Lily and Tuney and Sev, Oh My - C'mon mums!

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 176425

---, "Mike" <mcrudele78 at ...> wrote:

> 
> Mike:
> This poverty issue I never quite understood. I mean,
> they can do magic so why don't they fix up the 
> clothes? Why didn't Molly do some repairs and 
> remodeling of Ron's dress robes? Why doesn't Eileen 
> modify Sev's smock into something resembling a real 
> shirt? They have the materials, just fix them up a 
> little. C'mon mums!
> 

bboyminn:

Well, I've speculated many times on this aspect of
magic. If a pair of jeans tears, then it could
easily be magically mended - good as new. However,
if you wear a hole in a pair of jeans, it is not
so easy to mend. Keep in mind I'm just illustrating
a point here.

Torn jeans are all there, nothing has been lost so
it cost nothing in terms of magic or material to
repair them. However, if a hole is worn in them,
then material has been lost. You can't fill that
hole with magic because you need a source of real 
material to fill the hole. If you have a source of 
physical patching material, then you can probably 
magic the material into the hole.

It all comes down to trying to create something out
of nothing, and nothing of real lasting substance
can be created that way. 

Now, if you are extremely skilled you might be able
to 'magic' some raw hemp or flax plants growing 
in the ditch into material to patch or repair a 
garment. You /might/ be able to transfigure some
dirt into some cloth; though that strikes me as
very difficult; difficult but do-able. 

As to Ron's Robes, I suspect Molly didn't fix them
because she is a harried housewife with too many
kids and too little time. I suspect the robes 
were bought close to the departing time, and she 
was rushed to get many other things accomplished 
before all her kids left for school.

Now, I have also said many times that Ron could have
just as easily ASKED FOR HELP, instead of being a 
typical teenage boy and waiting until the last minute.
He could have asked Hermione, he could have asked Dobby,
he could have asked McGonagall. But 'BOY' that he is, 
he stuffed them in his trunk until the very night of 
the Ball then did a half-arsed job of trying to improve
them himself.

I'm not saying they would have ever looked great, but
if Ron had asked for help, his robes could have been
greatly improve, and if they couldn't, then at least
he would have tried rather than moping around feeling
sorry for himself. 

As too Snape, I can sympathize with him myself, because
to some extent I've been where he was. We were poor
when I was growing up. While other kids wore neat white
P.F. Flyers, I wore crappy black generics. [P.F.Flyers
sneakers in the old days = Converse All-Stars high tops
today] That was the bane of my life - generic black high
top basketball shoes.  So, what does a kid do? Grins 
and... no... frowns and bares it. Kids are powerless in 
life, so they take what their parents hand out, and they
endure. Thank god for their ability to endure.

For what it's worth.

Steve/bboyminn