Underage magic?

[annemehr]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Judy" <judy at j...> wrote:
> Sharon said:
> > As for Morfin and the Riddles; the Ministry detected the magic done 
> > to kill the Riddles.  It did not know who had done the act because
> it 
> > can only detect magic, not the person who performs it.
> 
> Oh, very good point -- the Riddle murders really aren't related to
> the problem of magic detection by the MoM.  Still, there is a general 
> problem with the MoM and its ability to detect magic being done. 
> Harry was detected casting a Patronus but various members of the Order 
> weren't detected using magic when they went to retrieve him a few
> weeks later; nor was Dumbledore detected when he did magic at Privet 
> Drive at the beginning of Book 6. Plus, the various magic acts that Tom 
> Riddle did on Morfin (stunning, memory modification) weren't detected, 
> either.  It doesn't seem that the MoM detects *all* magic.
> 
> -- Judy

Anne:
I would think any Order member would know perfectly well that the MoM
was carefully watching Privet Drive, so if they were going there to
pick up Harry, they'd take care of the Ministry ahead of time -- only,
from Harry's point of view we never see that.  So, I think the MoM did
detect that magic, but knew there were qualified wizards there to do
it.  Either that, or the Order knew how to pull some strings so that
their spells "never happened," if you know what I mean. We've seen
Arthur doing and receiving a few favors here and there, after all.

Even in CoS, JKR carefully explained that flying the Anglia wasn't
doing magic; "It's Dad's, we didn't enchant it," and then Gred and
Forge carefully open all the locks with picks instead of using
alohomora -- because *they* certainly couldn't have told the Ministry
what they were up to.

Which leaves for discussion the fact that Mundungus apparated away
from Privet Drive in the middle of his shift.  My thought is that
someone in the Ministry knew about these extra guards on Harry who
were friends of Dumbledore's.  Then Umbridge probably also found out
when Dung deserted his post, which is how she knew when to send the
Dementors; otherwise, it's too much of a coincidence that they arrived
when Harry was unprotected.

As for the magic Riddle did on Morfin, all of that occured within a
known magical household.

~Anne