Postal Owls and Recipients

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 29897

Personally, I don't think that owls can be traced by hostile (or
non-friendly) people...otherwise it would be much too easy to find people
who've gone into hiding.  Who needs Peter Pettigrew (you dirty rat, you
helped kill the Potters, I'll get you, you dirty rat, you) to find James and
Lily Potter?  Just send them an owl with some innocuous message, and watch
where the owl goes!  When you see the owl delivering its message, you've got
them!

Also, if owls could be traced, Hermione, intelligent girl that she is, could
trace some of those cruel messages she got from people after that horrible
Rita Skeeter article, and pay them back in their own coin.  Not that she
_would,_ of course...after all, isn't Our Hermione sweet, innocent, pure and
above such behavior?  Still, I could see Ron and/or Harry combining to bring
some nasty payback to the sadistic cowards who sent the poor little girl
some bubotuber pus.  If I were there, I'd gladly help them..."_this,_ Ron,
is C-4, a Muggle explosive.  The amount we're sending should be enough to
blow a house to splinters.  We attach the timer _so,_ and rig it so that as
soon as the owl's gone, (wouldn't want to hurt the pretty birdie; I LIKE
owls, AND snakes, and all friendly critters) the timer starts, and five
seconds later, BOOM!"  (All those years I've spent as a survivalist coming
in handy at last!  Whee!)

Seriously, though, that part of GoF really, really got my dander up at Rita
Skeeter and the people who took her article so seriously that they went
beyond sending Hermione nasty _letters._  I mean, honest to God, _what_ kind
of cruel coward would send a teenage girl bubotuber pus for something as
petty as deciding she likes one boy more than another?  I'm not normally
sentimental about teenage girls, (I have many very clear memories of my own
teenage years, as well as Corsican Alzheimer's, where you forget everything
but a grudge) but Hermione arouses every bit of protective instinct I have.
I think Hermione was a lot more merciful to Rita Skeeter than I would have
been...I'd have hauled her in her jar to the Ministry of Magic and shopped
her in a heartbeat, if merely beating the stuffing out of her was
inconvenient or impractical.  "So long, Ms. Skeeter!  Do give them my love
at Azkaban!  BWAHAHAHAHA!"