underage wizards doing magic, family protection

[blpurdom]

No: HPFGUIDX 38077

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "alhewison" <Ali at z...> wrote:
> Who spilled the beans on Harry blowing up Aunt Marge, for 
> instance?  

That's unclear.  The first thing Fudge tells him is that "they" (the 
Ministry, I think) were worried about him running away from the 
Dursleys, so perhaps Vernon and Petunia were given strict 
instructions to inform the Ministry through some means as yet 
unknown if Harry ever did such a thing (since he's may be immune 
from someone taking him against his will when he's on Privet Drive) 
and then the whole flap about inflating Aunt Marge came out.  This 
would have happened pretty quickly after Harry thumped out of the 
house with his trunk.  Although I never got the impression the 
Knight Bus ride took all that long, when Fudge is talking to Harry, 
he tells him that the Accidental Magic Reversal Department was at 
Privet Drive "a few hours ago," and Marge was punctured and 
oblivated.  It can't have been the Dursleys telling the Ministry in 
CoS, however, because they were busy being upset about the food all 
over the kitchen, and almost immediately after that the owl flew in 
with the letter from Mafalda Hopkirk (the owl distressed Mrs. Mason, 
who hated birds).

Clearly there isn't an alarm on the the Dursley house in general, 
alerting the Ministry to Harry leaving the building, because he goes 
outdoors all the time (one of the books has him wandering all over 
the neighborhood during the summer, trying to avoid Dudley and his 
gang).  And the Dursleys don't seem to have informed the Ministry 
about Harry going off to the Burrow in the Flying Ford Anglia, 
either (they would have had to admit they were keeping him prisoner 
and starving him and trying to prevent him returning to Hogwarts).

The Ministry doesn't seem concerned about magic going on at Privet 
Drive as long as only the Dursleys are seeing it (frankly, I think 
they'd be happier receiving memory charms when this occurs, but the 
Ministry seems to think that as they are the guardians of a wizard, 
this is unnecessary).  No one bothered checking to see whether it 
was really possible, for instance, to use the Dursley fireplace for 
Flooing before the Weasleys just barged in through the wall, and 
Arthur had to engage in quite a lot of magic to repair things.  
(This, I believe, is where a Dursley-memory charm would have been 
useful to smooth things over.)  This was very careless.  (You never 
know when neighbors could be looking in the windows.)  Why is it 
when a child from a Muggle household proves to be magical, suddenly 
anything goes?  I doubt that the Grangers would have been any 
happier to have the Weasleys tearing up their living room.

As far as Harry's family protection goes, though, in spite of the 
supposed need of this, he lived for some time in the Leaky Cauldron 
at the end of the summer before his third year.  How did family ties 
help him there?

--Barb

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HP_Psych
http://www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/Barb