Invisibility Cloaks

[Jim Ferer <jferer@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 49014

Steve:"Others have given theories about how the cloak may absorb or
bend light to prevent you from seeing it. A thought along those lines
is, if it works by magic rather than physics, does the cloak enchant
the wearer and make him invisible, or does the cloak enchant the
viewer and make him unable to see?"

Jim, coming firmly down on the side of magic:
Magic has laws just the same as physics does. There's the Law of
Similarity, the Law of Contagion, the Reverse Spell Effect, and so on.
(Try reading Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy books for a great take on
scientific magic.) Hogwarts seems to approach magic as a science at
least some of the time. There's tough gut courses (McGonagall's) and
"easy A" courses (Trelawney's). Sound familiar?

If you think of magic coming from or harnessed by the mind, then a lot
of things make sense. Children performing spontaneous magic when angry
or scared; wands as focusing tools; wizards with more talent and power
than others.

Potions are harder to explain. If you and I made a potion with the
same ingredients in the same way as Snape would, would it work? I'm
guessing no, because it would be missing the ingredient you and I
can't inject, the magic. (Don't ask me to defend that, 'cause I can't.)

The problem here is that JKR hasn't shared the details of magic in her
world with us, as some other authors have. (See Garrett). I hope
that?s her next schoolbook publication.

Jim Ferer, trying to conjure up a dinner and failing