What irks me the most in such stories is that Harry and his merry band of technology-loving friends always seem to suck the magic right out of Hogwarts, touting it as dragging wizards into the modern era, ostensibly for their own good.

I can't stand that. There's a reason why I love the Harry Potter books, and it's not because the protagonist is an accomplished electrician with the ability to install lifts in an old castle. Where's the magic in that? Give me musty tomes, old parchment, and eerie (unlit) hallways any day of the week over that crap.

 

Or they channel their frustration of this world into "fixing" fictional worlds. I expect it may be quite the therapeutic process.

 

Yeah I agree hands down. Being magical is what makes it interesting. If I come across another magic powered laptop I'm going to punch someone in the face.

That attitude is also why, though I love Hermione over all, I hate her attitude towards House Elves. Just like the wizarding world, they are simply different. They actually enjoy working, and what's wrong with that?

Granted, many fics do support that idea and explain that they shouldn't all be set free. But I still see far too many that push the idea of freedom as a good thing for the elves. Granted I've never read a fic where that actually happens.

 

From what I saw from a quick look through the Wikipedia, and correct me if I'm wrong, parchment does not seem to be inherently inferior to paper in any way other than the difficulty to mass produce, in fact it seems to be generaly more resilient. Since the wizard world doesn't have a large population the mass production isn't much of a issue and they could very much produce it magically through transfiguration.

 

It is more resilient. But what it's made from (animal skin I believe) is obviously much more difficult to produce. True you could transfigure it, but I feel like they don't do that, because then stores wouldn't make too much money off it. How hard can it be to do that type of transfiguration? Then again, maybe they DON'T make that much money off it.

I'm sure there are other advantages to paper as well, however it's likely that quills would work better on parchment.

EDIT: Your points are quite valid though.

 

If you are writing with ink, it is generally better to write on somewhat thick paper because the ink may seep through and isn't parchment thicker than paper? It is why I stopped writing with fountain pens, it was such a mess.

 

Yes, and I share your experience with fountain pens, it's part of the reason I suggested it may be easier to use parchment than paper with quills. That and I think it'd be easy to rip such thin paper.

 

Whenever I see one of these anti-magical solutions, I try and come up with a reason why the magical way is better.

A peek into the world of stationery supplies:

Parchment sold in our store is typically made from the skins of magical creatures. Once a good parch is made, we keep the original in our vault and make duplicates from it to fill your needs. So long as the original is kept safe, your stock should remain enduring and ink-ready, resistant to aging, fire, molds, incidental spellwork and several classes of ink-corrupting spells that were known for causing chaos in the early days of muggle automated printing. That's the sort of quality that the world has come to expect from a name like Scribbulus.

 

On the other hand we have Voldemort writing a diary on a book bought from muggle shop.

Parchment is there simply because it's more "magical", not because there is any good reason for it. Like using owls for post: you could just as easily have house elfs popping around delivering mail, or send mail via portkey, or create some kind of mail delivering floo system or...

The world of Harry Potter follows the Rule of Cool, not any kind of logic.

edit: and the Rule of Cool is a very good rule; there has to be a damn good reason if you wish to break it.

 

Also the first 3 books lack a lot of the later magical-ness. I don't blame JKR for it, but a lot of the time in the early books it almost seems like everyone forgets they have magic.

Book 4 and onwards introduced a lot of new ideas (the three forms of quick wizarding travel for one) that fix the issues.

The ministry using "ministry cars" to securely transport Harry in book 3 is kind of hilarious once the idea of apparition is invented. I'm not sure if there are fireplaces on the platform (though that would be really helpful), but surely the easiest way to get Harry to the train safely is to side-along him.

 

They would have needed a form of transportation to transport a group since the Harry was with the Weasleys. I don't think that Arthur and Molly could apparate 7 of the kids, plus luggage and pets. Flooing maybe a possibility but I don't think you could floo with luggage. Hence, the need for cars.

 

I think they could of (edit: go side-along one at a time?). But that doesn't matter, it was all about Harry's safety. The ministry didn't give two fucks about the Weasley's. I'm pretty sure that it's actually written in the book, something along the lines of the escort being for Harry.

It's simply the fact that apparition didn't exist yet. I don't blame JKR for it, if she could rewrite the books using the world she ended up creating by the end they'd be verrrry different.

 

But Harry was with the Weasleys. The ministry was trying to act nonchalant about the whole thing so they couldn't just offer transportation specifically for Harry and leave the Weasleys dry. Offering Arthur the cars insured that Harry would be safe because he was accompanying the Weasleys.

 

Yeah, but are you really trying to tell me they'd go for subtlety over security if apparition was a thing? Be real, they put an entire army of Dementors at Hogwarts to protect him. I don't see why Arthur wouldn't just side-along him (or another official) and then have the rest come normally (or go back and side-along the others).

 

They would go for it when it included subtlety and security. You saw the minister in the pub, he falling over trying to make sure that Harry doesn't know why Sirius escaped.

 

Perhaps, but it doesn't change the fact that apparition didn't exist when the book was written (nor did floo or portkey). Portkey would have been perfect actually, could take the lot, and I'm sure they would believe that Harry would believe it was just convenience.

 

Didn't Floo get introduced in CoS?

 

I would think portkeying into such a crowded place like platform 9 3/4 would be more of a safety issue. You would have 9 people (again with luggage and pets) falling on children. There is simply no place for that. Even if you were thinking about porkeying somewhere near Kings Cross, where would it be big enough? An alleyway doesn't really sound big enough either.

 

Ah yes, my mistake. The other two though I am quite sure were introduced in the 4th. Though I'm actually unsure if apparition was introduced formally. The only occurrence I can remember of it is the death eater's summons to Voldemort. I don't think it was described as them apparating in. There may have been some mention though...

 

But can you take a giant trunk with you, is there any place in the fireplace for that?