magic world. All I know is that he was prepping for a debate tournament, has a few changes of clothes, his laptop computer(which he's afraid to use), his homemade rosary of knicknacks relating to magic assembled in Hot Topic and Walmart and his Baseball Bat.

Another contrast between American and British school culture, f.y.i. My fiancee, who spent most of her high school career at the American School in London, says that the Brits take the drama departments very seriously. Arguably, The Other Harry's books did that part of British culture a disservice. I mean, this is where good ol' Bill Shakespeare came from, after all... 

come to think of it, theatre in the magical world would be a tough gig. Special effects are fine but how would they do it? I could see a revival of both old-fashioned Shakspearean theatre and stage magic. Hell, Harry Dresden is on the card in one part of The Prestige after all....

I like having a division between the "talented" and the "studious". It's a good screen on which to project the conflicts between "us" and "them". The differences seem oh-so-important to those who don't know any better... and can easily last for the remainder of their lives if they don't have their noses rubbed in how stupid the conflict actually is.

For your magical cultures, you might also consider contrasting the "history buffs" with the "moderns". The Ancients, after all, made the modern world and all the magic in it possible. However, the modern age has produced wonders beyond the comprehension of the dusty old dead folks. So it goes...

I submit that the Two Harry's "mundane" qualities are a necessary "imperfection" in their characters. They are the readers' point of entry into their respective supernatural worlds, meaning that they ask the questions or make the connections that readers cannot... and in Dresden's case, making the jokes that the readers want to.

We're on the same page....

Good ideas! One point for consideration: while these problems are present in virtually every school, they manifest in different degrees. Not that a ritzy prep-school is completely free from the taint of gangs, nor that there are no stalkers in the bottom-rung inner-city school. But there's no way to explore these problems in a 'one-size-fits-all' fashion. You're going to have to decide on the general socio-economic level of the school itself, at least in the context of the magical society you've built, and that choice will affect how you explore these issues.

"Date Rape Charm" would lead to detectors, which would encourage those who make money off of the charms to figure ways around the detectors, which would lead to the detectors offering upgrades, and so on. And don't forget those who can't afford the very best of either: would-be rapists who buy cut-rate charms could get caught, and victims might not be as safe as they think they are. Clever would-be rapists might also shell out for countermeasure-detectors, to reveal which of the potential victims have no defenses. It's a classic arms race on a much more personal scale.

Cultural factors: people who purchase the charms might be subject to scorn ("You can't get a date without help?!? Loser!"), and victims-to-be might be discouraged from purchasing appropriate defenses ("Good boys and girls don't have to worry about such things. Yes, you'll be a social pariah, but it's better to be good than... ugh... popular.")

My least favorite part of Harry Potter was the"Anti-Cheating Quills" and the "Anti-Boy Charm" on girls' dorms.
Make anti anything spells and humans will make better counter spells. I know one of my sub-plots will be the oh-so-infamous trope of getting into the girl's locker room. The planned plot turns it upside down and leaves a bad taste in your mouth afterwards.

One other thing, if problems are headed of at the pass in literature before they are even problems, they cease to be interesting. I like a world that still has gaps in the system.

I submit that the most serious challenge you've handed yourself is the notion that the school has no limit on age. A fifteen-year-old magic-user with one year of experience in magic will get spanked, far more often than not, by a thirty-year old non-magic user with fifteen years' experience in manipulating people.

The no-Limit on age isn't difficult for me at all. I go college where my lefthand classmate has a wife, 2 kids and no degree, my right hand class mate is younger than me and my Data Structures Prof is a bigger nerd than me.

The main reason for the no age-limit is my design that magical learning isn't standardized. Some people learn in 1 year what others can't comprehend in 30. It also is response to the fact that in HP everyone is exactly the same age and that bothers the hell outta me.

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two quick things:

int he great Wall, how does it affect things geographically?  By that I mean, when he fades out does he find himself in whole new magical land, an empty city, or in a crowd that cant see or hear him (and if it goes both ways can he see or hear them, if not how do they keep from running into each other, etc).  If there is still communication (for business, credit etc) how is that accomplished, how do you keep the bank from forgetting that you have an account?  Whatever it is, I highly recommend you read Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman which has a very similar premise of a magical world coexisting and when you get caught up in it you  are lost to the real world, where everyone forgets you and most times cant even notice you. 

In the school, if everyone is a different age and everyone gets a different sort of curriculum for their education, how are those curriculums designed/assigned?  Is an upperclassman assigned as a mentor to help chart your path?  Do you just sign up for classes on a big registration day with pre-made curriculums like most colleges?  Or maybe you get subjected to a big series of placement exams and are pigeonholed into whatever area/vocation/skill level they decide you are?  If its the last one, take a look at Sky High, a delightfully bad movie about a high school that teaches superpowered kids to be superheroes, and on the first day you ore sorted into hero or sidekick classes/castes.

[Lanodantheon]

int he great Wall, how does it affect things geographically?  By that I mean, when he fades out does he find himself in whole new magical land, an empty city, or in a crowd that cant see or hear him (and if it goes both ways can he see or hear them, if not how do they keep from running into each other, etc).  If there is still communication (for business, credit etc) how is that accomplished, how do you keep the bank from forgetting that you have an account?  Whatever it is, I highly recommend you read Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman which has a very similar premise of a magical world coexisting and when you get caught up in it you  are lost to the real world, where everyone forgets you and most times cant even notice you. 

Again, the exact physics of the Magic/Mundane world mechanics are still in the design phase. I'm leaning right now towards a Light World/Dark World idea of two sets of geography occupying the same place at the same time on different frequencies. When you are filtered out, the filtering follows Occam's Razor to rearrange data. Your bank accounts wouldn't disappear they would stay in the system as orphaned accounts. In the case a Milliionare gets filtered out, his assets would be redirected to the most likely person who could inherit it. But, questions like that are ample story material.

Geographically, you're still on earth in the magical world so communications will still work, but good luck finding a landline or a power outlet in most parts of the magical world. It's hard to conceal something hooked into a computer controlled power grid. But again, ample story seeds to consider later.

In the school, if everyone is a different age and everyone gets a different sort of curriculum for their education, how are those curriculums designed/assigned?  Is an upperclassman assigned as a mentor to help chart your path?  Do you just sign up for classes on a big registration day with pre-made curriculums like most colleges?  Or maybe you get subjected to a big series of placement exams and are pigeonholed into whatever area/vocation/skill level they decide you are?  If its the last one, take a look at Sky High, a delightfully bad movie about a high school that teaches superpowered kids to be superheroes, and on the first day you ore sorted into hero or sidekick classes/castes.

I actually never thought about the ciriculum til now so I'll take 20 mins to ponder it while I work on a project.....

...done. (That's actually how I design stuff, in bursts of creativity)

A new student at the Brewery gets an Entrance Placement Exam. The exam has 3 parts,
Part 1: The Written Exam
No mystery here it's just comprehensive encompassing all 12 disciplines of Magic as well as History, General Knowledge of Myth & Legends and common logic and reasoning questions like the 4 gallons of water with a 5 gallon and 3 gallon jug problem.

Part 2: Interview by the Staff and "Student Council" or whatever.

Part 3: The Array of Solomon

The Array of Solomon is a tool used for gauging magical talent. Still centuries into development, the Array lights up and gives information about the applicant's abilities. The Array of course, is far from entirely accurate, but it can reveal abilities still latent and identify high end "Gifts" that are beyond just a talent. The Gifts revealed are akin to Perfect Pitch or Eidetic Memoryn ut more Wizardy like "The All-Seeing Eye" or the being a Sponge, a magic-eater.

They have a gen-ed path all students are required to follow, but otherwise you take classes to get titles, certifications and such until you decide to leave. For example, a student cannot be called an Alchemist until they study enough to pass an Alchemy certification.
A "Choose your own Curriculum" path it is though. Your path is evaluated by Faculty, but you are assigned 2 Mentors: a Student Mentor and a Faculty Master. The Student Mentor is like just that. They stick around and show you the ropes of the school til you're situated. The Master evaluates your progress like an adviser in college and they determine if you are ready for the certifications tests. Usually your faculty master is the person who is going to test to to become a Full-Wizard or the like.

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A new student at the Brewery gets an Entrance Placement Exam. The exam has 3 parts,
Part 1: The Written Exam
No mystery here it's just comprehensive encompassing all 12 disciplines of Magic as well as History, General Knowledge of Myth & Legends and common logic and reasoning questions like the 4 gallons of water with a 5 gallon and 3 gallon jug problem.

Does the migration to the magical world give you any of this knowledge?  I know it wipes old memories, but does it give anything back? I just ask because most anyone new, freshly filtered, etc. (you may want specific terms for that, both official and derogatory) will fail it miserably.  Is there much of a social stigma on being freshly into the magical world as opposed to being born there?  I figure there would be at least one group/country/social element that feels that way, but is it very prevalent?

[LizW65]

I really like the name The Brewery for a magical school.  Reminds me of Andy Warhol's The Factory.   Do they brew their own beer and sell it to finance the school's operation?  Or did it used to be a brewery that was converted to a school?

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I really like the name The Brewery for a magical school.  Reminds me of Andy Warhol's The Factory.   Do they brew their own beer and sell it to finance the school's operation?  Or did it used to be a brewery that was converted to a school?

Beer nothin'  Its powerful Magical Potions!!  Or maybe some brew of a Norse Jotun...

[Lanodantheon]

Does the migration to the magical world give you any of this knowledge?  I know it wipes old memories, but does it give anything back? I just ask because most anyone new, freshly filtered, etc. (you may want specific terms for that, both official and derogatory) will fail it miserably.  Is there much of a social stigma on being freshly into the magical world as opposed to being born there?  I figure there would be at least one group/country/social element that feels that way, but is it very prevalent?

At this point I can say that with my design of Magic having Equivalency that the following is true in that regard: It's an equivalent exchange.

When you are filtered out and crossover to the magical world (Which could use a term, but I'm horrible with names), you temporarily tap The Akashic Web, the vast network of magical knowledge laid out by Wizards along Ley Lines. Normally, tapping the Web will fry your brain, melt your soul, etc, but the first time you crossover the automation put in place(Essentially a harnessed God) allows you an exchange. (This is mostly to ensure they don't just tap the web instead of going to school)

The exchange is your memories for knowledge. Most people leave behind most of their memories outside of their core identity. The result is usually the afore mentioned clean slate. In exchange, the initiate gains the ropes like language, geography, and magical fundamentals but it is proportional to the amount of memory you sacrifice. This logic would also dictate that there would be some Wizards who sacrifice everything in order to be everything short of a full-blown Wizard. However, in that case you would know the intricacies of magic, but have never actually applied or practiced it. This would lead to a lot of hot shots.
This would also save the magic user a bundle on therapy now that I think of it....

The MC is special. The MC decides to use Mnemonic devices in hopes of retaining his memories so that one day he can get them all back. This also creates the side effect that he is essentially gibbing himself. He could be like nothing else academically, but he'd have to forget everything to do it, so he chooses not to.

I really like the name The Brewery for a magical school.  Reminds me of Andy Warhol's The Factory.   Do they brew their own beer and sell it to finance the school's operation?  Or did it used to be a brewery that was converted to a school?

Beer nothin'  Its powerful Magical Potions!!  Or maybe some brew of a Norse Jotun...

Let's see, I never really thought about it.... a little bit of column A, B and C.

I know for a fact it was founded by The Hermetic Order of Alchemists so that's part of it. I always figured that if you were going to riff on the using Mundane Currency theme, a front in the Mundane world would be a great cover and a great land mark for Light World/Dark World world hopping. That's the A column.
For the B & C columns, The Brewery is an old Brewery because The Hermetic Order was experimenting with Mass-Production of Potions and magical materials. It's one thing to see Harry Dresden or The Shadowman or hell even all of Snape's Potion's class make potions in cauldrons and pots, etc. It's another to walk into an actually brewery or factory and see Mass-Production in action. The Brewery is like any University trying crazy stuff in that regard. Other universities have robot competitions, MoCap systems, Research Schools, Hospitals and Nuclear Physics Test facilities in the real world, in the magic world The Brewery deals with 5000 gallon tanks of potions usually made in pints.

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At this point I can say that with my design of Magic having Equivalency that the following is true in that regard: It's an equivalent exchange.

When you are filtered out and crossover to the magical world (Which could use a term, but I'm horrible with names)

My top choice would be:
Transmigrate:  1)Movement from one site to another, which may entail the crossing of some usually limiting membrane or barrier 2)be born anew in another body after death

but depending on the attitude towards the process on the magical side (ie is being on that side considered innately better and/or whether the jump considered going up, down, or just sideways?

"Make the Jump"
Exodus
Ascend
Transcend
Awaken
Fall
Shadowwrap

[Lanodantheon]

Update: After some more designing, I have determined that the apparatus that segregates the 2 worlds is actually the harnassed power of Mnemosyne. If you're going to go Big Brother Conspiracy, go for the gold I say.

Also, thinking about giant vats of magical potions has mae me decide that this story will have to end once and for all the classic D&D Question: "Can you drown in 5000 gallons of Healing Potion?" and the seperate issue, "Will you O.D. if you fall into 5000 Gallons of potion normally designed to taken in pints?" 

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Update: After some more designing, I have determined that the apparatus that segregates the 2 worlds is actually the harnassed power of Mnemosyne. If you're going to go Big Brother Conspiracy, go for the gold I say.

Sweet!  It might be cool to bring in one of the Muses (her kids by zues) as some sort of patron from the shadows with secret plans for him or some such.. that seems a little cliche now that i actually write it, but something with them, maybe more toward the endgame.  I dunno, saturday morning musings (no pun intended, but still appreciated )

[thausgt]

In the world of my story, the world of Mundane humans(The world in which we live) and the world of magic have been magically segregated for a long time. There is a magical apparatus in place(The Great Wall of China of Magic basically)  that automates the Men in Black style procedures of concealing the 2 worlds from each other. When the MC's magical power finally manifest, this apparatus filters him out gradually. When the MC is "Filtered Out" he goes to school like normal at first but then no one recognizes him. Then, people stop noticing him altogether until the things that are allowed to go bump in the shadows of the Mundane World show up to eat him.

Let me see if I understand the "surface" of the "Filtering Out" process: untrained, the MC can't control his power, which somehow makes him show up on the Dark World's radar but doesn't let him actually do anything significant. No "summon lunch" spells, but would he be able to do unsophisticated minor stuff like shoving or yanking relatively low-mass objects (like pencils or pieces of paper)? Anyway, the MC's magic itself doesn't do much of anything but give the Dark World's agents something to target with their own spells. Standard procedure is to slowly erase the target's emotional bonds with the Mundane World; first by preventing him from making any new friends, then making it harder and harder for him to maintain any previously existing relationships. Meanwhile, the paper trail valued so highly by the Mundane World gets erased, lost, misfiled or generally removed, making it that much harder for the MC to get anything official done. He's not old enough to worry about a driver's license, but I suspect that his cell phone bill keeps getting misplaced, and his Internet accounts keep getting erased, and so on.

Is there a point at which the Mundane World essentially acts like it can't see him? What happens when the Dark World predators you mention show up and he can't even get the other people in the room to react to the threats?

This Light World/Dark World segregation has existed for over 2 milennia, but the exact physics don't matter at this point in development. The segregation though is not another culture evolving in a vacuum. Even with memories removed, the new magic users bring their culture and technology with them. The filtering is far from perfect and does let some things slip through. Also, I have designed that the currency for the Magical World is simply Mundane currency. My brother proposed the idea to me that it would be cool if the White Councilesque bookworms in the Hermetic Order of Alchemists had a line of credit in American banks.

These are good ideas. So, your MC will come into the Dark World with a portion of his memories irretrievably gone? Where will his pop-culture references come from? But seriously, how does that allow the two worlds to be connected?

[Lanodantheon]

Let me see if I understand the "surface" of the "Filtering Out" process: untrained, the MC can't control his power, which somehow makes him show up on the Dark World's radar but doesn't let him actually do anything significant. No "summon lunch" spells, but would he be able to do unsophisticated minor stuff like shoving or yanking relatively low-mass objects (like pencils or pieces of paper)? Anyway, the MC's magic itself doesn't do much of anything but give the Dark World's agents something to target with their own spells. Standard procedure is to slowly erase the target's emotional bonds with the Mundane World; first by preventing him from making any new friends, then making it harder and harder for him to maintain any previously existing relationships. Meanwhile, the paper trail valued so highly by the Mundane World gets erased, lost, misfiled or generally removed, making it that much harder for the MC to get anything official done. He's not old enough to worry about a driver's license, but I suspect that his cell phone bill keeps getting misplaced, and his Internet accounts keep getting erased, and so on.

Not quite. People are filtered out when their magical power has reached the point of no return, when they are no longer considered "Normal" by any means. This is supposed to tie into a theme in the story of the Magical World being clear cut black and white and the MC not seeing it that way.

You are filtered out when one of 2 things happen to change you status and there isn't a lot of gray area to the Wizards involved.

The first way is when your magical skill and use causes "ripples on the pond" magically speaking. Not everyone with magical power is filtered because magic in the Light World of Mundanes is limited(It's being redirected mostly). So, there are a fair number of minor talents in the real world, but their spoonbending talents let's say aren't strong enough to merit anything but a trip to the funny farm.
When a magic user becomes aware of magic, it's like a Deaf person learning to hear for the first time, everything is loud and overwhelming. The first use of magic is the typical fair in a story like this, the X-Men-esque "Holy Crap, what did you just do?" moment.  This moment or series of moments gets picked up on the radar at the point when you ain't normal no more which also the point at which the things that go bump think you are tasty.

The second way is when you are identified early. Magic users from the Dark World of things actually come to the Light world for a variety of especially political reasons but one is to identify Magic-Users early and speed the process up.

Also, Magic use is something you can catch onto pretty quick, albeit in an unsophisicated way. "Summon Lunch" spells not withstanding, there was probably a lot of weird stuff happening around the MC prior to his filtering, but he passed it off as happenstance til he blew something up with a makeshift Fireball.

The reason people are filtered in the first place is to keep magic in check and its users away from persecution and believe it or not, enslavement.

Is there a point at which the Mundane World essentially acts like it can't see him?

Yes, there is a point like that.

What happens when the Dark World predators you mention show up and he can't even get the other people in the room to react to the threats?

What do you think happens? He runs like hell until he figures out how to blast them.

People in the room react via Occam's Razor and The greek Titaness of Memory hand-waving it away.

These are good ideas. So, your MC will come into the Dark World with a portion of his memories irretrievably gone? Where will his pop-culture references come from? But seriously, how does that allow the two worlds to be connected?

When someone is filtered, not every memory is wiped. If that were the case, new Wizards wouldn't know how to tie their own shoes.
The MC retains his knowledge and skills, but forgets the context of them. Example, he'll remember a scene from a movie, but he won't remember the context in which he saw it. Plus, the MC makes a bargain to retain some of his memories(which subsequently tanks his exam scores) and the MC uses mnemonic devices to remember his past.

He also keeps a journal, which he reviews every night.

Going from Light to Dark Worlds and back is like crossing the Berlin Wall. Must have a passport or jump the fence.