Some OOTP Questions

[slgazit]

No: HPFGUIDX 124980


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Richard Jones"
<jones.r.h.j at w...> wrote:

> (1) Owl Post.  The owls get from the Ministry and the Burrow to 
> Harry's house in Little Whinging within minutes — faster than owls 
> can really fly.  So how does owl post work exactly?

Delivery owls are magical, my guess is that they are using a kind of
apparation (like house elves) to the approximate location of the
person they are trying to reach (how they get there so fast always
seemed less interesting to me than how in the blazes they know where
to find the person, but no humans can somehow use that ability to
track anyone down).

> (4) The Boggart.  Mad-Eye looks at the boggart in the desk draw with 
> his magic eye.  So he saw it in its "pure" form.  But in POA Lupin 
> said no one had ever seen what a boggart really looks like.

We don't know what exactly it was that Moody saw. Also Lupin may have
been mistaken or simply unaware that Moody's eye could see through walls.

> (5) The Guard.  Why was only Arthur walking Harry to the Ministry for 
> his hearing (OOTP 7/122) when they such a big deal about having a 
> guard (and advanced guard) to get Harry to 12 Grimmauld Place and to 
> the train station?

Well, the guard did not need to be as large. It was so because so many
wizards volunteered to come and because of Moody's paranoia.
Nevertheless they did need several people. It was called soon after
the dementor attack on Harry, which all in the OoP (including DD)
attributed to Voldemort. It made sense to assume that the DE's may be
watching the house waiting for Harry to get out. Also, it was at night
and going a fairly long distance (from Surrey to London).

On the day of the hearing however, none of the bad guys knows where
Harry is. They can't be waiting around Grimauld Place, they haven't a
clue that Harry is there. Also, it is daytime, Harry and Arthur only
travel inside London and are always surrounded by people while doing
that. In addition, the bad guys have been spending their efforts more
productively on ensuring that the hearing ends with a conviction, by
changing the time and venu, failing to notify both Harry and DD of the
fact, and changing it from a hearing into a full fledged trial led by
two collaborators (Fudge and Umbridge). Much better for them to let
that play out than to attempt another attack.

The guard is heavy again however, on the day the kids go back to
Hogwarts. In this case, I think the intent was not only to protect
Harry but his friends as well, probably figuring that those who try to
hurt him may do so by hurting his friends. Notice that both Hermione
and the Weasley children are always under guard now when they are not
at Hogwarts.

> (6) Elevators in the Ministry.  Why do they need so many elevators 
> (lifts) inside the Ministry, and why are there crowds waiting for 
> them?  Couldn't most of the people just apparate?  That is how Arthur 
> normally gets to work.  I could see people with large packages maybe 
> not able to apparate, but couldn't most people?

I believe that, just like Hogwarts, you can't apparate into the
ministry. You can only apparate to the entrance. Very rational
security measure. Note that Voldemort was waiting in the entrance hall
(where the statues were) but did not try to get inside.

Salit