The fact is that there are many instances of people not being able to cast a solid shield charm but none of people being incapable of apparition, underage wizards not included.

One would think squeezing yourself through space and time would be more difficult than protecting against, say, a tennis ball.

 

True, but we have many examples of wizards who Floo to work every day, instead of Apparating. And the entire introduction of Portkeys being set up for the Quidditch World Cup, for people who didn't want to Apparate.

If Apparating is so easy, then why not just do that? Oh, you have kids? Why not Apparate each of them one at a time there, if it's instantaneous and there's no chance of screwing it up even if you're a terrible wizard?

I'm not saying this is guaranteed how it works, but we have evidence for both arguments.

 

AFAIK (and I'm unsure if this is canon or fanon) you need to know the location you are going to Apparate to, in order to Apparate there. Most, if not all, attending wizards would not, I assume, be regularly Apparating to a Muggle campsite.

 

Eh. True, I suppose. More or less. You could also argue that apparition is uncomfortable and carries a risk, albeit a small one. In HBP, Dumbledore tells Harry that most people vomit when apparating for the first time. You can get used to it, sure, but to do so you need to repeat the unpleasant sensation over and over.

Floo, however, is 100% safe and just as instantaneous, with none of the discomfort. The only drawback is that you can't do it from just any place, since you naturally need a fireplace. But if you have a fireplace handy - when you're at home, for example - why not take the floo to work?

I'm not even gonna count the World Cup. It's clear Rowling needed to foreshadow portkeys and introduce Cedric. Common sense throws up its arms and walks away when plot comes storming in.

 

Regarding Apparition difficulty, I'm very certain that Harry was told during HBP that many wizards don't bother learning it, or something along those lines. It may have been (a very slight suspicion here, probably completely wrong) Arthur Weasley or Remus in the Burrow during Christmas, although apart from that I have very little idea. I don't know where to get an online PDF of HBP, though if somebody does and could check that would be appreciated.

 

In DH, most employees flush themselves through the toilets into the floo network to get to the ministry Atrium. If it wasn't for the DA, half the students wouldn't know how to cast a simple 'expelliarmus' or a 'protego'.

Say's something about the competency of the staff and the educational standards, doesn't it?

 

I remember seeing that, frowning, and chalking up to a ham-fisted way of making Harry seem competent, in the same vein as the apparation away from the Horcrux cave at the end of HBP.

EDIT: It might also be said that with the name of the place and enough determination, you could get there, even side-alonging as Harry was.

 

I'm not positive about this, because Percy, Charlie, and Bill all Apparated in, if you read GoF. "So they can have a bit of a lie-in" I believe Mrs. Weasley explains why they aren't present at the Portkey.

 

Hey now, let's not go crazy. That would keep the Obliviators busy for weeks.

But in all seriousness, the rest of your post was excellent. Well thought out.

 

Thanks for the confirmation. The actual information seemingly latched into my head years ago; I just had almost no idea where it came from.

 

It's all theoretical conjencture isn't it really?

Rowling was very vague on the actual mechanics behind specific magic, transfiguartion being a particular example of this. But apparation and travel as well. With the debate about transfiguration being permanent or not, I always thought that you are going to have huge issues either way. But I do think it makes much more sense for transfigurations to be temporary - for reasons such as those cited about the Weasleys not having quality furniture. Though Harry Potter and the Methods Of Rationality does raise interesting problems with this.

One idea about apparation and why lots of people don't both with it? If NEWTs are treated as the higher level of education in the Wizarding World then I would imagine (Rowling doesn't go into it as far as I know) that plenty of people drop out (through laziness or through lack of ability) between OWLs and NEWTs. Apparation lessons (as far as I know) were given for free at Hogwarts in the sixth year. So, if people drop out and apparation is only taught in 6th year perhaps people don't do it because they never learn? You could argue the Ministry offers lessons and intructors but I'd imagine they would charge for such. If this is the case then perhaps floo powder, knight bus, or portkeys would be more viable alternatives?


As I said, all conjencture, but I would agree with Sesc's point about portkeying etc. to the world cup.



Finally, back to the original topic - that of 7th year and adult wizards. As far as canon goes I think it seems like actual ability with magic (i.e. ability with actual spells) doesn't rely greatly on theoretical understanding of the magic. Case in point is Harry preparing for GoF third task. He learnt a variety of charms even when he didn't seem to spend huge amounts of time learning theory. I think when we leave school is the specific theory we forget (e.g. specific algerbra methods for maths) not the actual skills (we can all still work with numbers to one degree or another). Thus, I don't think adults will especially forget spells (I think it's one of those things that you kind of just remember), they may become rusty but they won't forget. Actually good example being the fact that many of us can still tell you the rough part of a Harry Potter book where something or other occured. In the same way, perhaps adults will forget small elements of specific magic but will largely remember the spells they knew when they left school because they used them so often. Taure's point about the fact that they do use magic often and this means they practise magic in general seems to be fairly logical.


Overall, I think that Rowling doesn't go into details and this leads to confusion and contradiction, but some ideas such as Sesc's (some elements of this did come from J.K so, props to her) and Taure's go some way to reducing this.

 

I bet a lot of people are put off Apparating after splinching themselves (or seeing someone get splinched) badly enough. Kind of like being afraid of flying after experiencing turbulence or seeing a plane crash on the news. Did we actually see how many kids succeeded at Apparating or proceeded to take the exam? Because I could also see a lot of them saying "fuck this" after failing at it enough times because they don't want to waste their study time.

 

I'd certainly agree with you, though that doesn't rule out my point about the fact that some of the students may drop out and thus, fail to be tutored for the skill. So, we could agree that a compromise may well go a long way to explaining the fact that Mr. Weasley says that many people don't bother learning to apparate?

Though, let's face it, if canon Ron manages to do it without majorly fucking it up then it's probably a good job we didn't meet anyone who did because they would have to be scarily incompetent.

Again, I think the combination of both factors, lack of tutorlage and fear may well result in many of them simply sticking with the safer versions of travel.

Though, even when these two factors are combined I still find it hard to imagine that many of them don't really try hard to acquire, you know: teleportation (offer that to a hundred teenagers and find me one who'll say no!)

 

I would say that it is simply due to the culture they have. Just look at canon, the students we know that actually took some of the time in the seven years living in the castle to actually explore it are separated by decades and the latest ones coasted using the efforts of those right before.

I see the WW as similar to civilizations when the religous dogma was at it's highest. Unless something brings down the whole thing change happens very slowly. And war, unlike in our society, doesn't speed it either. I imagine the comparison would be somewhere on the level of decades to days.

Granted a large part of that can be atributted to the population and another to how isolationist wizarding countries are but it still reflects their culture pretty well.

 

I agree with the comparison of the WW. In fact, that has always been something I find interesting about the whole thing. They are vey isolationist and secluded from all kinds of things and as such the world itself seems to take on the approach that learning doesn't need to be directly pursued. This is of course characterised by many of the characters we see who seem to believe everything that is true about the world will appear in the Daily Prophet.

Perhaps we can consider the WW as a kind of pre-enlightenment culture, where unlike us, scientific testing doesn't exist. (An idea very well explored in Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality by Less Wrong). So, because wizards never learn to go out and test things and learn actively (it seems they largely learn from reading largely the same books and spells every year) the approach is reflected by their attitudes to the castle or to apparation: i.e. they don't actively pursue the idea since they are so used to most people not being able to do it? In other words, they just exist in the status quo because ideas of advancement really aren't prominent in the society? (The opposite is closer to the truth where the status quo is reinforced).

 

First, as a warning before you get curb stomped, The Methods of Rationality by Less Wrong doesn't tend to be viewed favorably here.

Secondly, you have to remember who our narrator was for the books. It may have felt to Harry at the time that everyone believed that what the Daily Prophet was saying was true, even though the Daily Prophet's accusations were 'ridiculous', but in reality there were politics involved and carefully composed rhetoric to shape opinion.

Really, the whole thing is no different to any society. 90% of the population are like a heard of sheep buying into the next new fad and believing whatever propaganda they're exposed to, if it is explained with competence. Only a small percent actually think for themselves. The only difference is that while in the Muggle population of the world that small percent is a fraction of 7 billion people, the British Wizarding World is made up of only a handful of witches and wizards.

Edit- Point: saying that the Wizarding World is a pre-enlightenment culture is complete BS and Harry didn't have a clue what was really going on. There is nothing that says that experimentation with magic wasn't being conducted. If there wasn't, I don't believe the Department of Mysteries would have existed.