Flying over Hogwarts (was:Re: Do All Students Travel to Hogwarts by the HE?

[erisedstraeh2002]

No: HPFGUIDX 46052

Eloise wrote:
 
> It has struck me recently that with all the protections guarding
> Hogwarts - the inability to dis/apparate, the crumbling ruin 
> disguise and all the other implied but unstated charms guarding the 
> Castle - just how very odd it is that Charlie Weasley's friends can 
> just fly in on their broomsticks, pick up Norbert and fly off 
> again. Or, indeed, that Sirius can just fly off the premises on a 
> Hippogriff.
> 
> What is the point of an anti-apparation charm, when you can simply 
> fly in and out unnoticed under cover of darkness? And how did 
> Charlie's friends locate Hogwarts? Even if they'd been students 
> there, they presumably would always have travelled there by the 
> Hogwarts Express. If the location is secret, then it is secret and 
> known only to a limited few.

Now me:

And Harry and Ron flew onto the Hogwarts grounds in the Anglia; the 
Durmstrang students bubbled up from the middle of the lake on their 
ship; the Beauxbatons students flew in on their carriage; Sirius 
walked onto the grounds as a dog; Crouch Sr. also walked onto the 
grounds...the list of *wizards* who have been able to get into 
Hogwarts via alternative methods than the Hogwarts Express is fairly 
extensive.  However, I highlight *wizards* because it is my 
recollection that the crumbling ruin disguise is meant to keep 
*Muggles* from noticing Hogwarts.  I don't believe the disguise is 
meant to keep *wizards* from Hogwarts. 

I also don't think the inability to disapparate or apparate has 
anything to do with keeping *wizards* from being able to penetrate 
Hogwarts.  I frankly think it's a convenient plot device for JKR - 
for example, if wizards could dis/apparate into or out of the 
Hogwarts grounds, Sirius would never have been left alone at the end 
of PoA pending his execution, and therefore Harry and Hermione 
wouldn't have been able to save him on Buckbeak.

~Phyllis