[HPforGrownups] Programmed Portkeys and Pudgy Neville

[Maria Kirilenko]

No: HPFGUIDX 52616


I wrote:
>> Another random portkey thought - Arthur Weasley says that Portkeys 
>> are enchanted to work at a pre-arranged time. However, I don't see 
>> why you can't make a portkey that would work as soon as someone 
>> touched it, no matter what time it is, or after a certain time. 
>> They wouldn't necessarily be called something different, as they 
>> would still be portkeys in essence.


Trond Michelsen wrote:
But what happens to a portkey that has a specific time when that time
comes and nobody's holding it? Does it take off on its own, or will it
wait for the first person to touch it? I think it's the latter, so
there's no need for two different types of portkeys.

Me:

See, I think that there has to be a distiction between the two types of PKs. 

Let's say, for example, that I am Dumbledore's agent who needs to be present at a Death Eater meeting to spy. So, Dumbledore arranges a portkey for me. The DE meeting is scheduled (OK, just humour me here) for 2 pm, and I need to get there at 1:30 pm, for example. So the Portkey is programmed for that time. Now suppose that some lovely person like Wormtail finds out that I'm a spy before I actually use the portkey - and the said portkey, alas, remains unused. But, according to Trond's words, it doesn't take off to the DE meeting by itself - it waits for some poor unsuspecting soul to pick it up in order to transport him right in the middle of the meeting. 

Now, I *know* the PKs aren't the type of objects you'd just pick up from the ground, but it's still kind of dangerous. 

So my guess is that the time-programmed portkey takes off at the specified time even if there's no one holding onto it. 

Magic is actually rather flexible, and an experienced wizard, IMO, wouldn't have trouble with putting the exact enchantment on a PK that he needs.

Maria



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