Is there anything in the HP world that bothers you? - food

[SlightlyCashews at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 56546

From: Ing

<< Dumbledore, McGonagall, Molly Weasley, and probably others 
are frequently depicted conjuring various items - most notably 
food - out of thin air.
This makes me think of the slackers of the wizarding world, who 
learn the charm to conjure sandwiches so they never have to 
work ever again. OK, so maybe you can't conjure more 
complicated things, but I imagine if one's standards were low 
enough one could get by being a very very lazy witch/wizard. 

Makes one wonder how they get all the menial, low-paying jobs 
filled. >>

~Me~
The way that I see this, is that the witch or wizard has a basic knowledge of 
the ingredients and recipes or process/location of what it is that they are 
conjuring. Magically, they can retrieve and combine of them out of sight, 
before producing a common food. It doesn't come from thin air, it comes from 
the cupboard. 

"Mrs. Weasley slammed a large copper saucepan down on the kitchen table and 
began to wave her wand around inside it. A creamy sauce poured from her wand 
tip as she stirred." US paperback GOF Ch. 5, Weasley Wizard Wheezes, p. 59

Presumably, Mrs. Weasley knows where her flour, butter and milk (what's in 
the white sauce, probably) are kept in her home and can transport and combine 
them from the cupboard into the sauce before it ever hits the pot. Since her 
wand is the conductor for her intentions, that where the finished product 
comes from.

As for the slackers, I think they would have to posses the ingredients to 
make whatever they needed so they still have to figure out how to legally 
acquire the flour, butter etc. Basically, they have to own the food (or have 
control over it -- in the Hogwarts kitchens, it's up for grabs) to manipulate 
it. It would be logical for WW shops to have some kind of ward that would 
prevent wholesale theft by conjuring the object away.

Cis - who's new and hopes she's done it right and semi-logically


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