Corrected: Protections on Privet Drive & Put-Outer (LONG)

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 36894

I tried to post this yesterday, and somehow managed to post a bunch 
of gibberish instead.  Very embarrassing.  This is what I intended to 
post:

*******

Grey Wolf wrote:

> There is actually no canon to support the idea of a Safety Zone at 
>all 
> except for Dumbledore's typical cryptic statements of Harry having 
>to 
> go to live to his uncle's house for his protection. 
> 
> From then on, the members of this board (myself included) have gone 
>on 
> to weave theories about this protection and how it's brought about.-

Yes, we have speculated about Harry's protection quite a bit.  A few 
months back, I started wondering if the Put-Outer might have 
something to do with the protections on Privet Drive.  Most of what 
follows are my thoughts from that discussion, with a few new tidbits 
tossed in.

So.  Why does Dumbledore uses the Put-Outer to extinguish and 
light the lamps on Privet Drive.  Why doesn't he just use a wand?  Is 
this just because JKR doesn't yet want us to know about wands?  Or is 
something else really important going on?  And why does JKR, a master 
of inventing clever names like veritaserum and pensieve, resort to a 
clunky name like Put-Outer?

Then, when I went to see that Hollywood-production-that-we-are-not-
supposed-to-discuss-on-this-list, I observed that a big chunk of 
valuable time is used watching Dumbledore use the Put-Outer in a 
rather slow and dramatic way.  Why is so much attention (in the book 
and movie) devoted to the Put-Outer in one of the crucial opening 
scenes?  Why has there been no mention 
of it since, even though we sometimes see teachers (Lupin and 
Trelawney) dim or ignite lights at Hogwarts?
 
Here's what we are told about the Put-Outer in PS/SS:
 
When Dumbledore arrives, he rummages around in his cloak.  He finds 
the Put-Outer.  "He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and 
clicked it.  The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop.  He 
clicked it again -- the next lamp flickered into the darkness.  
Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on 
the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were 
the eyes of the cat watching him."  Then Dumbledore puts it back into 
his pocket.
 
But notice how the use of the Put-Outer changes when it is time to 
turn the street lamps back on:
 
"On the corner, he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer.  He 
clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street 
lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make 
out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the 
street."
 
So, when Dumbledore extinguishes the lamps, he clicks once for each 
lamp, and they just go out.  But when he turns them on, they don't 
just pop back on.  Instead, we are told their color for the first 
time (orange), and balls of light come out of the Put-Outer all at 
once.  It seems to me that Dumbledore is doing much more than re-
lighting the lamps.  He is putting something from the Put-Outer into 
the street lamps, and it well could be the protection for Privet 
Drive.
 
If you think about it, there really isn't much of a compelling reason 
for Dumbledore to extinguish the lights in the first place, IMO.  The 
street is deserted, and it is the middle of the night.  When 
Dumbledore extinguishes the lights, he doesn't yet know that Hagrid 
will show up in a fashion (on a flying motorcycle) that might 
generate curiosity among the muggles.  Also, if Dumbledore wishes for 
darkness, he really doesn't have to extinguish 12 street lamps, does 
he?  Two or four, perhaps, but extinguishing 12 lamps seems like far 
more than necessary to darken the Dursleys' home.  That makes me 
wonder if the 12 balls of light have something to do with the 12 
little planets moving around the edge of Dumbledore's gold watch.
 
Anyway, JKR wants to keep all of this a mystery for now.  So she 
misdirects us in three ways to confuse us.  
 
First, she says "twelve balls of light sped *back to their* street 
lamps.  Of course, we can now see that these twelve balls of light 
never went from the street lamps into the Put-Outer in the first 
place.  This phrase "back to their street lamps" suggests that 
these are the same twelve balls of light that Dumbledore 
extinguished, but they really aren't, are they?  
 
Second, as for the name "Put-Outer," I think JKR didn't want a clever 
name; she wanted a painfully obvious name to misdirect us all and get 
us to think Dumbledore really is just turning the lights off and on 
again.  
 
Third, after she slips in the part about the balls of lights speeding 
back to the lamps, she immediately brings up the tabby cat, just to 
make sure we start thinking about something other than the street 
lamps.  
 
Now, if something is going on with the Put-Outer and the 12 balls of 
light, what could it be?  I can think of two possibilities:

1.  A forcefield/invisibility screen that prevents wizards from 
finding the Dursleys' house. Something akin to Unplottability like 
Durmstrang.  This idea works well enough, as the forcefield isn't in 
place to prevent Hagrid from arriving and is installed afterward.  
 
But the problem with the Unplottability idea is that Fred, George and 
Ron are able to find the house in CoS in a flying car, Dobby finds it 
in CoS, and Mr. Weasley connects it to the floo network.  Owls also 
find it quite easily.  Sirius Black manages to find the Dursleys' 
house as well (or at least find the Dursleys' neighborhood).  So I 
don't think the protection is likely to be a form of Unplottability.

2.  A surveillance device that lets the good wizards know everything 
that is happening on Privet Drive.  This works a lot better, I 
think.  We certainly know that MoM instantly knows about all magic 
that happens on Privet Drive, based on their response to Dobby's 
magic and Aunt Marge (and we know they don't react instantly to magic 
other underage wizards perform).  We know that Hagrid or Dumbledore 
knows that Harry isn't receiving his letters, that he is moved from 
the cupboard to the bedroom, and that the Dursleys flee.  Maybe each 
of the 12 street lamp is a separate surveillance device, perhaps 
sending different types of information (magic usage, communication 
monitoring, visual image) to different recipients (one for MoM, one 
for Dumbledore, one for Mrs. Figg, etc.)
 
Also, we know Fudge was panicked when Harry ran away after he blew up 
Aunt Marge.  JKR specifically tells us that he was a few streets 
away, on Magnolia Crescent.  So it is no wonder why MoM panicked -- 
Harry was "off the radar," they couldn't see him, and they had no 
means of protecting him.
 
Another (and hopefully last) obstacle is figuring out how Harry is 
safe when he is at school, away from the 12 monitoring devices on 
Privet Drive.  Maybe the answer is that Harry is safe when he is in 
the presence of his relations, which several people have already 
proposed as part of Harry's protection.  When he is at school, he is 
in Dudley's presence.  Had Dudley gone to Smeltings and Harry gone to 
a different muggle school, that protection might not have existed.  
It might be a good thing that the wizarding world spirited Harry away 
to Hogwarts when they did.
 
So, does that work?

Cindy