Speculations on wizard transport

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 32985

Just an afterthought after mentioning The Magician's Nephew...

Remember that scene where Diggory puts on his ring and ends up in the Wood Between The Worlds with the Witch, the cabdriver, Uncle Andrew and Strawberry, i.e. all the living creatures in contact with Diggory (or in contact with a living creature in contact with Diggory)?  CS Lewis makes convenient use of the magnet effect to get everyone he wants into Narnia.

Compare this with JKR's wizarding world.  She seems to make a very clear distinction between the animate and the inanimate.  We have to assume that a wizard can't take a passenger with him/her when Apparating, otherwise why didn't Lily grab Harry and Apparate when Voldemort came?  Perhaps there's an element of will there: only animate creatures who are intending to and capable of Apparating can do it.  (where does that leave animals?  Could Ron Apparate with Pigwidgeon in his pocket, and if not, what would happen?)  Hence no magnet effect.

This may be true of Portkeys as well, otherwise wouldn't the Potters have arranged to have a handy Portkey to whisk them far away out of danger?  ("Quick, Lily, grab Harry and touch the Portkey!" - though couldn't she have arranged to make baby Harry touch it as well?)  I think we have to assume that making a Portkey is a long and difficult process, otherwise it opens up too many plot holes, not the least of which is the infamous Crouch/Moody and Harry situation ("Harry, could you just grab that book for me?"  "Sure, Professor MooAAARRGH!" (whoosh to graveyard))

It seems that inanimate objects do get Apparated/Portkeyed along with the wizard: their clothes come along for the ride for a start (though perhaps to the disappointment of some...), and so, presumably, do any inanimate objects they are holding.  In the graveyard, Harry used the portkey to take Cedric back to his parents, but by that point Cedric was an inanimate object, i.e. dead.  If Cedric had been alive, but unconscious, could he still have done it?

Then there's the ol' teleport problem.  What would happen if two people Apparated or Portkeyed simultaneously into an overlapping space, or even into an object like a tree or building?  This was one of my first thoughts as I read about people getting to the Quidditch World Cup, I must admit.  Would some terrible explosion or fusing together happen?  (note: fanfic writers, I hand this one to you... is the Whomping Willow the product of a violent wizard fusing with a willow tree?)  Would they splinch each other, or just conveniently spring up whole and close together?  In GoF, JKR seems to take the convenience option with Charlie Apparating on top of someone, and with Floo powder, as Weasley after Weasley crams into the Dursley fireplace (though I suppose the Floo network would have to take this into account).

Hmmmmm hummm hoooommmm (muses Tabouli, in Treebeard fashion).


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