Underage magic enforcement

[Lionel English]

No: HPFGUIDX 94777

> > Carol:
> > If, as others have speculated, the underage magic is detected by
> > identifying the wand, then a child under eleven would be using
> > someone else's wand or no wand at all, and the MoM could not
> > identify the child who cast the spell.

--- "Bumbledor" <bumbledor at c...> wrote:
>  I think [...]The
> M.O.M.'s job is to make sure the muggles don't find out about 
witches and
> wizards existing.
> 
>  Now Harry is clearly the only wizard child in his area. He lives 

I think it's related to Muggles, but not (entirely) in the ways 
discussed so far.  CoS provides clear evidence (Dobby's hover charm) 
that the MoM can detect the use of magic--and even identify the 
type, or effect--but it can not tell who performed the magic.  Harry 
was cited merely because magic was detected in his muggle household, 
and he was the only known wizard in the area.  But not only wasn't 
the charm performed by him, it wasn't even performed by a wand.

So, an obvious reason wizarding children may not receive notices is 
that the MoM can't distinguish between magic performed by them and 
by their parents.

If this is true, the only way the MoM can really enforce the 
Restriction is in the case of young witches and wizards who live in 
Muggle households and neighborhoods, as Bumbledore suggests.  These 
would predominantly be Muggle-born witches and wizards; or those 
like Harry who, for exceptional reasons, happen to live with Muggles.

With these particular children; neither they nor their parents would 
normally even know that they were magical until they received their 
first notice from Hogwarts, so until that happens the MoM couldn't 
really do anything.  (They can't expel them from Hogwarts before 
they've been, nor can they even send a notice given that the family 
will have no idea who the Ministry of Magic is.)  Furthermore, any 
magic these children perform will more than likely be wild, 
unfocused magic, given that they'll have no idea they can even do 
magic.  It's therefore probably that only after they've been 
accepted at Hogwarts that the MoM has any authority over them.

Questions:
If one of these young witches or wizards is expelled from Hogwarts, 
and has their wand broken, does the MoM still exert any power over 
them?  Can they still perform "wild" magic, and what can the MoM do 
about it?

If the MoM can detect magic but not who's doing it, why didn't they 
notice Mundungus' apparating around Privet Drive?

Lionel