Owls to hidden places/people

[macfotuk at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 111436

IMO this is one of JKR's most classic 'Flints' (mistakes) excepting 
that there is no way for her to get out of it. The attempt she made 
relatively recently was in my view absolute rubbish (* below). You 
just have to accept that it is necessary for the story for owls to 
be able to find Sirius *somehow* but noone, even with all the 
diverse and advanced magic available to the WW, at the Ministry 
having the nonce to be able to do the same. 

It's a similar 'mistake' in my view to the emptiness of the MoM when 
Harry and crew arrive there to 'rescue' Sirius (except that if DE's 
ensured this emptiness by magic it would be explainable, unlike the 
owls finding Sirius thing)- it makes literary sense but not sense 
when analysed calmly, logically, consistently etc. Another example 
in my view would be the so-called mistake of Lily emerging from 
Voldemort's wand AFTER instead of before James: It made much more 
impact, especially emotionally, for Harry to see his mum AFTER his 
dad because (a) we love our mums most of all (don't give me flak 
please if you disagree!) and (b) he'd already 'seen' his dad or 
thought he had and dealt with it (when he saw his time-turned self 
as rescuer in PoA). JKR did a lot of back-tracking on this one 
(order of emergence) blaming her editor, but I believe it made lots 
of sense in terms of better writing that Harry would see his mum 
after his dad and that this was only later noted as being 
inconsistent with a reverse order of their deaths (which is ABSOLUTE 
undoubtable canon and hence needed to be corrected). I spotted this 
on the very 1st read of GoF and it tripped me up mentally, but hey 
she can't do everything perfectly. 

We spotted a 0.01% 'error' - 

who else gets it right 99.99%? 

No-one, that's who - just look at the sales/popularity.

* this is what JKR said about owls at www.jkrowling.com:

http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/faq_view.cfm?id=18

 Section: F.A.Q.
In 'Prisoner of Azkaban', why couldn't the Ministry of Magic have 
sent Sirius an owl, and then followed it, to find him?
Just as wizards can make buildings unplottable, they can also make 
themselves untraceable. Voldemort would have been found long ago if 
it had been as simple as sending him an owl!

this is *REALLY* unsatisafctory - it simply says it can't be done, 
not (really) WHY. 

 --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Deb" <DBoyken at a...> wrote:
> Here's something else I'm wondering about: Owls are obviously VERY 
> smart, since they can find people whose whereabouts are unknown to 
> the people writing to them. Harry sends letters off to Sirius via 
> Hedwig, but he also sends him mail with the school owls in GOF 
when 
> he's hiding. So, owls obviously have some special instinct in 
finding 
> people in their postal duties.
> 
> Taking that a step further, two questions:
> 
> 1. If an owl can find a man on the run from dementors and part of 
a 
> huge manhunt (CoS), why did no-one in the ministry think to send 
> a "Dear Sirius, hope you are well" letter and just track the owl??
> 
> 2. But also . . . Hogwarts is unplottable, yet it receives mail. 
> Fine. But what about places and people who are hidden by a Secret 
> Keeper? Can people send mail to the OofP headquarters without 
knowing 
> the location? Can they send mail to anybody LIVING at HQ if they 
> don't know. Or if they do know the secret--like Harry when he 
writes 
> Sirius at the beginning of OotP--does that mean the owl is let 
into 
> the secret, too? And, say, the Potters 15 years ago . . . in the 
> brief time between casting the spell to set up Wormtail as Secret 
> Keeper and the time Voldemort showed up at their door . . . could 
> they receive mail? How? Did their Daily Prophet arrive??
> 
> Deb in NJ