Brooms and Wandless Magic

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 132303

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "zgirnius" <zgirnius at y...> wrote:
> ...edited...
> 
> Are the brooms WW folk use specially charmed/enchanted so they would 
> fly? If so, could Muggles use them? (Perhaps they are excepted from 
> the usual ban on enchanting Muggle artifacts for reasons of 
> tradition?) If not, does this mean that in theory any old broom can
> be used by a witch/wizard to fly? Since we don't see people waving 
> their wands to activate a broom, is this another example of wandless
> magic? 
> ...edited
> 
> What do people think?
> 
> --zgirnius

bboyminn;

Flying Brooms are not ordinary brooms that have been enchanted to fly.
They are special devices magically created specifically for flying;
that much is a fact. They do not resemble anything that any modern
muggle would regard as a broom or something functionally able to
actually sweep; again by modern standards.

To the average muggle, a flying broom would look more like an odd
bundle of sticks, and they would be more likely to use it for
fireplace kindling than to even remotely think of sweeping or flying.

Because flying brooms are so far from modern sweeping brooms, I think
they are given an exemption from the law barring the enchantment of
muggle artifacts. A flying carpet looks exactly like a carpet, but as
I said, to a modern muggle, a flying broom looks like a bundle of sticks.

As to whether a muggle could get a flying broom to fly, I'm not sure.
We have to ponder to what extent a flying brooms flying ability is
self-contained, and to what extent it draws on the magic of the wizard
doing the flying. 

Just a pure guess, but I think to some extent, it draws on the magic
of the wizard doing the flying. The core nature of the object is
enchanted into it, but the activation, motivation, and control of the
flying broom must come from the wizard.

Mostly, I just made that up, but it seems reasonable.

steve/bboyminn