The owls are not what they seem.

[prillalar]

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.

Comments

[translucent.livejournal.com]

... 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?

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

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

Have you met any eight-year-olds?

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

*chokes*

:)

[translucent.livejournal.com]

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.