OotP: Petunia

[lizcrosssmith]

No: HPFGUIDX 64768

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "ugadawg02" <ugadawg02 at y...> 
wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lizcrosssmith" 
> <lizcrosssmith at y...> wrote:
> > > 
> > > See I always thought some of the rules about using magic out of 
> > > school did not apply when Lily went to Hogwarts, didn't Petunia 
> > > mention in PS/SS that Lily use to come home turning tea cups 
into 
> > > frogs, or something like that? . . . So maybe the parents 
weren't 
> > squibs but the rules banning underage magic out of school did not 
> > exist either, it is possible.
> > 
> > FYI,
> > 
> > The Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery 
dates 
> > to 1875 (OotP, US, Chapter 8, pg 140).  
> > 
> > Also, it must apply to wizarding families as well, because we see 
> > Fred & George zaping every chance they have after they become of 
> > age.  If they could have done that all along at home, it would 
have 
> > been old hat by then, no fun at all.
> > 
> > Liz
> 
> My apologies I have yet to reread OotP, but were the rules not as 
> enforced? My copy is packed so I cannot check but it (and I am 
almost 
> postive on this) mentions in PS/SS her using magic when at home and 
> we know that any magic done anywhere near Harry gets an owl sent to 
> him at once.

Yeah, excellent point.  Actually I've been thinking about that quite 
a bit.  My first thought was that the Decree must be relatively new --
 like the ban on flying carpets, for example.  But then -- whamo!  
JKR gives us a date on the Decree and Lily and Petunia are sure as 
heck not that old.  And then, there is how JKR slipped the date in.  
It's not only unnecessary, but kind of odd.  Fudge gives it to us 
when he is reading the charges against Harry:

"The charges against the accused are as follows:  That he did 
knowlingly, deliberately, and in full awareness of the illegality of 
his actions, having received a previous written warning from the 
Ministry of Magic on a similar charge, produce a Patronus Charm in a 
Muggle-inhabited area, in the presence of a Muggle, on August the 
second at twenty-three minutes past nine, which constitutes an 
offense under paragraph C of the Decree for the Reasonable 
Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, and also under section 
thirteen of the International Confederation of Wizard's Statute of 
Secrecy."  (OotP, US, Chapter 8, pg 140.)

Notice that there is no date given for the International 
Confederation of Wizard's Statue of Secrecy -- and why would there 
be?  Does it matter when the law/statute/decree was passed?  No.  So, 
it seems rather obvious to me that JKR is making sure we know that 
this Decree has been around for quite a while.  That makes what 
Petunia said in SS/PS (about Lily spending the summers transfiguring 
stuff and hatching frog spawn) seem rather odd.

So, either 1) all this transfiguration happened in the summer between 
Lily's 6th and 7th year, and thus was legal because she was of age; 
or 2) with Lord Thingy on the loose, the MoM had too much to do to 
bother enforcing the Decree; or 3)something I haven't thought of yet.

Personally, I am leaning toward #3.

Liz