Hogwarts' Enchantments Guard Against Unwanted Wizards (WAS:Flying over Hogwarts)

erisedstraeh2002 erisedstraeh2002 at yahoo.com
Sat Nov 9 22:59:13 UTC 2002


No: HPFGUIDX 46405

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.

and I replied:

> 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.

Now me again:

After writing this, I was listening to my audiotape of PoA and came 
to the part where the students are in their squashy purple sleeping 
bags in the Great Hall on Halloween night after Sirius has attacked 
the portrait of the Fat Lady (Ch. 9).  Hermione tells Harry and Ron 
that "Hogwarts, A History" states that "... the castle's protected by 
more than walls, you know.  There are all sorts of enchantments on 
it, to stop people entering by stealth."

So this statement does *not* support the conclusion I had previously 
reached, that the protections are meant to only keep Muggles out.  So 
I think this still remains a bit of a puzzle.  After all, why would 
dementors need to be stationed at the entrances to Hogwarts if the 
enchantments were sufficient to keep unwanted wizards out?  And how 
do we explain how other wizards have been able to get onto the 
Hogwarts grounds unnoticed?

I do still think it's a bit telling that we didn't hear about the 
inability to apparate or disapparate within the Hogwarts grounds 
until PoA, when it became necessary to have such a rule in order to 
allow Sirius to be left alone in one of the rooms at Hogwarts.

~Phyllis





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