[HPforGrownups] MoM monitoring of magic (was Chapter Discussions - Chapter Two Questions,"A Peck of Owls")

[Wendy St John]

No: HPFGUIDX 72849


Sue wrote:

"I have a hypothesis about why they (MoM monitors) did not detect the 
stuff done by Tonks and co. - the group put some sort of shield in place 
to block detection of the magic being done.  Therefore, they could do 
what they needed to to get Harry out without getting noticed by the MoM."

Now me (Wendy):

Yes! That is the best theory yet to explain this. If they put a shield up
to hide their own magic, then the theory that the MoM can monitor magical
events without pinpointing who cast them still works. I can't think of any
canon for this type of a shield specifically, but we are aware of other
things that can be blocked - thoughts, via occlumency, offensive spells via
Protego spell. I'm sure there are others, but these are two that jumped
into my mind. I really, really like this theory, Sue!

Sue again:

"As to why MoM don't go after the Weasley kids (for example), I can think 
of 2 explanations - take your pick as neither is supported by text 
evidence.  1.  As mentioned before, there's so much magic going on in a 
wizarding household that they can't tell if the kids are doing things 
due to the general background noise.  2. Monitoring of the children of 
wizard parents is generally left to the parents; it is only those in 
muggle households who are monitored by the Ministry.  (Now that I think 
about it, both might be true.)"

Now me (Wendy) again:

I think you're right that it's both. And I think we do have some evidence
in the canon for the second part of the theory. At the Quidditch World Cup,
we see young Kevin (I think that's his name) enlarging a slug with his
dad's wand. No one other than his mother seems to be particularly alarmed
by this - it appears to be her responsibility as a parent to monitor this
type of thing. 

Going onto a bit of a tangent, I also wonder about the rules for children
before they attend Hogwarts. Perhaps young wizards and witches are only
banned from doing magic after they've started at Hogwarts (thus, the
importance of the letter they get at the end of each term). Perhaps there
is more of a distinction between the ban on Underage Sorcery and the ban on
using magic in front of Muggles than we've assumed. Perhaps only Hogwarts
students are banned from using magic outside of school (during holidays,
and such), while EVERYONE is aways banned from doing magic in front of
Muggles who aren't aware of the WW. One of the twins seems to think that if
that letter did not get sent out, for whatever reason, that it would
actually be okay for them to do magic, which would seem to support this
idea. Not that the letter has ever stopped Gred and Forge <G>. So, for the
majority of wizard-born children, we can guess that these children are
simply not taught any magic by their parents before starting at Hogwarts.
Of course there will be exceptions (Snape arriving at Hogwarts knowing lots
of curses, for example). But we know that spells can be learned from
textbooks, without any futher instruction (Hermione has done this in
PS/SS), so it's possible that children could learn some things on their own
without parental guidance. And I wouldn't be surprised to find, for
example, that Lucius has given Draco some magical tutoring on the side (not
that it has helped the poor kid - he's still pretty inept at duelling <G>).
As for Muggle-borns, they wouldn't have any way to learn spells until they
find out about Hogwarts in the first place, so that wouldn't be a problem.
If nothing else, it would make sense from the Ministry's standpoint -
monitoring every single household with a magical child might be a lot of
work. (Unless it's done, let's say, by magic <g>). I do feel that the
Ministry *isn't* monitoring every household, but only ones which they feel
require special attention (like Harry's). Hermione doesn't get in trouble
for practicing spells out of her text books before her first year, and
since she readily admits to having done it, I doubt she believed herself to
be breaking any law in the wizarding world. We also know that Lily used
magic during her school holidays (turning teacups to rats, or whatever it
was, don't have the books to hand), and she doesn't seem to have gotten
into any trouble. Which makes me feel better about the whole thing,
actually. I was finding it a bit creepy to think that the Ministry is
somehow monitoring every magical event in the whole of the wizarding world.
It would be sort of like having your telephone bugged without the
government having any reason to suspect you might be involved in illegal
activities. Just creepy. Of course, I was thoroughly creeped out by
Umbridge and her Inquisition in OoP, so attributing foul motives to the MoM
is not actually that much of a stretch.

Anyhow, I really like your idea about the Order putting up some sort of a
shield. So far, it's the only explanation that makes sense to me.

:-)
Wendy