Presumably all of these beasts termed 'magical' have properties that the muggles would not only not be able to explain, but also potentially seek to exploit.

Say, the flobberworm's innards have this or that quality that is attributed to magic and nothing else. Nothing as flashy as, say, unicorns or dragons, but clearly magical to those who know what to look for.

 

Well, flobberworm mucus is a potions ingredient, so we have to assume it has properties beyond those of similar substances. Still, worms are everywhere. I don't know how possible it would be to hide every single flobberworm, and that's not even counting the acquatic non-sentient animals (which wizards can't monitor as easily, but which muggles would seek out) like plimpies or the "immensely powerful" ramora. Add that to the fact that owls are apparently magical creatures, and it does seem odd that muggle scientists haven't found, quietly studied, and then published papers on some manner of magical creature.

 

There are plenty of potions ingredients that are not classified as magical, but are perfectly ordinary plants or animal parts. E.g aconite and asphodel from the first potions class, and they are used in a farm more active role than the flobber from the worms, which is only a thickening agent and nothing more. So that shouldn't be enough to classify something as magical.

 

I was going to make a new thread for this but then I saw the thread.

Do people think the Wizarding world ever thought the Cold War could impact them? Say if the Cold War went warm or hot?

 

There was once this case of a Russian wizard putting calming draught in the morning tea of a certain Soviet Air Force lieutenant colonel, after the main seer of the Russian Ministry of Magic foresaw the foolish muggles blowing up the planet...

 

Where did you get this information?

 

From my imagination?

 

From the way you wrote it, it looked like it was canon.

"There was this case..." makes it look like it actually happened.

 

Nah, pure imagination, sorry for the misunderstanding. orz

 

I'm not sure if this has been said before, but I would think that the sheer force of a nuclear explosion would be enough to penetrate the average shield charm. You have plenty of examples regarding the physical kickback one experiences even when the magical effects of a curse is repelled, and likely injuring the caster to the extent to which they're unable to sustain the shield charm.

 

There's nothing magical about a nuke or the force it generates.