CHAPDISC: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 15, The Goblin

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 181869

---  "a_svirn" <a_svirn at ...> wrote:
> > ...
> > 
> > 6. If food is the first of five principal exemptions to 
> > Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, what could the 
> > other four exemptions be? And what could be the basis for
> > these exemptions – the direct interaction between the 
> > element and the physical body of a human?
> 
> a_svirn:
> I think the whole thing is nonsense. If I can turn a table 
> into a pig, why cannot I have pork chops? That Gamp business 
> is among Rowling's sloppier inventions. 
> 

bboyminn:

I think the 'exception' to Gamp's Law are based in the 
underlying principle that most things that are transformed or
conjured are not permanent. You can convert rocks into bread,
but in a few hours the bread is going to turn back into rock,
and then you will have one big tummy ache. 

In short, you can't create something out of nothing. More 
importantly you can't create something substantial out of
nothing. Consequently, you can't create true food, air,
water, gems, precious metals, or other things of value with
any permanence.

Certainly, Hermione could have transformed tree bark into
bacon, and rocks into bread, and thereby given Ron a 
momentary joy of tasty food, but down the road there would 
have been extremely high consequences for having done so. 

So, I think the general underlying principle is that you
can't create something out of nothing, and as a result 
most cross-elemental transfigurations are temporary. 

Other transfigurations in which substances keep their 
elemental properties and merely change form, are probably
more permanent. When Dumbledore created the fake Sword, he
took real metal and real glass and merely changed it's 
shape and form, but the component elements remained the 
same. 

If conjuring and transfiguration were real and complete,
then wizards would just magic up gold coins when they needed
to buy something. They could conjure food and clothing out of
nothing. The same for houses, furniture, or any other material
need. JKR created these exceptions because she wanted to set
functional limits on the world she created.

Steve/bboyminn