prillalar | The owls are not what they seem.

I've been thinking about owls and owl post in the HP universe. How does the owl post system work?

Are the owls themselves:

trained
enchanted
not actually real owls

I'd go for enchanted myself, because they are really quite amazing. All you have to do to send a letter is tell your owl who you want to send it to. They do the rest.

But how do they know where to go? As if that weren't extraordinary enough, consider this:

Harry could send owl post to Sirius Black when Sirius was on the run. It would reach him regardless of where he was. So, why couldn't the ministry do the same thing? And track the owl? We know that people receive post that they don't want, so it's not like the owls only deliver letters that you want.

Also, Harry was able to send Hedwig with letters to Ron and Hermione while they were in the headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix and protected by the Fidelius Charm.

How could Hedwig have known where to deliver to? Is she not under the Charm because she's not human? If so, then, again, what's to stop enemies of the order owling to see if they can trace the owls back.

I am plagued by questions.

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Here's a question: before he gets his wand, Harry (and Neville) can do unconcious magic. And wands work even when they're broken. So why can't wizards and witches do magic without a wand? Potions and charmed items will work without them... hmmm

As for the owl question, it's a tough one, Hal. The owls also travel amazing distances overnight, so I wonder if owls can teleport, too?

Here's a question: before he gets his wand, Harry (and Neville) can do unconcious magic. And wands work even when they're broken. So why can't wizards and witches do magic without a wand? Potions and charmed items will work without them... hmmm

I wonder if their training is so focused on using the wand as a focus/magnifier of power that they become so dependent on it that their non-wand-using magical skills atrophy.

I was quite wondering this myself, in point of fact. I'm re-reading the series, yet again, and in Book One Snape goes on about 'foolish-wand waving' and yet still relies on his to clean up the children's messes. You've got children getting dropped on their heads, regrowing their hair overnight, and all sorts of things with nary a wand in sight. Is a wand simply a channel for power that's already present?

Also, while on the subject of children getting *marked* by their power, has anybody come up with a plausible explaination as to why no Muggles have happened to fall through the barrier at 9 3/4 yet? I mean surely not everybody is that blind?

Are wizarding children genetically different and as such the barrier 'scans' them? Is magic genetic? If so then how do the children of Muggles become magical?

Oh dear, sorry to spam your journal, just terribly curious at this point.

You've got children getting dropped on their heads, regrowing their hair overnight, and all sorts of things with nary a wand in sight. Is a wand simply a channel for power that's already present?

That's my impression. Because think of all the Muggle kids who must evidence magic somehow, and you know they're not picking up their parents' wands or something.

, has anybody come up with a plausible explaination as to why no Muggles have happened to fall through the barrier at 9 3/4 yet? I mean surely not everybody is that blind?

I thought only magical folk could go through the barrier? That it'd be solid to Muggles.

Are wizarding children genetically different and as such the barrier 'scans' them? Is magic genetic? If so then how do the children of Muggles become magical?

I think it is genetic, and that mutation allows for Muggle children (perhaps with Squibs for ancestors down the line) to become magical. After all, Mrs. Black specifically uses the word *mutant* in her diatribe (which I took to mean Tonks, though my dad argues Remus is a mutant, that the werewolf curse modifies the genetics. I don't know about that), and it's an odd word to find in a magical setting.

I thought only magical folk could go through the barrier? That it'd be solid to Muggles.

Surely we see Hermione's parents on the far side of the barrier at some point? (No, not going to go back and check through all the books to find out...) But if so, then Muggles can pass through the barrier...

Damn, you're right.

And where do the Dursleys pick Harry up at the end of OotP, where Lupin et al are waiting?

... has anybody come up with a plausible explaination as to why no Muggles have happened to fall through the barrier at 9 3/4 yet? I mean surely not everybody is that blind?

Isn't the barrier sort of, er, a wall? No Muggles pass through it because they don't know it's there. (If Hermione's parents were spied the magical side of the banner, this is why.) Who would voluntarily run full tilt into a big solid thing?

Who would voluntarily run full tilt into a big solid thing?

Have you met any eight-year-olds?

*chokes*

I was going to add something about my four-year-old cousin running smack into a wall, but that would have ruined my non-point.

The owls are not what they seem.

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:)