Magical "technology", Is Hagrid a felon? and other things

[Dave Hardenbrook]

HMyc> Wouldn't having Voldemort on his back,be enough to get him through
HMyc> without all the destruction caused by HRH?

I guess with access to the other teachers, it was possible for Quirrell
to obtain the "cheats" for all the obstacles, not just Fluffy.  I just
find it hard to believe the other teachers told him.  (Maybe V used an
advanced form of "Impedimenta" to freeze the keys so he could grab the
right one, and maybe V or Quirrell or both are as good chess players as
Kasparov.)

HMyc> It's never said that owning a dragon is illegal. So the full weight of
HMyc> hagrid keepign Norbert is lost. Certainly, having such a little firebug 
HMyc> around is dangerous and comical, but it's never explained how awful it was 
HMyc> to have Draco witness it.

Maybe they decided to whitewash it because so many Anti-Potterites have called
Hagrid a "criminal who should be locked up" because of Norbert (and the
Skrewts)?

HMyc> I think you hit the nail right on the head with this one. As with
HMyc> other spells, the full version would include an object as well as an 
HMyc> action.

I agree -- We have other examples of spells that "take arguments", like
"Mobili-<object to move>".  What I'm wondering is, who or what does the
"parsing"?

HMyc> On the other hand, why the heck AREN'T there better light spells? 
HMyc> They can't be all that hard to do! After all, someone worked out a 
HMyc> spell to clip dragon's tonails. Certainly someone would have worked 
HMyc> on a better light spell!

Beats me... why are there now multi-gigahertz computer processors but
still no shopping carts whose wheels all move in the same direction?

-- 
Dave