flying motorcycles and other magic stuff

[Steve Vander Ark]

No: HPFGUIDX 8177

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, nlpnt at y... wrote:
> CoS ch.2 (p.21 of the US hardcover); "....Decree for the Reasonable 
> Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875,...."
> So it was around when Lily was a kid.

I get the impression that Harry is being watched a LOT more closely 
than any of the other kids. For the rest, it's more of an empty 
threat, since no one really does more than maybe a spot check and 
their parents do the enforcing. Look at the Weasley twins, who spend 
all their free time dabbling in magic. They break that law all the 
time. But in Harry's case, it's enforced big time because otherwise 
he may draw the attention of Voldemort et al. He's being monitored in 
various ways constantly.

> > > >Sirius's motercycle, it didn't seem like that big of a deal to
> > > >Dumbledore or McGonagall.  Which means that a)that didn't 
really 
> > care
> > > >that the motorcycle was illegal, b)the Department for the 
misuse 
> of
> > > >muggle artifacts didn't exist, or c) Sirius was exempt from 
the 
> > rules

My opinion is that Sirius's motorcycle is not an enchanted Muggle 
motorcycle at all. It's a magical item that borrows some of its form 
from the Muggle version. We see this elsewhere in the Wizarding 
World: the Wizarding Wireless, for example, which looks like a radio  
but obviously doesn't work using radio waves or electronics, since 
they're incompatible with magic. It probably works with something 
similar to fire talking, but it's made to look like a radio because 
they've heard of them or seen them and borrowed the concept of a box 
that shares information and entertainment with a lot of folks at 
once. The Knight Bus is another example of this phenomenon in the 
Wizarding World. Sure, it's a bus in concept and intent, but it 
doesn't work anything like a normal bus. It's sort of a Magic-based 
equivelent. It even seems to travel to destinations in alphabetical 
rather than geographical order. This, by the way, mirrors the evident 
power of words for magic, such as an easy form of transfiguration 
being the changing of a guinea fowl into a guinea pig. The names make 
it easier to do, since they're similar. Changing the guinea pig into 
a hamster would be harder, presumably, while changing a hamster into 
a hammer would be a piece of cake.

Steve Vander Ark
The Harry Potter Lexicon
http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon