No magic outside school

[Petra Pan]

No: HPFGUIDX 57108

Diane:
> Sorry if this has already been
> discussed...Petunia Dursley grew up
> with Lily, and presumably knew that
> she wasn't allowed to do magic
> outside of school.  (Although I'm
> sure Lily was very clever, I doubt
> she could keep the secret for seven 
> years.) Why did Petunia never share
> this information with Vernon or
> Dudley?

Katy Cartee:
> Well, this is just further proof
> of the theory that the magical
> restriction of underage wizards is,
> indeed, a crock - something that a
> DE set up to scare Harry into not
> using Magic outside of Hogwarts.
> I'm not sure who came up with the
> theory - i simply remember it being
> mentioned a few weeks back, and it
> made perfect sense to me.

IIRC, because its enforcement is so 
spotty, we suspect the Decree for the 
Reasonable Restriction of Underage 
Sorcery to be more than just a 
straightforward restriction imposed 
by the MoM; Harry got caught but others 
do not.  There are lots of theories 
out there to explain this, including 
that this is something that a DE set 
up to scare Harry into not using Magic 
outside of Hogwarts, which IIRC 
explains why only Harry seems to get 
caught.

But I do want to point out that this 
could well be very straightforward.  
Kids who violate this restriction but 
do not get into trouble because no one 
caught them at it is not that different 
than people running the stop sign when 
no one is around to give them a traffic 
ticket.  The only time Harry gets 
'caught' happens to be at the same time 
that Dobby wants him to stay at Privet 
Drive.  It seems very likely to me 
that Dobby notified MoM in hopes that 
Harry would not be allowed to go back 
to Hogwarts.

This would explain why we hear of 
kids daring to practice magic outside 
of Hogwarts - they probably knew that 
they could get away with it, as long 
as they are careful not to do so in 
front of people who would report 
them.  I had always read this as one 
of those things about the WW that 
Harry didn't quite understood, not 
having grown up in the WW.

Now, the MoM obviously also know of the 
blowing up of Aunt Marge.  I had gotten 
the impression that the MoM arrived to 
keep an extra eye on Harry on account 
of Black's escape and not because they 
were alerted to the fact that Aunt 
Marge was in need of magical deflation.

Harry's right, surely the Head of MoM 
would not personally get involved in 
the matter of underage sorcery...but he 
most certainly may wish to head up the 
safekeeping of the Boy Who Lived.

To answer Diane's question (sort of), 
I'm not convinced that Petunia knew 
that Lily wasn't allowed to do magic 
outside of school.  We do know that 
Petunia knows of Lily doing magic while 
on vacation - she spoke of Lily turning 
teacups into rats.  The fact that 
Vernon apparently didn't know about the 
restriction (or he'd have locked up 
Harry sooner) may very well support 
the likelihood that Lily has never been 
caught, which would be why Petunia 
never knew about the Decree.

Heidi:
> We actually don't know if the No
> Magic Outside School rule existed X
> number of years before, when Lily
> was at Hogwarts. If it didn't then
> Petunia wouldn't know that it was
> forebidden and thus she wouldn't know
> to mention it to Vernon or Dudley.

~ ~ ~ Mafalda Hopkirk's letter, in part:

As you know, underage wizards are not 
permitted to perform spells outside 
school, and further spellwork on your 
part may lead to expulsion from said 
school (Decree for the Reasonable 
Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, 
Paragraph C).

~ ~ ~ CoS, Chapter Two

I always thought that "1875" referred 
to the year in which that restriction 
was decreed.

Petra
a
n  :)

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