Chapter Discussion: Chapter Fifteen, Goblet of Fire: Beauxbatons and Durmstrang

[Nathaniel]

No: HPFGUIDX 192216





--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff" <geoffbannister123 at ...> wrote:
> > 5. How do you think the Durmstrang ship arrived in the lake? Was this
> > apparition? Something else? Why do you think this mode of transportation was
> > not more widely used in the Potterverse?
> 
> Geoff:
> To be quite frank, I haven't thought about it in the past but I feel it has to be 
> something other than these two we have mentioned. Maybe there are spells 
> to transport objects plus users which are not generally known... Maybe a 
> Dark Arts spell? We do have instances later, certainly in DH, of Voldemort 
> and Snape flying without broomsticks so there must be other methods 
> which JKR didn't trouble to document.
>

Nathaniel:
The Durmstrang ship emerges, submarine-like, from under the water. It seems to me that the ship traveled like a submarine most of the way to Hogwarts, including up the river from the ocean. 

A lake needs a river entering it and exiting it to exist. We never hear of a river into the lake, but even if it's a small river, it must be there. Whatever magic allows the ship to submerge must also allow it to travel on non-navigable rivers.

JK Rowling intentionally left the location of Durmstrang ambiguous, but to make sense, it needs an outlet to the sea.