Maybe because Tonks didn’t do it in the presence of a Muggle? Wizards do magic all the time in the Muggle world–but I think that if it’s unwitnessed, it’s ok. (depending on the consequences of the magic).
[feebly] Well, they were providing him with protection, and Tonks and Kingsley work for the Ministry, so maybe they’d arranged it ahead of time? [/feebly]
Thanks for the correction, I’d forgotten!
[feeblier]Tonks had put a charm on her wand that would make her magic undetectable to the Ministry[/feeblier]
I don’t think either of those explanations is feeble It is hardly surprising that a couple of Aurors would have tools and abilities that a 15-year-old wizard civilian and a house elf wouldn’t have. In fact, if JKR had suggested that Tonks and Shacklebolt (and the rest of the Order working together) hadn’t been to get around something that basic, or had offered a stilted and forced explanation for something that none of the other characters would have questioned, it would have been much less believable. Pedantic attempts to make fictional worlds needlessly consistent bother me a lot more than easily explained inconsistencies.
and as many of the people who escorted harry worked for the ministry…i’m figuring they would know how to get around the ministry.
I have two questions that are both in reference to the end of the final book, so I’m boxing them…
First off, there are three hallows: the invisibility cloak is good for all-around sneakiness, and the wand is good for making Harry into a badass wand repairman… but what, exactly, did the stone do? I know it caused Harry to see mental constructs of his dead friends, but why was it so important that Harry take it right before he was “killed”?
Second, during the little discussion Harry and Dumbledore had while Harry was dead: Harry keeps looking back at some pitiful, obviously suffering figure, who Dumbledore claims can’t be helped. Who was this supposed to be?
question 1
hides you from death and other things.
makes you invincable
brings people back, more substantial than a ghost, less sub. than living being.
question 2
tommy-boy.
Right, but why did he specifically need it? His resolve had to be in place before he got it, and it didn’t seem to serve much of a practical purpose.
I don’t get it…
1a. harry had ownership of all three in the forest.
2a. hhhhmmm, how to put this vaguely. it is all tommy-boy had left. ya-know-who.
Right. But why did he need to own all three? Dumbledore seemed to have planned the thing out quite thoroughly, and I can’t think of any direct benefit Harry gained from possessing all three at the time.
I give up on this one.
I still want an explanation of how magic (or perhaps just a high concentration of magic) can mess with a fundamental force of nature. And let’s accept that something like an iPod won’t work at Hogwarts. How about a crystal radio? An incandescent light bulb? And can we power that light bulb by a voltaic pile or a hand-powered dynamo?
Also, could Batman defeat Voldemort?
1b. the one in ownership of them all is the master of death (pg.410)
2b. lord vordemort = tom riddle.
Pulling this out of my ass, I’d say it’s devices that rely on non-visible electromagnetic radiation that go haywire around Hogwarts etc. So simple devices powered on electricity are fine (lightbulbs, etc.) but radios, TVs, cell phones, RADAR, GPS systems would all be screwed up by the magic. By that logic then iPods would work at Hogwarts.
To account for the use of radio in the Wizarding world, I’m going to further propose that these devices can be magically altered so that they do work within the wizarding world, but that requires pioneers like Arthur Weasley who are willing to mess around with Muggle technology. As such, Wizarding technology lags behind Muggle technology, because most wizards aren’t interested in TVs or the Internet, let alone working out what modifications need to be made to them to make them magically compatible.
Omi – we set up a single thread, here: Harry Potter #7: (SPOILERS APLENTY): Now that you've read it... - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
to handle questions and discussions about Harry Potter #7, to help those wanting to avoid spoilers. I’ll assume you acted in ignorance of this, rather than deliberately being provocative, by posting a spoiler about HP#7 in this thread, even with spoiler boxes. Nonetheless, you’ve destroyed the non-spoiler nature of this thread. I have therefore changed the thread title and closed the thread.