Underage Magic during war & at the MoM

[Julie]

No: HPFGUIDX 93796

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" 
<justcarol67 at y...> wrote:
> I'm still not convinced that the MoM knows *who* is performing the
> magic, but Arthur must have had some way of covering up his own 
spells for "sorting out" the problem--or possibly he informed the MoM 
that he'd be picking up Harry that day, so they knew that an adult 
wizard would be in the house and magic that day could be ignored.>>>

Yes, Carol, you're right about someone knowing at the MoM that Arthur 
Weasley would be at the Dursleys' that day.  He arranged to have the 
Dursley's electric fireplace connected temporarily to the Floo 
Network for the afternoon.  He had a "useful connections" who was 
willing to bend the rule against Muggle fireplaces being connected.
(Goblet of Fire, US ed. pages 44-45)  I suspect Arthur has more than 
one "useful connection" up his sleeve.

Regarding the use of underage or prohibited magic, I suspect its a 
combination of informants/complaintants and some other form of 
alert.   Am I remembering correctly?  Doesn't the ministry demand 
that all wizards and witches do magic with wands, and 
discourage/prohibit wandless magic?   I wonder if there could be 
built in monitoring spells on the wands themselves.  This would been 
overridden in a minor's wand, if the child was at a registered 
location such as the home or school.  Similarly perhaps there is 
something about the presence of non-magical muggles that the wand 
registers and which would trigger an alarm if the wand is used in 
thier vicinity?  No one seems to mind if wands are used around 
squibs, do they?

Inky/Julie