Ministry of Magic - Refresher Pamphlet - Wizarding Places

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 162063

In these Difficult anmd Dangerous Times, your Ministry of Magic 
would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone of the 
protections available and in-place on various Wizarding 
locations/homes.

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1. Invisibility to Muggles

As a reminder, various locales are invisible to Muggles; the Leaky 
Cauldron and therefore the entrance to Diagon Alley cannot be seen 
by Muggles. All of the space beginning with the storefront of the 
Leaky Cauldron and including all of Diagon and Knockturn Alley and 
the shops therein are magically located between the surrounding 
Muggle structures. Any Muggle looking out of a window facing Diagon 
Alley will simply see the next adjacent Muggle structure as if there 
was no space for Diagon Alley; that is, as if the other building was 
right next door.

Witches and wizards with Muggle relations (parents, grandparents, 
etc.) should please inform the Ministry, Department of Muggle 
Relations, before bringing their Muggle relations into Diagon Alley. 
Simply holding their hand and leading them into the Leaky Cauldron 
will allow them access.

Those that would prefer that their homes be invisible to Muggles 
should simply place an Unplottable Charm on their residence. Please 
note: the Unplottable Charm will also mean your residence cannot be 
located on a map for other witches and wizards. If that is your 
desire, have at it. If not, you will need to keep this in mind if 
you expect others to come calling. You may find that others will 
find your house hard to find!

2. Repelling/Deflecting Muggles

Those wishing to accept a little less security could simply place a 
Muggle Repelling Charm on their home. Your house won't be invisible, 
but you won't have any Muggle visitors either. For larger estates, 
you may want to consider a charm to change the appearance of your 
house. There are various options to choose from, contact the 
Ministry if you need help with this charm or if you aren't sure 
which option would be best for your situation. As an example, 
Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry is charmed to look like 
a ruined old and dangerous castle. As a reminder, for those that 
don't remember, you can use a charm that makes Muggles suddenly 
remember a previous engagement.

3. Preventing unwanted Wizard entry. The Anti-Apparition Charm

To protect your home from unwanted and/or uninvited entry, the 
Ministry highly recommends you place an anti-apparation / anti-
disapparition charm on your house. You won't be able to disapparate 
from inside your home and others won't be able to apparate to within 
your home, this includes yourselves, so be forewarned. The anti-
apparition charm does not prevent others from physically walking 
into your house, but that is not it's function. It requires the 
entrance of any entrants to be via the entrance, i.e. your door.

4. Magical Hiding. The Fidelius Charm

The Ministry recommends only highly qualified witches/wizards use 
the Fidelius Charm and only in extreme circumstances. Only those 
that fear for their lives should consider using this charm as you 
will be hidden from almost everyone.

There are three conditions that must be met to cast a proper 
Fidelius Charm:

1) The condition must be true - if you cast the charm saying you are 
hiding at location X, you must be staying at location X and you must 
remain there. Leaving location X causes the charm to be untrue (for 
you) and you will no longer be hidden. Returning to location X may 
not cause you to return to your hidden state, too many variables 
must be considered. Consult a Fidelius expert, if you can find one!

2) The condition must be Proprietary - that is, the secret must be 
yours to make and if others are involved, all must agree to make the 
secret. You cannot make any place into your hiding place, you must 
have control of the location or have been ceded control of the 
location and you can only hide that which is yours to hide. 
Attempting to place a Fidelius on a location which is not under your 
control will likely cause the charm to backfire and the location may 
instead become invisible to you!

3) The charm must be limited to a simple secret and to a simple 
locaton - do not attempt to hide an extended family with one charm. 
Likewise, don't make your hiding place the entire village of 
Hogsmeade. It won't work, you'll end up with nothing. If there is a 
question as to what constitutes "simple", consult that same Fidelius 
expert.

Warning: Be very circumspect when choosing you Secret Keeper. Choose 
someone that you have the ultimate faith in and who could be 
expected to guard your secret with his/her life. You may make 
yourself or one of the hidden the SK, but be forewarned that if the 
SK even accidently causes the secret to be untrue for her/himself 
then the whole Fidelius is broken.

Some common misconceptions regarding the Fidelius Charm: People will 
not forget you, they simply will not be able to find you unless told 
by your SK. Your hiding place will not become invisible, only you 
will be invisible while within the location. The caveat to this is 
if your secret is the location/house then the location/house is what 
is hidden. But of course this means that the secret does not pertain 
to any person or persons and nobody is personally hidden within the 
location.

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The Ministry sincerely hopes this pamphlet will be of service to the 
Wizarding World in their personal protection endeavors. For follow 
up questions please contact the Ministry. (Unless it's a question 
about the Fidelius Charm - there you're on your own)

Mike, who enjoyed taking liberties in his capacity as an official in 
the Department of Rudundency Department, Obfuscation Division by 
Adding Multiple Subtractions and Contractions, before Retraction :D