Seven Potters (WAS Re: Dumbledore and other leaders WAS: Moody's death)

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 181881

> CJ:
> Or better yet, 
> polyjuice seven people to look like Harry, *and* polyjuice Harry to 
look 
> like someone else?

zgirnius:
As Moody explains to Dung, the Harrys are in less danger. So it would 
make more sense to keep Harry as one of the Harrys, as they did.

> CJ:
> Or just keep him at Hogwarts and not send him back in the first 
place?

zgirnius:
Is Hogwarts, minus Dumbledore, safe? Why do you think so?

> CJ:
> On page 47 Moody says, "We're choosing to break it [the protective 
> charm] early...." Why does the spell need to be broken early? The 
> breaking of the charm will presumably be detected by the MoM, so 
> wouldn't it be better to leave it intact?

zgirnius:
They are not doing special maic to break it early. They are breaking 
it early in the sense that Harry is choosing to leave the place where 
his mother's sister dwells forever earlier than the charm will 
naturally expire (7/31 of the same year). Waiting until 7/31 to do so 
(i. e., not breaking the charm early) loses the element of surprise 
Moody thinks he will have by breaking it early. He would be flying 
straight into the arms of waiting DEs. (He is anyway, of course, but 
he does not know that.)

> CJ:
> Moody explains they can't get Harry out via conventional methods 
because 
> Thicknesse has made it illegal to connect Harry's house to the floo 
> network or to Apparate out. No indication that the MoM is actually 
> blocking Apparation, just that it's illegal. So hang the legalities 
and 
> Apparate out anyway. If the MoM could trace Apparation, the Trio 
> couldn't have stayed lost for so many months waiting for Harry to 
make 
> up his mind.

zgirnius:
Scrimgeour knew where Harry was staying. If laws were broken getting 
Harry out of 4 PD, the Ministry would know where to find the 
lawbreakers, unless they went into hiding. Moody's way, Harry did not 
become a fugitive until after the fall of the Ministry.

> CJ:
> Moody also describes the Trace to Harry as the charm that detects 
> "magical activity" "around" under-seventeens. Huh??? 
<snip>
> Or does Moody really just mean wand use? But that doesn't work 
either, 
> because they detected Dobby's wandless magic.

zgirnius:
I took 'magical activity' to mean 'making new magic'. People coming 
in under preexisting spells, or using premade potions, would not 
count. Nor would the presence of powerful magical artifacts, or 
magical creatures. Harry keeps an Invisibility Cloak in his house 
that never sets off detectors, I always presumed because the magic of 
its making was not done in his presence. He also owns, and keeps at 
home, a couple of high-quality Quidditch brooms, which I again 
presume never set off alarms because they were charmed and made 
before. He owns a magical owl that can deliver wizard mail, ditto. I 
don't see why Harry leaving (and a piece of magic therefore going 
kaput) would activate a spell that detects magical activity.

> CJ: 
> Does it strike anyone else that way? It's certainly not intended 
> sarcastically, but if it strikes anyone else that way, I'll have to 
> change it.

zgirnius:
Speaking for myself, it can come across that way, particularly if you 
happen to be disagreeing with the poster so introduced. <g>\

Just adding: Moody's plan did not include Polyjuice. HIS plan was to 
et a large troop of Order members to guard Harry as he left. I 
presume the idea was that they would outnumber any small contingent 
of DEs they would run into patrolling the area into which they flew. 
This would provide protection from Harry and, with numbers, the Order 
could expect to fare well in any skirmish that resulted. 

Of course in tandem with DD's plan to give away the date, this would 
have been a bloodbath, hence plantin the idea of decoys.