I have a quick question, and as I don't have the first book or find the conclusive answer online, I appeal to the awesome force that is DLP.

The Flying Key enchantment for the defence of the Stone is mentioned to be the handiwork of Flitwick. Was it an assumption (I think it was Hermione) or was it confirmed by Dumbledore, or anyone in the know?

Thanks for the help.

 

I don't think it's every confirmed in the book, but it is a very safe assumption

devil's snare - sprout
charmed keys - flitwick
troll- quirrell
animated chess board - mcgonagall
potions - snape
mirror - dumbledore

 

While I agree with Lord Anarchy, I never really understood what the chess board had to do with Transfiguration anyway. I'm pretty sure animating things is taught in Transfiguration too (in sixth year or something?). I just never really saw the correlation between changing something's form to making something move. I mean, surely it would fit better under charms?

So does anyone have a reason for this, or is it just some arbitrary facet of the HP magic system?

 

The pieces themselves were transfigured. I doubt someone took the time to carve 32 lifesize pieces just for them to be destroyed by some kids

-edit- and the animating is useful for when you turn something into an animal

 

I'm pretty sure animate transfiguration has nothing to do with animation, which is a subset of charms.

 

It seems that, indeed, it was only assumed that Flitwick's the one that did the flying keys.
Excellent.

Thanks all, and this thread can be locked now...

 

I could have sworn Rowling had said that it was the weird way round, that animation came under transfiguration, and conjuration came under charms.

 

Conjuration is definitely Transfiguration. And I'm pretty sure animation is Charms, just think back to Hermione's tapdancing pineapple. That was a Charms exam wasn't it?

I think the difference between animation and McGonagall's chess pieces was that the chess pieces were somehow alive or something. Charms can animate objects and Transfiguratoin can create objects that are alive. That's what I think anyway.

 

I thought Percy said something at the end of the book about his brother beating McGonagall's chess set.

 

You are quite right:

PS, page 221

I always wondered why they bothered with this at all- just levitate a few pieces and march through.

 

That makes too much sense.

 

Yeah, lets write a story that does stupid shit like that. I think Method's of Rationality would be a good name for it.

 

Even wizards use common sense from time to time. No need to invoke LessWrong and use a false dichotomy.

 

I’ve often wondered if there is some kind of additional magic in play. Most magic in Harry Potter is fairly straight forward. You point wand and get effect. Some magic, though, is a little different. It works on more mystical principles, things like life, death, symbolism and sacrifice. The primary example would be the sacrifice magic Lily used to save Harry, which depends on a true sacrifice with subjective requirements like the chance to live. Others would be Voldemort’s resurrection potion, with its symbolic ingredients of bone of the father, flesh of a servant and blood of a foe, and the protections on 4 Privet Drive, which requires Harry to consider it home.

What if there was some kind of ‘quest’ protection on the stone and, indeed, on a number of other things like the sea cave where the Locket was hidden. This protection would make it much harder to breach the protections in any way but through the challenges.

Protecting things with challenges is well represented in mythology (both real and the wizarding world’s). I think it could be a mistake to over look it. It’s not canon but I can almost image Dumbledore stroking his beard and saying not to underestimate such challenges.

 

Or perhaps McGonagall might have remembered that as the most powerful wizard in half a century Voldemort might think to use a first year charm and take precautions against it?

Everyone on DLP take their retard pills today?

 

What about blasting the statues? (with a dark curse since it would be harder to take precautions against it)

 

Clearly not, or Quirrel would have done so.

I think we can safely assume that the chess board (as with every protection for the stone) it must have been less hassle to complete the challenges than bypass them. Or Voldemort would have done it.

 

Yeah, exactly the same way Sprout bred a devils snare that was resistant to fucking bluebell flames, right? Or Hagrid with his Cerberus that was immune against Avada Kedavra. :facepalm

If you want to use the "it would have been a pushover for Quirrelmort" argument you can discard all tasks, with the exeption of the mirror.

 

Voldemort probably could have blasted through it, but then that would leave any possible pursuers a clear, quicker path at getting to him. In a sense, by going past the defenses properly, that also means everyone else has to as well, giving him more time to get the stone out of the mirror. Not to mention, being a teacher, he already knew what all the defenses were.

Something as simple as levitating though, especially a bunch of huge, heavy stone statues, is retarded. That's like just summoning the golden egg in the first task. Magic isn't always the solution. Whose to say that tampering with the defense wouldn't make all the statues attack or something? Tampering with them surely means the person doing so intends to steal the stone.

 

The Devils Snare would have been a pretty good defence against a solitary intruder. IIRC, Ron and Harry were snared before they even realised it; obviously, Quirrelmort knew it was there, so could take appropriate measures before he even dropped through the trapdoor.