It would be an awesome roller coaster. Does that make it allowed?

 

HAGRID: (Looks at collapsed door and shrugs) "Sorry 'bout tha'."

About the rope- you'd think even with a rope 13,000 miles long, magic would see following the rope back to the wizard as the shorter path. Now, attach a rope around your waist at one end and a rock at the other, and then Banish the rock...

On Dumbledore's watch: I've been entertaining the idea of a Dumbledore who's quite the tinkerer in techno-magic. His twelve-handed watch may operate like Molly's family clock, but tied to his half-moon glasses, where only he can tell what the dial reads and means. It could also function as an updated Time Turner that operates not unlike an Omni from Voyagers!- an old TV show about time travel troubleshooters.

Dumbledore's various devices no doubt monitor the status of all sorts of useful things- the protections on Hogwarts and the Dursleys, whether Sybill is having another fit, if Sirius has escaped Grimmauld Place, Fawkes' feeding schedule and the spending rate in the Order of the Phoenix slush fund.

He turned an existing Snitch into a nigh-impregnable lock box, invented a flame catching lighter that tracked other people based upon strong emotional ties and no doubt created four brass eggs that held a recorded message in Mermish that were probably strong enough to withstand being burned and trampled by a dragon. If anyone thinks technomancy is new to Hogwarts, the weren't paying attention.

 

The EE in Defense doesn't make sense, no. There's no substantial difference shown in canon between defense spells and charms, and there oughtn't be any difference in the way they're tested.

 

On that topic:

Is there any clear distinction between spells that fire some kind of magical projectile/flash of light that can be dodged and others that don't?

My knowledge concerning canon is pretty hazy.

 

Some seem to do that, others don't. The Imperius Curse, for example. There doesn't seem to be any way to tell beforehand, though.

 

Except, you know, the incantation.
(So you better hope they don't know silent casting.)

 

...come again? I meant there's no way to tell which spells "shoot out light" and which ones don't, without trying them. It seems to be completely arbitrary (as necessary for the plot, duh).

 

Sorry, I was referring to it from a character perspective, in that the only way possible for a spell to be indentified as visible/non-visible is from the incantation. So, therefore, one would hopefully learn spells beforehand and know which ones "shoot out light" and which ones don't.

Say if a Death Eater shot an Imperio at you. You would know (from the incantation) that the spell was not visible, so you would have to get ready to resist it. If the Death Eater then shot an Expelliarmus at you, you may be able to block or dodge it because you know it is tangible.

TL;DR: You have to know beforehand what a spell does before you can counter it.

 

I wasn't exactly talking about visibility, I'm more interested in travel time or the time it takes until it takes effect.

E.g., we know that Harry's summoning charm during the first task didn't require line of sight, so I guess that there's no delay between casting and the firebolt starting to fly towards its destination.

 

No, it's established that she's not AS good as Harry. Considering we don't know most other people's scores in that area she might still be in the top percentile.

 

Not necessarily. Defence probably require students to think on their feet and act under pressure - well, more pressure than merely exams, anyway.
E.g. While for Charms they may ask students to perform a specific spell, in Defence the proctors may throw a Grindlylow at a student and see how he/she fights it off, what kind of spells is used, etc.

 

That's not the impression I got from what we saw of Harry's exam, but to be fair we didn't see very much.

 

Why is it so impossible for people to believe Hermione isn't perfect? That's like saying that if you're good at Chemistry AND History, then clearly the only outcome is that you'll ace both tests. No Other Option.

The tests could be done exactly the same way, with no fundamental differences between the spells, and Hermione could still do better on one test than the other. You'll recall her comments about her potentially botched Runes test, in canon. Clearly she CAN confuse facts and forget things. Harry did the same thing on his charms practical, swapping one incantation for another (Augusta Longbottom failed hers, entirely).

Why is it that Hermione is thought to be completely and utterly incapable of such mistakes?

Contrary to the way JKR was turning her into a walking plot resolution device in DH (and it was even worse in the movies - leave something for the guys, would ya!), Hermione doesn't know everything; she's not good at everything; and the higher the pressure, the more likely she is to fuck up.

Boo hoo, she got the second best possible score on A test. That's not out of character for her, much less a plothole. If it soothes anyone's fevered brain, it's quite easy to imagine Hermione knew all the answers, but got flustered because of the pressure and flubbed the casting of a spell, or the robot-like recitation of some fact, and it knocked her down a grade. :facepalm

Bottom line: Harry isn't the slack-jawed moron of academia that some people take him for, and (while I like her, too) Hermione isn't perfect.

 

A small question.

What do you think is the reaction of the british Prime Minister after all the visits and the subsequent bad news from Fudge and Scrimgeour ?

I can not imagine that he can ignore the apparent incompetence behind his back any further as more and more magical problems spill over to his area of responsibility.

My personal reaction would be to register muggleborns, due to some trivial reason, be it school or healthcare system (whatever), and tempt them after their education with the aid of their parents and a well paid ministry job to join the Muggle-Ministry.

This could lead in the hands of a good author to interesting consequences for the magical society.

Any thoughts ?



Excuse my medicore english skills.

 

The thing is that the Prime Minister doesn't know what's going on in the magical world, Fudge's visits are his only source of information. So as far as he knows all of these problems are being dealt with, and he is happy not to have to deal with dragons and whatnot. I think that he would just do his very best to forget about it, and worry about problems that he can fix.

How do you think that he is going to be able to register the muggleborns. Firstly, I don't know how he would find them without the use of magic, which he can't do. Secondly, maintaining a register like that would require manpower, which would require him to tell others about magic, and as we see in the books they would just think he is crazy.

 

I don't have HBP on hand so could you remind me what exactly happens with the Junior Minister Sesc? I vaguely remember (something about an imperius?) but now I'm curious as to what it was that happened.

 

A junior minister in the government is cursed and thinks he is a duck. He is taken to St Mungo's to be treated.

Who says Voldemort had anything to do with it. I was a badly cast curse which suggests that it wasn't one of his better followers, I think that it was probably the result of some badly executed muggle hunting. Maybe some of his death eaters were out drinking, saw a muggle wandering about and decided to have some fun.

Or if it was planned then it was probably just a case of trying to fuck up the muggle world as much as possible.

 

There is something thats been bothering me a lot about Voldemorts rise, how did a clan less man with no proof of pureblood nobility manage to convince other proud purebloods into following him?

 

A mix of his Slytherin heritage and power I'd guess.