Portkeys (originally: Godric'sHollow/Pettigrew/a bunch of stuff)

[selkie1964]

No: HPFGUIDX 43196

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "catlady_de_los_angeles" <catlady at w...> 
wrote:

> Vera Selkie wrote:
> 
> << so the portkey magic would, of necessity, have to be a "lowest 
> common denominator" sort -- if you have any magical ability at all, 
> you can invoke it; if you're a muggle, you can't. >>
> 
> I thought that Portkeys would work even on Muggles... Canon says: 
> "Unobtrusive things, obviously, so Muggles don't go picking them up 
> and playing with them..." which doesn't make it clear whether the 
> Muggle who picked one up would suddenly find himself elsewhere, or 
> merely make life inconvenient for the wizard who wanted to use that 
> Portkey.
> 

Well, but since they went to such great lengths to conceal the 
tournament (and in general MoM goes to such great lengths to conceal 
the existence of the WW from muggles), do you really think they'd 
leave something lying around that any muggle child might pick up and 
be transported by?  Children (wizard or muggle) will pick up and play 
with the darnedest things.

My understanding (dim as it might be) was that the portkeys needed to 
be unobtrusive because they had to be set up in advance due to the 
massiveness of the transportation effort.  They were made to look 
"trashy" so that they wouldn't be taken or moved by a muggle (child or 
otherwise) and seriously inconvenience not only the people who were 
going to use that particular portkey, but the entire transportation 
schedule -- this was a vast operation and a small glitch in the 
timetable could very quickly snowball into something unmanageable -- 
just think of our own muggle freeway traffic jams.

They could, I suppose, have entrusted each portkey to one person who 
would be using it from that particular site and have them all meet up 
at a prearranged time, but then what if that person failed to show up 
for some reason or another, or was late?  There goes the 
schedule.  Also, if a portkey were removed, how would those who needed 
to use it (and who presumably couldn't apparate, for one reason or 
another) get to the tournament?  Imagine the logistical nightmare of 
trying to arrange last-minute secret transportation for any number of 
paying customers who would most likely demand that such arrangements 
be made.

I think it's likely that a muggle *could* be transported by a portkey, 
but only in the direct physical presence of (i.e., touching) someone 
with the talent to invoke it.

Just my reading of the facts... :-)

selkie1964