Underage magic enforcement

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 94705

> Robin wrote:
My question is why wasn't Harry punished for what he did in MoM to
Bellatrix at the end of OotP?  Anyone got any theories?  

Carol:
I'm not sure that the MoM is monitored, as homes are, to detect
underage magic, and certainly a lot of underage magic was performed in
the MoM other than Harry's failed Crucio. But I think the main point
is that the spell *failed*. If he had really Crucio'd Bellatrix, with
all the power and malice required to perform that spell, he'd be a
different Harry. The illegality of the spell is less important than
the powers of corruption that make it Unforgiveable. IMO, he attempted
but did not perform the spell. And I hope he learned a lesson from it:
You do not use the Enemy's weapons against him unless you want to
become a Barty Crouch, Sr. That, IMO, is the reason that DD teaches
*Defence* against the Dark Arts, but not the Dark Arts themselves. It
will be possible to defeat LV without performing a (successful)
Crucio, Imperio, or Avada Kedavra.


Mo wrote:
<snip> I have always wondered why only STUDENTS were forbiden to use
magic under the decree of Underage Wizadry. .... Now, I don't know if
the ministry doesn't regulate them too much because they aren't old
enought to have a wand, yet, and their magic can't do anything
significant. But, I WOULD like to know why they are allowed, and
Hogwarts student's aren't.

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. I also think (hope) that it would be the
parents' responsibility to monitor their young children's behavior.
Otherwise, the WW would be a police state in which the authorities
take over the parents' role. It would be like having the local
sheriff's deputy arresting your child if he swears at his grandmother
in public. (I don't want to get into whether we really have such a
police state in the RW, which tends to think the parents are at fault!)

Carol, who is not at all sure she's correct here