[HPforGrownups] What are the WW rules?

[James Lawlor]

No: HPFGUIDX 113845

> sad1199 here:
>     In reading recent posts about Molly buying Ron ugly robes and
> not being able to make them magically I started wondering. There
> must be rules or laws in the WW world that allow for certain things
> but not for other things. Otherwise everyone could just zap up
> whatever they wanted and be as rich as Lucius Malfoy. WW has money
> and stores and stuff; if a witch or wizard could just pop some
> clothes out of their wands why would they need money or stores?
> Maybe most magical spells and charms and potions are just temporary?
> Does anyone know of a spell that is permanent besides Avada Kedavra?
> I think that some of the Dark Arts must be permanent because of
> Neville's parents. Any comments?

James:

I've been thinking about this some myself, and just how it relates to
Transfiguration and  Conjuring spells in general. I'm thinking that
when we see someone "conjuring" something, that they're not actually
making the item out of thin air, but are transporting it from another
location. For example, in CoS when McGonagall conjured a plate of
sandwiches for Harry and Ron, she was moving the sandwiches from
somewhere in the kitchens (where she knew there ought to be plates of
sandwiches) to the classroom.

That would also raise the question of why Conjuring and Vanishing is
taught in Transfiguration and not Charms. Maybe it's just One of Those
Things - perhaps we'll see similarly that Apparation is taught in
Transfiguration even though it doesn't seem to be "transfiguring"
anything.

Also, there could be a level of impermanence to transfiguring things -
transfigured items do, after all, seem to remain what they truly are.
Eg: Malfoy the Amazing Bouncing Ferret, pincushions that still curl up
when you try to put a pin in them.

So that might explain why you can't conjure a lot of things - if you
conjured or transfigured a meal, it wouldn't really be food you're
eating, or if you conjured a set of robes, the spell might wear off at
an inopportune time. (This would assume that Dumbledore "conjuring"
chairs is something different from McGonagall "conjuring" plates of
sandwiches - if they are the same it means that "conjuring" and
"vanishing" is (I suppose) just moving things around ).

Or, another explanation: you're perfectly able to magically create or
transfigure anything you need, but *most* wizards and witches don't
have the skill to do it. Most people can do simple things like chairs
(Arthur) and with experience can do some parts of meals (Molly making
sauce in GoF, I think) but few people have the skill to wave their
wand and have a meal turn out exactly like they want it. But I rather
doubt that myself.

- James Lawlor
jlawlor at gmail.com