I'd say that you have to see person clearly to cast it successfully, as in be aware of their appearances, make out who they are, because of that you need to mean unforgivables.

Because of that, because you want to remain unseen, and because of the fact that you can still miss with it - in which case it won't do nothing even if you hit another wizard, it just isn't good practice to try it in any longer distance. It's prison forever if you do something wrong.

Now there's that curious case where Lucius imperiused Sturgis even though he was under the Invisibility cloak, but I'd say he either saw some movement, or was convinced that somebody was there. It's not covered by canon but I always work with idea that wand responds to the casters' reality.

Besides, if we are to introduce sniper imperio specialists, that'll just encourage lazy writing. That's why everything about imperio is a bit eh, because if you make it OP it solves literaly anything.

Yaxley said to Voldemort that imperiusing Pius was hard, for instance.

Either way, canon says nothing about the distance, but I'd say farther the target, more probable it will fail, one way or another so it's not done.

 

So I was wondering since we don't have any evidence supporting or denying animagus being able to turn into magical animals like therstals. If an animagus turned into a phoenix died and was reborn then turned back human what would happen to them. Also, does the age of the wizard affect the relative age of the animal?

 

Personally I'd think the animal form would mimic how old the human is, but in the context of the animal. Otherwise you'd run into the problem of folk shapeshifting into corpses. So if McGonagall looks like older middle age, her cat form would likely reflect that and look like a 9 or 10 year old cat probably.

Since there's no canon answer, you could write that either way in a fic. If a wizard turns into a magical create do they have the powers of that creature or not. You could also wonder about physical abilities, like a phoenix's tears or a dragon's fire, would the wizard gain those.

 

I was wondering what would happen if you cast a fidelius charm on a single room following which you cast the it on the whole house. Can you even have a fidelius charm within a fidelius charm. If you can what would happen if someone only knew the secret to the room and not to the whole house. Also how fast do spells move

 

I think the mechanics of the fidelius charm, short of a few hard rules established in canon are really up to the thinker. As to the second, given that the firebolt can accelerate to 150 mph in 6 seconds and other brooms, though slower and less capable than the firebolt, aren't many orders of magnitude slower, I would say that spells move at significantly more than 150 mph (likely much more than 200 imo). During the escape from the Dursleys in DH, people fought on brooms in chases where spells like the stunning charm still posed significant threats to people on brooms or transportation traveling as fast or faster than people on brooms.

 

When it comes to the Fidelius, I tend to take a fairly restrictive approach - we only ever see it cast on homes, so until proven otherwise that's the only thing it can be cast on.

This is somewhat at odds with how I generally view HP magic (i.e. very flexible) but I feel like it's the only way to avoid the existence of the spell creating plot holes (both in canon and any given fanfic you want to tell). It's just too powerful for the spell to be able to remove any information you like from the universe, so I prefer to make it specifically about the family home.

 

Exactly this. There are too many occasions where it would have been too useful for it not to have been used, if it could be used in a broader fashion than is seen in the books.

 

Note that this might be worthy of a new thread, but whatever:

What, precisely, is the point of the International Confederation of Wizards? It's presumably a U.N. analogue, but do we know of anything that they do? The British ministry was able to recall Dumbledore as a warlock, just like how member states can presumably recall ambassadors.

I would presume that their main focus is upholding the Statute of Secrecy, but do we know anything from JKR interviews or Pottermore stuff?

If you continue that analogy to the U.N., they'd be able to, for instance, send out humanitarian aid in crisis (dragons escape an enclosure, dementors manage to breed outside the british isles, a nundu has an abnormally large pride?), impose sanctions on member wizards (economic, military, or otherwise. Quidditch sanctions? Wand wood sanctions? Sanctions on magical animal ingredients or magical plants? Hit-wizard numbers?) protect human rights, and maintain international peace.

Would the British ministry have been able to petition aid for the Lord Voldemort issue (or did they try, but their most powerful sorcerers kept winding up dead), for instance?

 

She said on twitter that its supposed to be the equivalent of the UN. But from various little facts it seems like they have more power and influence than the UN.

Supposedly one British Minister for Magic stepped down after the Confederation censured him for his anti-muggle sentiments, and one president of MACUSA was summoned in front of them for an inquiry. And from the Fantastic Beasts book (the old one, not related to the film), we know that they've set up a permanent task force in Tibet to deal with the frequent yeti sightings, so there's a suggestion that if they're dissatisfied with the actions of a local government they can step in and take over, at least as far as the Statute of Secrecy is concerned.

Personally I'd go with the idea that they are focused on the Statute of Secrecy, and don't get involved in anything that is unrelated to that. But, being an international political body, they stretch the definition of involvement whenever it suits them in order to be able to nose in on anything that they want to have a say on.

I'd also say they probably have a higher level of basic popularity amongst wizards and witches than the UN does with regular folk, because they have a clear and definable goal of keeping magic hidden, and there are likely periodic examples of them actively doing that which help to drive home their importance in everyone's minds.

 

They also seem to be capable of regulating Trade, as Percy mentioned that the British Department for International Magical Coorperation was trying to get a international law passed standarizing cauldron thickness.

 

How would corruption in a Voldemort led world work?

If Voldemort won, what reforms/changes would he make, outside the obvious muggle stuff.

Would he work to better society as a whole?

What do you guys think Voldemort would do, if he not only conquered magical Britain, but the entirety of the magical world?

Would he be a benevolent dictator or a tyrrant?

He has never struck me as someone who is infulenced by carnal or banal desires.

So what would he do with all that power?

What's next after you become a god?

 

I honestly think he doesn't really care what would happen to the world. Any world that he controls would be basically controlled by the Death Eaters with his permission in the form of a wave of the hand while he goes off to research magic. The Death Eaters would probably reduce the numbers of the muggles gradually so as not to raise an alarm by coming up with something they can blame on aliens or natural phenomena or muggles doing it to themselves. Eventually, there would be no muggles, and that would solve the problem of what to do with muggle-born children, if it really is the case they turn into obscurials. While they're doing this, they're consolidating their power past what the average person would think is necessary by diluting magical education and implementing laws about carrying wands. They tell themselves that even though they didn't want to do this, because they're in love with wizards and magic, it will only be temporary or something of that nature. That, or many of them are dishonest about their ideals and motivations.

 

Pretty much what happened after he took over the Ministry, but larger in scale...

Magic is might sums it up.

initial support of dark creatures that supported him and oppression of other creatures, but eventually measures to bring those to heel would be implemented as well. The Wizarding World should be ruled for and by Wizarding People not halfbreeds and creatures.

After the initial and obvious muggle stuff, more insane (old fashioned) muggle stuff like making muggle bating lawful, maybe after a while doing the same for hunting.

Desensitizing the population to dark magics.

Nope. Canon Voldemort is not really about bettering society, but about becoming an immortal ruler.

Larger scale of what I've already said.

Tyrant. Complete tyrant.
We can't really expect benevolence from canon Voldy, who crucioed his own followers (Pettigrew and Avery just from the top of my head).

Indeed, Cursed Child be damned, I don't think many of us ever saw LV as a sexual being (weird smut and slash writers aside).

Secure his own immortality.
Veer deeper and deeper into darker magics, because he can (and in his mind, he's the only one who can), teaching only drops of what he learns to only his most loyal devotees.
Procure conflicts to keep his masses appeased and keep any dissidents in check.

For Voldy? Destruction of his enemies and further distancing from humanity.

For me? I'd be a pretty chill and hands off god. If we're talking god as in peak magic power and immortality, I'd study human transfiguration to hell and back, I'd live many different lives, de-age myself and study in all of the 11 schools of magic, then seek out any weird recluse hermits that could teach me on apprenticeships.
I'd live as a muggle for a few years, to check how it is, then play the roles of muggleborn, halfblood, pureblood heir.
I'd probably get involved a lot in my first few centuries, then focus on weird personal studies pushing areas of magic I'm interested in then I'd probably become a weird hermit myself, doing whatever the heck I wanted and maybe mentoring the newer generations.

Basically, I'd be a less hermity Nicholas Flamel instead of a Voldemort.

 

Was how long Polyjuice lasts ever explicitly stated? I've got one hour in my head, but nothing on the wiki says it.

 

The closest confirmation of one hour is this quote: But I think, in the excitement of tonight, our fake Moody might have forgotten to take it as frequently as he should have done... on the hour... every hour.... We shall see. - Dumbledore at the end of GoF

If we compare it to events using polyjuice we see on the screen time (Slytherin common room infiltration, ministry infiltration, seven Potters), we can say all those lasted about so before the potion wore off. Perhaps hour or so is standard and it deviates +- depending of how competently it was brewed.

 

According to the article Rowling wrote about the potion on Pottermore, it lasts between 10 minuted and twelve hours depending on the skill of the brewer.

 

From someone who is more learned in the supplemental canon materials:

It's common in fanfic that not everyone could be an animagus. Is that true? I know some about the complex processes involved like holding the mandrake leaf in your mouth for a month, then some complex herbology and potions. Is the barrier an innate ability or the difficulty in the procedure? I would imagine that you'd have to be skilled beyond the pale in transfiguration already. I can imagine that I likely wouldn't go through the process for something that more likely than not would give you a shit animal. Until, maybe, I was an adult that has learned what I needed already and it would just be a little side project.

It just seems a nifty enough ability that many people would go for it, I just don't know if it's a binary yes/no thing with respect to transfiguration talent to go with the discipline to follow through with the whole process, or an innate ability.

 

The only innate requirement noted in the process to become an animagus is to have talent in both potions and transfiguration.

The method itself seems tedious, rather than difficult though.

 

I mean, there's a law saying they have to register as Animagi, which kind of takes the fun out of it. It seems like you have to study pretty hard to become one, and if most adults can't cast a shield charm, I would imagine it's because magic has indirectly made their lives so easy that studying how to cast spells and brew potions on their own is pointless. It makes sense for each of the people we're shown; McGonagall is highly adept at Transfiguration so this sort of thing would be easy for her and the Marauders are pranksters who don't care about rules, but do care about Lupin, so it makes sense that they would go through with it as long as no one found out.

 

Does priori incantatem only happen when two brother wands cross?

If not, then why was it not used in Sirius Black's defense? It would have shown that he did not cast the blasting charm that got him imprisoned.

Another question, can you imperius someone to remember a memory(sort of like hypnosis) and then use that memory to create a pensive?

If its possible, that could have been used to indict a lot Death Eaters. Or does that amount to legal entrapment?