[HPforGrownups] Limitations of magic - Dobby/Harry's Magic
rosie
crana at ntlworld.com
Sat Jul 6 21:22:29 UTC 2002
No: HPFGUIDX 40856
Eledhwen said:
"I've allways wondered about the limitations of magic. It seems pretty
certain that you can not just conjour up whatever you want (food,
clothes etc) because then nobody would be poor and all the stores
would go bankrupt, but in PoA Dumbledore conjors up sleeping bags for
the whole school, while searching the school for Sirius. This doesn't
make sense. If you can make sleeping bags by magic then you can make
anything else you want, but that doesn't work as I've written above.
My theory is that you can conjour things up only for a certain amount
of time and then they disapear. Thus food made by magic will disapear
afte a while and leave you just as hungry as before, clothes made by
magic will also disapear after a while as will money and everything
else. This would make it necesary to earn money and either buy or
make other things, since the ones aquired by magic will not last.
I'm not sure if this makes any sense and I admitt that my theory
probabaly needs some fine tuning, but the fact that Dumbledore was
able to just get sleeping bags like that has always bothered me.
Got any ideas or opinions?"
Yes, I like your idea that the objects might be only temporary. Another explanation could be that Dumbledore already had the sleeping bags, and was just (in a way) summoning them. Presumably, an event like a troll break-in meaning that all the children had to sleep in the hall would happen often enough to make having the sleeping bags worthwhile. Perhaps in the past, Hogwarts had entertained guests who did not have their own carriage or ship to sleep on, and who had to sleep in the hall.... I don't know. It could be possible, though.
For example, Mrs Weasley's book "Charm your own Cheese": presumably, you would have to have the milk and the charm would just turn it into cheese?
+++++++++++++++++++++
Jenny said:
"He got in trouble when Dobby used magic at the Dursleys
and in PoA, even though Harry didn't get in trouble for the Aunt Marge
incident, the MoM knew about and were there to clean it up. Using the
invisibility cloak, I'm guessing, would register on the MoM's magical
use map or whatever they use to find out wizard children who are using
magic outside of Hogwarts."
I've always wondered why Harry got into trouble and not Dobby. The MoM seemed to base their presumption that it was Harry who was responsible on the fact that he lived there. What if an underage wizard did magic in a public place? You would think that a magical detection system could detect who carried out the magic, not just where it was. Just a plot device? Evidence of the MoM's incompetence? or a clue about the mysteries of house-elf magic....?
Rosie
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