Ashwinder
The Ashwinder is created when a magical fire* is allowed to burn unchecked for too long… The Ashwinder lives for only an hour and during that time seeks a dark and secluded spot in which to lay its eggs, after which it will collapse into dust. Ashwinder eggs are brilliant red and give off intense heat.
*Any fire to which a magical substance such as Floo powder has been added.
How then do wizards extinguish their fires after traveling via Floo powder (ie, when Harry and the Weasleys went to Diagon Alley all together) as not to create the flaming beasts?
I don’t have anything to go on but what you’ve posted, but I think that you are misreading what it says, perhaps?
It doesn’t say that floo powder creates a flame. That would be problematic when emerging out of the fireplace. I think it simply means a fire created with magical items such as floo powder. In other words, you can use floo powder to make a fire magical but you do not always get fire from floo powder.
Well, exiting the Floo network may not require a fire–I don’t recall any mention of a fire in the fireplace in Bourgin and Bourke’s, and there certainly wasn’t one in the Dursley’s blocked-off fireplace–but entering the network may. I seem to recall that Mr. Weasley lit a fire in the Dursley’s fireplace to send everyone back to the Burrow. Likewise, on Harry’s first trip by Floo, the sensation of standing in the magical flames is clearly described. Unless the last Weasley out extinguished the fire, they left a magical fire (by the definition in the Ashwinder entry) burning while they were in Diagon Alley.
The operative words in the entry, however, are “unchecked” and “too long”. That’s a rather vague description of the conditions required to spawn an Ashwinder. Is a fire burning in a fireplace “unchecked”? How long is “too long”?
If I had to venture a guess as to intent, I would say that when a magical fire is allowed to burn itself out, rather than being properly extinguished, it may produce an Ashwinder. Presumably more Ashwinders hatch from the eggs. It seems a very odd lifecycle. I would speculate that Ashwinders actually exist independently of magical fire as elementals of a sort, but require the conditions of a dying magical fire to take physical form in order to reproduce. The eggs hatch into more Ashwinders; if the right conditions prevail, the cycle continues. Otherwise, the infant Ashwinders revert to a noncorporeal form to await a change in conditions. It would also make a great deal of sense if the “intense heat” from the eggs and/or hatchlings had the potential to ignite a fresh magical fire if some fuel source is available.
I think way too much about this sort of thing, don’t I?
I thought Floo Powder didn’t create a fire, just temporary flames that shot up into the air. When the wizard/witch stepped into the flames, they would be transported to wherever they wanted and then the flames would be extinguished (I almost typed “distinguished” there). Perhaps, Ashwinders come from a real fire that Floo Powder has been thrown into, but no one actually uses the Powder to go anywhere because then the Floo Powder would have been used up and its’ effects wouldn’t be left behind on the fire?
Bourgin and Bourke’s nothing. I know there was no fire burning in the Dursley’s boarded-up fireplace in GoF when the Weasleys came to fetch Harry for the Quiddich World Cup.
I’m also certain that you’re remembering correctly about Mr. Weasley needing to start a fire in the Dursley’s fireplace to get everyone back to the Burrow.
Regarding Harry’s first Floo trip, remember that Harry became separated from the group; thus we were not witnesses to the journey as completed by the rest of the family. I’m quite happy with the hypothesis that Mr. Weasley put out the fire and apparated to Diagon to join his brood.
I also imagine that an indifferent housekeeper such as Nymphadora Tonks has had to deal with more Ashwinder eggs than most.
