Logistics of a Portkey

[Steve]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Saitaina" <saitaina at f...> wrote:
> Carol wrote:
> 
> <I can't see
> any reason to use both at the same
> time. If you had a portkey, you
> wouldn't need a broom.>


> Saitaina:
> 
> It's for a fanfiction dear.  The person
> on the broom is being pursued with a
> broom whose twigs are on fire.  It's a
> lot easier to portkey out of capture
> then to be captured or plummet to their
> death...besides, I need him in later
> chapters.
> 
> Saitaina

bboyminn:

It would be unlikely that a person would waste time creating a Portkey
under this circumstance. It would more likely be an occassion to
Apparate. I have always maintained that the Portkey spell, while it
may have a simple incantation 'Portus', is a difficult and dangerous
spell to perform, which is why the Ministry regulates it so closely.
Only highly trained and qualified wizards are given Portkey
authorizations. So, I think Apparation is the answer.

The problem with apparating/portkeying while on a broom is that you
are likely to still have your forward momentum when you touch the
ground. For example, if you are going 40 miles per hour on your broom
and you are forced to Apparate to the ground, you could very easily
still be traveling forward at 40mph when you hit the ground. That
could be very dangerous.

However, I suspect that someone who was highly skilled at either
Apparation or programming a Portkey might be able to allow for the
forward momentum and somehow cancel it out or minimize it.

I think when people travel by Floo, Portkey, and probably Apparate
they are traveling through a different dimension; the magical
dimension. One clue to this is that they do not travel in real-time.
For example, if you Floo Network traveled at 60 miles per hour it
would have taken Harry two to three hours to go from The Burrow to
Diagon Alley in London. The same with their travel to the World Cup,
assuming they Traveled from Stoadshead Hill to somewhere in Scotland,
at normal speeds, that's about a four hour journey. If we assume 400
miles in one minute, for example, that's a real-time speed of 24,000
miles per hour (400miles X 60minutes = 24,000mph). I really don't
think speed like that are possible in the real world, and humans
certainly couldn't take the stress of traveling at that speed in the
open. 

So, in your fan fiction, it seems more practical to Apparate than to
Portkey. In addition, you might want to mention the character
struggling to compensate for the forward speed, and even with
compensation, they should probably tumble and roll across the ground
for considerable distance. Although, that tumbling and rolling
wouldn't be a big problem, it would hurt, but wizards are very
resilient; they aren't easily injured. Neville, after all, was dropped
from a window and thrown off of Blackpool pier without lasting harm.

Just a few thoughts.

Steve/bboyminn (was bboy_mn)