Magic detection/Magical Births (was Magic in Hols)

[jodel at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 44871

RM writes;
>>So I'd say the ministry monitors known wizards living with muggles, but has 
to be actively monitoring to know that there is something going on.  The 
mysterious death of three muggles wouldn't automatically show up on their 
radar screen.<<

Makes good sense to me. And once a Muggle-born student aquires a wand their 
proximity seems to join the list of areas to monitor. But there are lapses in 
this suggestion. What I find interesting, is that despite the somewhat 
draconian monitoring of the Dursley residence in CoS and later, the many and 
notable "breakthroughs" that Harry had all through the ten years that he 
lived with the Dursleys before he got his Hogwarts letter seem to have been 
completely ignored by the Ministry. No one obliviated Harry or the witnesses 
when he inadvertantly Apparated himself to the school kitchen roof. Or when 
he turned his teacher's wig blue. No one showed up to contain the panic when 
he let the snake out of it's enclosure. But when he blew up his aunt at a 
private dinner at home the Ministry sent in the Magical Reversal squad.


More from RM;
>>Although, there is a question about how this is consistent or inconsistent 
with the detection of a wizard born to muggles -- is there some automatic way 
that they know when a wizard has been born, but no automatic way that they 
track magical activity, what is the difference between the modes of 
detection?<<

Well, the recording of all magical births is done by the charmed quill at 
Hogwarts, ac cording to Rowling. (I am still holding by my own theory that 
the quill is charmed to pick up the specific psychic resonance/frequency 
which is characteristic to the response of a magical child under the effects 
of the sort of preasure/pain/terror induced by the birth process itself. The 
kind of unthinking reaction which morons like Neville's great-uncle try to 
incuce by frightening or startling a child in order to make them show magic.) 
But, as you and I both point out, simply recording the birth of a magical 
child does not appear to result in any sort of follow-up on the part of the 
Ministry. In fact, such births may not even be reported to the Ministry.

I suggest that every wand which is produced has something like a registry 
spell which is activated when the wand is purchased, and that the Ministry 
has the option of using these regestry spells to trace and monitor the 
presence of magic in the proximity of the wand. In most cases this capability 
is not followed up on. But in the cases of known Muggle-born magicals these 
spells are activated as a security measure. (I wonder if Hermione realizes 
that Muggle borns are being subjected to an inequity there? Clearly the 
Ministry does not "trust" them...) In Harry's case, the registry spell could 
be reacting badly with a pre-existing survelance spell on 4 Privit Drive, but 
that is only one possibility. In any case, we have sufficient information to 
support the possibility that Harry's experience is not typical. (Jaye's point 
that the adventure of the floating pudding in CoS may have been specifically 
called to the attention of the Ministry by Dobby himself is a good one, btw.)

Note: My hypothesis is that if a magical child, under stress, can and often 
does produce spontaneous and uncontrolled magic, (which is proven as being 
the case within canon) then this capability might be extended to very early 
stages of development if the stress under which the individual is subjected 
is great enough. If this is also the case, then the birthing process could 
reasonably be supposed to produce a level of stress which might provoke such 
a response. 

Which opens another can of worms. Clearly any magical breakthrough produced 
by a typical infant during birth could cause considerable complications. (And 
may contribute to the *apparantly* generally low birthrate among witches.) In 
St. Mungo's there must be spells deployed by the medi-staff to reduce or 
eliminate any potential damage to both mother and infant. And in most cases 
these breakthroughs must be slight enough to not produce a great deal of 
physical harm in the first place, or there would be a lot of Muggle-born 
children with stepmothers. But it has certainly occured to me that by the 
late 1920s deaths in childbirth were no longer common. And young Mrs. Riddle 
was bringing forth a what would be a powerfully magical child assisted only 
by Muggle science.

-JOdel