[HPforGrownups] Re: Underage Wizardry - the twins

[heather the buzzard]

No: HPFGUIDX 130341

jlnbtr wrote:
>>Does creating potions or their inventions not count as magic? And
>>even if it can't be detected, wouldn't they still have to use their
>>wands to create ton-tongue toffees and canary creams?  
>>    

Marissa wrote:
>When I read this, I remembered in PS/SS when HRH go to their first
>class with Snape, in the chapter 'Potions Master' he says something
>like this "there won't be any silly wand movement here...some of 
>won't even consider what we do magic..." This makes me think that 
>Potions *is* magic of course, but not detectable magic, I mean it 
>doesn't take any special wizarding skill to mix and stir certain 
>ingredients, I believe even a Squib could do some potions (don't 
>tell Snape I said that ;) ) Just like when the twins and Ron went 
>over to Privet Drive in the Ford Anglia, it was a magic transport, 
>but they weren't *doing* any magic per se. Or Floo Powder or Port 
>Keys , it's magic alright, but not detectable.


heather now:
Exactly my thinking on that issue.  "Doing magic" is not the same as 
"Using magical items"... otherwise it would be totally IMPOSSIBLE for any wizard-born child to avoid all magical items while at home.

[Wilson, Bruce] said: 
I always assumed that the underage magic rules were for kids like Hermione and Harry who lived in Muggle households; kids growing up in wizardling households would be presumed to be doing magic under their parents' supervision.  (Sort of like farm kids driving cars and trucks on the farm even if they were not old enough to be licensed to take them on the public roads.)--BAW 

heather now:
If that were the case, then Molly's statement of "Just because you're allowed to do magic now..." wouldn't apply. 

As to how this applies to the kids at home -- younger kids I mean.  I believe that before a child is 11, before they're old enough to go to Hogwarts, they do magic -- but only of the 'accidental' sort, the 
uncontrolled and vague sort of 'wandless' magic that seems to exist in the universe.  We know that magical children do engage in magical 
activities while playing -- the little kid poking the slug with his 
father's wand, for instance, as well as any incident where the child 
'did something' when they were emotional (the vanishing glass). 

I don't think there's any way that this sort of doing magic could be 
*stopped*.  Youngsters would just not have the mental discipline to not do it.  Besides which, how then would folks know which kids were magical and which were squibs or ordinary muggles?

So, I believe that kids below age 11 do magic, but they are not taught any magical refinements -- because they're not capable of the focus and discipline yet.  Sure it would be helpful if they could help with the wash by magic rather than by hand, but their magical control is not yet strong enough and they'd probably ruin everything even if they were taught. 

I also think that magical ability itself is something that takes time to grow and develop.  A toddler will show magical ability, but will not have sufficient... I dunno... magical 'aura' about them to be able to do anything concrete with it, even if they did have the mental ability to understand it.  If you think of magic as a sort of 'field' permeating a person, then youngsters perhaps have weak fields, inconsistent fields, blotchy fields... one day strong, the next barely there... stronger in certain areas than others... Over time, it strengthens and evens out, until it reaches a point where it becomes controllable.

11 seems to be the age in the WW where it is deemed that children both 1)have the mental discipline and maturity required to start to learn to control their magical abilities and 2)their magical 'strength' is mature enough.  So they're sent off to Hogwarts to learn how to harness their energies.

Before they're 17, though, their 'magic fields' are still unpredictable, though to a lesser extent than when they were little children.  Combine that with 'social' immaturity, relatively speaking, and it makes sense that they are only allowed to *practice* their skills in the closely guarded halls of Hogwarts.  I also want to make the distinction of *practice* in the sense of "work on in order to get better" rather than of "engage in an activity".  I think that at Hogwarts, all the classes, all the magic work, are *practice* magic.  Students aren't expected to really use their spells *on their own*, not until they've passed OWL's and gained some maturity. 

So at 11, they're mature enough to begin to study their craft, 
well-supervised, and at 17 they're mature enough to actually *do* their craft.  This applies equally to wizard-borns as well as muggles and has nothing to do with that, IMO.

Folks like Harry & co. are totally exceptional situations, of course.  Heh.

heather the buzzard