Owl deliveries (Was: How The Heck Did Hedwig Deliver Harry's Post?)

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 78457

Buttercup wrote:
> 
> When Harry sends Hedwig to deliver his encrypted
> letter to Sirus (Ch. 14), how did she deliver it?
> First, 12 Grimmauld Place is magically concealed. And
> in order for it appear you have to think, "The
> headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found
> at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London." Right?
> That's what Lupin tells Harry to do. Hedwig is a
> magical animal, but she still doesn't have human
> intelligence. And even if she could think this in her
> owl brain, and 12 Grimmauld Place materializes,
> there's no open window for her to swoop in. Does she
> peck at the serpent door knocker until Mrs. Weasley or
> someone else in the Order answers? Just wondering.
> 
> =====
> Buttercup

I have long suspected that owls do not travel by our normal space when 
delivering, but rather travel through some sort of "parallel" space 
where distances are the same but there is no obstacles. I call that 
O-Space (readers of Terry Pratchett might catch the reference). 

Why do I think this? It has always been an interesting idea that the 
ministry could not find Sirius in PoA. Why didn't they just send him an 
owl and follow it? It is a well known fact that an owl will always find 
its destination, even when the sender has no idea where that 
destination is. Magical owls seem to have some sixth sense of direction 
that allows them to find their destination no matter how well he or she 
is hidding (GoF - Harry sends Hedwig to Sirius who is hidding in some 
tropical place, or at least Sirius makes it look so - he could well be 
hidding in the London zoo).

So an owl will always find its destination, and yet no-one thought of 
sending a note to Sirius ("Gotcha!" would be appropiate) and following 
the owl to him, so this is either a flint or - much more likely- owls 
have magical powers that allow them to go places where no-one can 
follow. This could include getting directly into Grimmauld Place. In 
fact, I can imagine Dumbledore setting a provision for owls to get in 
directly. This accomplishes two things - faster mailing and reduced 
danger of discovery, since they don't have to keep coming in and out 
for the mail.

The only canon we have against this idea is Harry's PoV, who has seen 
owl arrive in several occasions and, in his house and in the shack in 
the middle of the sea, the owls knock on the windows. But those are 
muggle places, so owls cannot enter as easily as a wizard place. On the 
canon in favour of my idea of a spell that allows olws to enter places 
hidden outside normal space (such as Grimmauld, which is hidden between 
two other houses), I present Diagon Alley. 

Sure, there is no canon of owl post ever arriving, IIRC, but being the 
magical place it is, I'm sure that owl can and in fact do come and go 
as they please. And the only ways in from the outside world are through 
a wall that requires a wand and a few fireplaces, as well as (probably) 
other magical means we don't know about - but we *are* certain that the 
only way in from normal London is through the Leaky Cauldron (and thus, 
the wall). And yet I'm pretty sure that owls don't use that system.

In short, I think magical places can be enchanted to allow owl in from 
whatever magical realm they move through (while muggle places still 
pose a problem, and have to be let in).

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf