The most obvious example of spells wearing off over time is the Cheering Charm.

 

Why brooms? Why not, say, flying pants?

I understand that witch = broom-rider, but is there a canon explanation for this?

We know that flying carpets exist in HP canon, so would other magically levitating load-bearing objects.

My headcanon is that the twigs on a broom increase "charm density". So they're not called brooms just because they might look like one.

This would also mean that flying in wet weather would make the broom drop, unless it has some sort of repulsion charm.

 

At first, like with many things Rowling used, it was just that witches fly on brooms. However in Quidditch through the ages she tried to answer your exact question:

As far as I'm aware that's the only canon comments on why brooms and not something else. However, that's still a bit flimsy. A simple chair or stool would have the same advantages and less of the problems early brooms had.

The only reason I can see why you would use a broom instead of something made for sitting is because it's not made for sitting. The early charmwork was quite bad. And even modern brooms can act quite erratic if they are cheap or old. You don't want to sit in a char that is as likely to catapult you off of it than behave and let you sit normally. Same thing goes for robes. You don't want to take off by accident or having to change every time you want to fly.

 

Wasn't there a consensus here that wizards could defeat muggles if they wanted to? Why haven't they taken over the world yet?

 

Why would they want to? I think what we see from wizards and witches in canon, they have no interest in muggles and they are broadly speaking not into muggle technology or innovation (although they do sometimes appropriate something from the muggle world and make it their own thing). They see anything muggle as inferior, if they're being kind then maybe quaint and charming in a useless, old-fashioned way. The wizarding world has everything it needs, so no reason to try and take over a vast mass of people and/or land that doesn't have what they like and are comfortable with.

Also, if they were to abandon the statute of secrecy and come out into the open, wizards would be called on to solve muggle problems with magic, and that would be a never-ending and no-doubt tedious project. Like getting rid of every muggle disease etc. It's a much better life for them to remain in their own, secret bubble.

 

From HBP:

Looks to me like wizards have already taken over the world. The Muggles just weren't told.

 

I mean, assuming that wizards are as powerful as we think, it's kind of like saying 'couldn't humans defeat rats if we wanted to?'. There is nothing a rat does that we do not allow. If we really, really wanted to, we could exterminate them off the face of the earth, but that would mess up the ecosystem and no strategic advantage could be gained over it. When no further strategic advantage can be gained, you've won, and going any further is pointless.
Re: Hagrid's explanation to a child: revealing our existence to rats has not obligated us to solve their problems. I really can't think of any reason they would care about the Statute with our current position that wizards could do whatever they wanted. It's just a narrative conceit so an otherwise normal, relatable boy can go to a wizard school and not see it coming.

 

There's been 3 (I think) really long threads that cover just about every argument on both sides pretty comprehensively.

 

The lizards are actually the wizards, then.

 

Do we have any information on how the format of the Quidditch League Cup works?

We know there‘s a league table, thanks to the Cannons being the perennial favourite for the bottom spot. However, I flipped through my copy of QTTA and couldn‘t find any information on playoffs or the like. To me, it would make sense to have them, as the name League Cup also implies some form of playoff format to me. Also, because wizards love drama.

The downside to that is that we know the World Cup is played during the summer every four years, so League play would have to be reorganised accordingly. That could be done through a shortened season, with play either being paused (if it‘s played by calendar year), or finishing early (if it adheres to the format of muggle sports).

 

I'd never thought of it that way, and it clears up my biggest issue with the sport. Fantastic!

 

I'm fairly sure the Chudley Cannons do win the occasional match, so their 230 points may be net total from that. It would make more sense, and prevent collusion by teams from running up their totals in tandem to dominate the league.

 

I'm thinking it must be this option actually. If they all play every other team twice, then the winning team (Tornados) got an average score per game of 31.25 points. If they only play each other once then it's 62.5 points.

That seems pretty unlikely that that was the average score of the league winner, but it would make a lot of sense if that was their average net result.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but the fact that there are forthcoming games would suggest that the season isn't complete. Given that fact, I'm not sure we can draw any conclusions on how far through the season that league table is.

 

True, I missed that. Could be early in the season.

 

Wouldn‘t at least some teams have to have a negative differential, then? Alternatively, only the differential from victories could be counted.

 

Weird question... but is there anything in canon that specifies how wizards get their food?

Since they can’t make food with magic (@Gamp’s law), and raw ingredients have to come from somewhere, logic suggests they’d have to have infrastructure to either buy it from muggles, or grow it themselves. The ministry doesn’t have a “department of agriculture”, at least not one that JK specifies, so that leads me to believe they’d have to buy it from somewhere. Yet, it also seems silly to suggest that purebloods (who are ideologically defined by anit-muggle bigotry) would consent to shop — or send their house elves to shop — on the muggle agricultural free market.

Any ideas?

EDIT: Strangely, this is the second food-related post I’ve seen on here today. Go figure.

 

Good question! Can't imagine a big supermarket anywhere in Diagon Alley, but maybe a smaller butcher's shop where they sell mutton alongside common Welsh green dragon meat. I'm almost certain that vegetable patches are mentioned in one of the earlier books when they're walking near the green houses, and I suppose it might not be just the Weasleys who keep chickens. Xenophilius talks about Luna going fishing and he also makes his special gurdyroot infusion, so maybe quite a few of them are self sufficient to some extent?