PoA CH 1-3 post DH look

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 181369

Alla wrote:
> Yeah Hedwig seems to be very smart. Do you think other owls are just
as smart?
> 
> Liz responded:
> I always thought that owls were magical in their own right. How did
they know where everyone was? Case in point the delivery of the
Prophet. No matter where the person was they always seemed to know to
where to deliver it. An owl found Hagrid out on that great big rock
when he first went to find Harry.


Carol notes:

I think there are magical owls and ordinary owls, just as there are
magical rats like the ones who skip rope with their tails and common
garden rats of the type that live about three years (the kind that
Scabbers seemed to be; Ron noted that he had never demonstrated any
powers <g>).

Magical owls can "read" a name and address on an envelope fastened to
their leg (even if it's not shown to them) and find the person that
the letter is addressed to without a mistake even if they've never
seen the person before. The owls that deliver the hate mail to
Hermione, for example, have no trouble finding her. They don't
accidentally deliver the letters to Pansy Parkinson or Hannah Abbott.
Hedwig seems to understand Harry when he speaks to her (much as
Crookshanks, another magical animal, seems to understand human
speech), and she doesn't need an address to find Sirius Black. Whether
another owl could do that, I don't know. (I think they could, just as
Kreacher can find Mundungus Fletcher when the Wizards can't, but I'm
not sure. At any rate, Pigwidgeon finds Harry on the Hogwarts Express,
and I doubt that Sirius's letter was addressed to him there.)

On another note, I think that the letters to Harry in SS/PS magically
addressed themselves. The address kept changing to thing like some
seedy motel and the Hut on the Rock. I doubt that Hagrid addressed
them; the letters are from McGonagall. Probably she didn't address
them, either. or even write that many letters. She must have used some
magical duplicating spell like the one used to copy the cups in the
Gringotts vault. As for how the evelopes addressed themselves, I don't
know, but I'm guessing that McGonagall kept Dumbledore informed of the
changes in address, which is how he knew to send Hagrid to the Hut on
the Rock. (Which hut on which rock might have been a bit of a challenge!)

Carol, thinking that some details probably don't bear overly close
examination (child readers are expected to think "It's magic!" and let
it go at that)