Enchanted Items

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 144336

Here's a mystery in the HP books that I don't think has been covered. 
There are a number of items with magic powers which are mentioned. It is 
implied that they are rare; at the very least, difficult to replace. 
Yet, they are not treated as if they were rare and valuable. Also, there 
don't seem to be any classes in artificing, except, perhaps, Potions. 
Fred and George seem to have picked up the skills on their own, yet the 
skills seem to be in demand. It is very strange.

Let me give a few examples:

1) Harry's Invisibility Cloak: Aurors have trouble getting one (from 
OOP), a lot of people know that Harry has one, they're pretty easy to 
hide. Harry kept his pretty much a secret from all but Dumbledore (who, 
we ASSUME, passed it on to him; certainly he showed no concern that 
Harry had it). Yet, nobody tries to steal it from him, not even Draco 
Malfoy when he has the opportunity.

2) The Weasley clock. From Dumbledore's comments in OOP, it's not 
something that every family has. Why not? Especially considering that 
the Weasleys are poor; I assume that the clock customizes itself for the 
family (unless they didn't obtain it until after Ginny was born).

3) Squibs. Considering how little most magical families supposedly know 
about Muggles, squibs would have a great deal of difficulty getting by 
in the Muggle world. One would think that someone could make decent 
money, especially if the Ministry kicks in, making magical 
prothetics/aids/etc. Why is this not happening?

Any theories?

	Bart