Detection of Underage Magic

[caliburncy at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 23362

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Kelly Hurt <klhurt at y...> wrote:
> There are many, many instances of underage use of magic in the 
series. 
> I'm working on a list, which I don't have handy (or the books), but
> here are a few I remember that you didn't list:

Okay, thanks very much for adding them to my list, which I knew was 
missing things.  I'm going to respond to them in light of my previous 
statements regarding the other list, just for thoroughness.
 
> The first incidence we hear of is in Petunia's rant in the Hut on 
the
> Rock when she complains that Lily use to turn teacups into rats.

I intentionally did not include this, because I personally believe it 
was just Petunia slandering Lily.  There is a precedent to this: in 
the B&N interview, JKR says that when Riddle describes Hagrid as 
"raising werewolf cubs", that wasn't really true and he was just 
slandering Hagrid.  This proves she allows certain of her characters 
to misinform in this way.  If you chose to believe this did in fact 
happen, however, we technically have no evidence that she did not in 
fact get punished since this is outside the timeframe of the books.
 
> Then, on the train to Hogwarts, Ron says he had attempted to turn
> Scabbers yellow.

I also left this off on purpose.  I think it is pretty clear that this 
is not a real spell.  It does not follow the form of any of the other 
types of spells we have seen and Ron says he got it from George, who 
as we know is prone to practical jokes.

> After Ron fails again to yellowfy Scabbers, Hermione replies she had
> tried a few spells for practice and they had all worked for her.

This is legitimate.  Unless, per my theory, the MoM truly has no way 
of detecting these things, this should probably have been punished.

> Ton-Tongue Toffees included an Engorgement Charm which confirms that
> Fred & George were using magic outside of school.

I include this as part of the Weasley Wizard Wheezes I mentioned.
 
> Sirius said that Snape arrived at school knowing more curses than
> anyone.  It isn't completely clear if he meant 'memorized' or 'had
> performed' them.

Totally forgot about this.  I also am not sure what to do with it 
since like the Lily's frogspawn deal, it took place outside of the 
timeframe of the canon.

> Kevin used daddy's wand to make a slug grow.

Another legitimate one that should have been punished.  You could 
explain this away by saying that the MoM officials were far too busy 
at the World Cup to account for EVERY violation that must have occured 
in this time frame.

> None of the above came to the notice of the MoM.
> 
> Personally, I don't count things that just involve proving you have 
a
> wand (tapping on trunks, bricks, ignitions, etc.) as 'doing magic'.

Really?  I would.  Unless it's a tap that has no effect beyond the 
obvious effects of tapping a long wooden stick on something.  Oh well. 
 To each his/her own. 

> I
> also don't count incidents of Accidental Magic (blowing up Marge,
> shrinking the sweater, growing hair back, etc.)

This I might agree with.  It's a little hard to figure out just how 
they'd deal with this kind of thing.

Another instance I forgot about was Fred or George turning Ron's teddy 
bear into a spider.  But there again, it's outside the timeframe of 
the books and we don't know if they did in fact get in trouble.  If 
nothing else, I'm sure Mrs. Weasley was pretty angry.  :)

Again, these were the alleged explanations that I didn't really 
believe in and were the pretext to my actual opinion, which is that 
the MoM has no omniscient way of detecting said occurences.  Consider 
these my 'devil's advocate' explanations against myself.

-Luke