Wizarding Businesses and more rambling.

[Steve <bboy_mn@yahoo.com>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)
<catlady at w...>" <catlady at w...> wrote:
>
> ...edited...
> 
> Catlady quotes Steve bboy_mn:
> 
> << I came up with the idea of ... programmable Portpager; portkey 
> and pager in one; range 500km or 300mi. >>
> -end quote-

<Catlady replies:
> 
> MADLY useful, altho' probably illegal to use in each country until 
> that country's Ministry of Magic has inspected it and collected 
> their bribe. HOWEVER, what about the presence of magic making 
> electronics go haywire? 
> -end this part-

bboy_mn replies:
The electronic overload only occurs at Hogwarts because there is such
a high density of raw uncontrolled magical power (the students) and
all the enchantments and wards protecting the Hogwarts grounds. 

Cell phones, for example, will work inside Diagon Alley (they work
best in the Leaky Cauldron) but the reception really sucks and the
reliabilty (unmade connections, dropped signals) is really bad. 

To get around interference, the electronics in the Portpagers are
magically and electrically shielded, and really only have to deal with
the local internal Portkey enchantment. The electronics don't really
do anything but provide an input source, display, and store things
like the preset location, etc.... It is really just acting as a medium
for transferring the wizard intent to the enchantment. 

Believe me, this was NO small task. Three of the most brilliant
wizards to ever come out of Hogwarts (Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, &
Hufflepuff; the perfect combination. All muggle-born.), who all went
on to earn advanced Engineering degrees from Britain's finest
universities. Spend years developing this. When they finally had it
working, they were so cash poor as a company, they didn't have the
resources to really promote it. Only a few of the better wizard
secuity agencies were using it. Harry and Ron found out about it (long
story) and convinced Fred and George to buy the company. With Weasley
Enterprise's cash infusion and their marketing resouces, the product
will eventually replace the Floo network completely, and will become
the wizard's primary mode of travel (although, that's in the future).

Think about it, a wizard may be able to apparate, but he can't take
his family with him when he does. Floo is messy, Portkey is a complex
enchantment and not very flexible. Solution? The Weasley Portpager;
the perfect wizard's transportion device. Where will it all lead?
Maybe Port-A-Taxis, then Port-A-Trains. Yes, yes... those Weasley
brothers, and Harry really know how to make money... rich...
disgustingly rich boys.

After indulging me in my little magical electronic fantasy, do I have
a point? Not really, other than to emphasize how complex a simple
little concept can get in a story. Most of what I outlined here
actually all happens in the background, and only briefly appears in
the foreground of the story a few times. The other point is that there
aren't just brilliant wizards and dullard Shunpikes in the wizard
world. There are jobs for full range of wizardly and witchly skills. 

Someone else pointed out, JKR's wizard world is in the somewhat
pre-industrial stage. I think I agree with that. Wizard workers are
mostly craftsman and artisan. Although, they fall into a range of
craftsmen from the trick wand enchanter to the expert chess set maker.

The more I think about the complexity of the 'behind the scenes'
wizard world, the harder it is for me to believe that the population
is extremely small. Some people have presented strong arguements for
magic populations of 20,000. Hard to believe a population that small
could provide enough 'behind the scenes' people to support the 'in the
scene' people as depicted in canon.

Last note before moving on, thanks to Percy who got a Portpage
contract with the British Ministry, now all the foreign Ministies want
them too. Aurors and high level Ministry staff use them mostly. Aurors
use specially modifed versions to transport prisoners directly to the
Law Enforcement Center. Capture to jail with Portpager returned in 20
seconds. Minimal risk to the Auror. Brilliant. Great for transporting
Dragons too.

As long as I'm on the subject of Dragons, how do you think Charlie
Weasley and his co-workers transported those Dragons from Romania to
Hogwarts? Prior to reading that, I would have assumed the way to
transport Dragons was to cover them with anti-muggle spells and fly
them to their destination; sort of like herding cattle. But the
dragons were put out with a sleeping draft, and weren't awaken until
nightfall. How do you transport 4 dragons five stories tall weighing
tons each 1600 miles (as the dragon flys)?

My life would be so much earier if I could get JKR to tell me what the
 maximum range for portkey and apparation are. Don't suppose anyone
remembers her mentioning that?
-bboy_mn-end this part-

 
> Catlady quotes bboy_mn:
> << Harry has large crates of ginger imported from China and Jamaica. 
> The question is, how do wizards transport something that big? Truck 
> brooms? Trans-Atlantic cargo brooms? >>


> Catlady:
> 
> I suspect they use ships, as QTTA says wizards used ships to cross 
> oceans until brooms became reliable enough. Magic may serve to make 
> their ships bigger inside than out, as fast as jetliners, with total 
> absence of seasickness ...  
> 
> Another possibility: I wonder if large objects (such as a Muggle 
> shipping container of ginger) can be Transfigured or Charmed into 
> something small enough and light enough that a Firebolt Express
> rider can stuff his/her pockets full of them, and Transfigure, 
> ... them back upon arrival. 
>  -end this part-

bboy_mn:
..uuuuuuuu.... I like the way your mind works. All excellent ideas.
Question: How do you haul three huge crates of ginger vast distances?
Answer: Simple, shrink them down, put them in your pocket, and hop on
your racing broom. Bloody brilliant. Wish I had thought of it.
Hummm.... Firebolt Express, you say,... I'll bet there's big money to
be made there. Now there is an investment opportunity.
-bboy_mn-end this part-


Catlady quoting bboy_mn who was quoting Catlady:
> << J -- Juju -- at type of West African fetish/amulet magic.
> V is for Vampire or -- voodoo -
> X -- Xuthus - Greek Mythology. The ancestor of the Ionian Greeks. 
> Y -- Yeti - abominable snowman -- or -- Yggdrasil - The great ash >>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
> 
> Would a British wizarding (not Muggle) child know of Juju, voodoo, 
> Xuthus, or Yggdrasil? They might know of Yeti, ... edited.
> -end this part-

Finally, bboy_mn:
X is hard, really hard, and Yggdrasil was the best I could find in the
dictionary until I thought of Yeti. I search today again to see if I
could come up with something else for X and Z, and came up dry. 

I think since Juju and Voodoo are very powerful forms of magic, it's
something magic kids might learn about relatively young. One draw back
as far as your child's magical picture book of the alphabet, how do
you draw a picture of Juju or Voodoo?

We all know about Voodoo which is closely related to Hoodoo. Both of
which have their roots in Africa and Juju. Juju/Voodoo all tend to be
darker forms of magic. Good Juju will give you strong Mojo; a
charismatic charm and presents. Although, Mojo also refers to a
charmed object. The only American Juju/Mojo charm (charmed object)
that I am familiar with is a Black Hat Bone, which is exactly what it
say, a black bone worn on your hat.  Don't know what it does though.

Well, enough pointless rambling for now.

bboy_mn