Harry's Magic at Home / Dumbledore's Motives?

[Liz Muir]

No: HPFGUIDX 40897

*****Harry's Magic at Home*****
Jenny from Ravenclaw wrote: (on Harry using an invisibility cloak at
home):
>>We learned in CoS that Harry is carefully monitored while at the
Dursleys, obviously more so than other wizard children who are out of
school (we know that Fred and George use magic continually while at the
Burrow). 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. Harry may very well get in trouble for using
magic on Dudley if it does happen, but I have a feeling he'll be
satisfied about it anyway, no matter how he uses magic and what the
consequences are.<<

I doubt an invisibiliy cloak would register on the MoM's scale if a
flying car was legal. Harry didn't enchant the cloak to give it
invisibility powers, he only used it, just like the Weasley's use the
car.

I personally have been wondering about the MoM's methods of detecting
magic use by underage wizards. I'm guessing that all the system can
detect is when magic is used in a location, but not by who. This would
explain why F & G can use magic at home. Since their parents, and now
Percy, are full-blown wizards, the MoM's detection system doesn't work
because it could be Mr or Mrs Weasley doing magic legally. This is kind
of unfair to muggle borns, but I guess they could depend on the magical
parents to keep their underage wizards in line. lol

Now this brings up an interesting point in SS. It has always been a
mystery why Lilly could come home "with her pockets full of frog spawn,
turning teacups into rats" if underage wizards aren't allowed to use
magic over the summer. If the MoM's system truly can only detect if
magic is used in a certain place, Lily woudl be able to use magic over
the summer if another wizard lived at the house. Hmmm. Perhaps Harry's
grandparents? However the books do make it sound as if Lily is muggle
born, but maybe they were hiding it from Petunia? Any thoughts?

*****Dumbledore's Motives?*****
Dante wrote:
>>What's bothering me is Dumbledore's timing as far as bringing the
Philosopher's Stone to Hogwarts. Did he know someone was planning on
stealing it? He probably guessed that the stone could be used to revive
Voldemort from his weakened state - I mean, what else was it really
good for (besides the whole near-immortality thing)? But, if that's the
case, why did he leave it in Gringotts for long? Why wasn't it moved to
Hogwarts right after Voldemort's defeat, when his followers were still
floundering about? For that matter, why wasn't it just destroyed?<<

Time for me to play Devil's advocate here. I'm just going to be
extremely sceptical on all these theories. I believe Dumbledore knew
someone was planning on stealing the stone. (He does have "sources"
which inform him about Voldemort. See CoS) So he talks it over with
Flamel and then sends Hagrid to pick it up. He left it in Gringotts for
so long because, first of all, it belongs to Flamel and not to him and,
second, why move it if it is save there? It must have taken some time
for Quirrell to figure out how to break into a high security vault at
Gringotts, which is a pretty safe place. Who says it was even in
Gringotts the whole time? Flamel must have been using it to make elixer
of life a few times. He could have just moved it there, or maybe five
years ago, or ten, or ... It wasn't destroyed because Flamel was still
using it! He's not volunteering to die so Voldemort won't come back.
Anyway, I think this is pretty explainable.


>>What brought this to my attention was something McGonagall said just
after she caught Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Draco wandering the
halls after the incident with Norbert:<<

>>"...nothing gives you the right to walk around the school at night,
especially these days, it's very dangerous..."<<

>>What? What does she mean, "these days" and "dangerous?" As far as the
reader was concerned at this point, nothing very serious was going on
at the school. Sure, there was a troll running around at Halloween, but
that was explained away as an isolated incident, right? What I think
this says is that the faculty was aware of *something* going on,
something we weren't been told about. This something probably had to do
with Voldemort, but I'm not sure the faculty knew that particular fact.
Or did they?<<

Well, I do think the faculty knew something was going on. After all,
quite a few did spells to protect the stone. How would Dumbledore ask
them without telling them about the stone and why it's not at
Gringotts? "Hello, Professor McGonagall. Tell me, if you hypothetically
had to protect something of value from a hypothetical evil wizard, what
would you do? Could you give me a demonstration?" Not very likely
methinks.

>>Snape at the very least knew. He was suspicious of Quirrell from the
start, even since the first Quidditch match. Surely he would have
mentioned Quirrell's alarming behavior to Dumbledore, whom Snape
respects. I mean, he tried to kill a student! Why didn't Dumbledore do
anything about it?<<

I doubt Snape told Dumbledore about Quirrell, though it is possible.
Otherwise, why would he have to sneak away on his own to stop Quirrell
when the troll came in? Wouldn't Dumbledore have realized? Snape could
have gotten help keeping Quirrell from the stone. No, Snape seems
pretty loner-ish. I think he would try to handle this on his own.

>>I have a great many suspicions concerning Dumbledore's motives in the
series, most of which are not well received. I have this feeling he's
manipulating everybody for some other purpose, one that isn't
necessarily in the best interest of all concerned. I just don't see how
he couldn't know Voldie was stuck on the back of Quirrell's head,
especially if Snape suspected his involvement with the Dark Lord. If he
DID know, then having the stone stored at Hogwarts was just asking for
Voldemort to be revived!<<

How could he have known about Quirrell's "second face"? Quirrell wore
the turban for a reason and Voldemort didn't exactally go around being
obvious.

>>The same thing goes for Crouch. How could Dumbledore NOT know that it
was somebody else in a Moody-skin suit? I thought he and Dumbledore
were close friends. I don't understand how Crouch, who had been
isolated for the past twelve or thirteen years or so, could so easily
fool Dumbledore. Unless, of course, Dumbledore DID know, just like he
knew about Quirrell, and was looking for subtle a way to get Voldemort
back in power. What better way to put yourself in power than to defeat
some great evil and make yourself a hero? Dumbledore already has his
vigilante fighting force (the Aurors), the "side of the light" on his
side, and is slowly undermining the Ministry's power. If he manages to
overthrow Voldie on his own (with Harry Potter, the golden boy, at his
side), while at the same time managing to cause the rest of the
wizarding world to doubt and loose confidence in the Ministry, I could
very easily see the people putting him solely in charge, which is
potentially dangerous.<<

The Crouch!Moody thing is something I can't come up with a good
explaination for right now, unless it's that Moody and Dumbledore
haven't seen each other for awhile. I mean, Dumbledore spends lots of
time at the school and Moody's off doing his thing .... I really don't
see Dumbledore as the evil dictator type. :) Then again, maybe that's
what he saw in the mirror of Erised.

=====
Rowen Avalon (Liz Muir)

"We will not examine how grainy the frosting is. It's a cake. That's all we need to know."
"Everyone keeps learn more and more about less and less until finally they know everything about nothing. It's called specializing."
"The guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth then to the very center."
"I have nothing but contempt for a man who can spell a word only one way."

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