Edit: Yeah, Taure has it right. Let's just stop.

 

So you're saying that it is a question that deserves its own thread?

 

It's a question that deserves to die in nuclear fire.

 

The idea behind what Xandrel was saying, I think, is that it's magic, and the name of the spell is 'Protego.' If the point of the spell is to 'protect,' then it should be able to protect you from any attacks or other external phenomena that might cause harm, no matter what they might be, so long as it isn't specifically designed to overcome magical shields (e.g., the Killing Curse). If it is a magical shield with only several specified weaknesses, and it 'protects,' then it should be able to protect you, if cast properly, from anything short of an AK. Even other unforgivables can be blocked (either canonically or presumably) and overcome.

It is known as "the" shield charm, with few variations, implying that it is and has been useful enough, to date, to be kept in use. We are also told that it is difficult enough that most wizards can't even cast it properly.

So, if you want to have a fallible Shield Charm, don't make the Shield Charm limited - make the wizard limited. Make it a complex spell that takes years to master to the point where it is almost always a very useful form of protection. But, canonically, there's really nothing to suggest, in theory, that it couldn't protect you from anything mundane, at least.

Note also that it doesn't always completely nullify an attack, per se. Harry would use it from time to time in the books, and still be knocked off balance, or thrown a few feet, etc. The thing is, it always blocked enough of the damage for him not to be truly harmed. He could always get back up, given that the shield was cast in time.

 

I got that, it's just that in a nuclear explosion there is more worry than the kinetic blow, like the sheer heat and of course the radiation, so it seems a bit far-fetched that a simple Protego would do the job. On other hand, its variation, Protego Maxima, would be a safer bet. As safe as it could be against a nuclear explosion I guess.

 

Why would heat and radiation be any less mundane of a force than kinetic energy? Why does it seem far-fetched - is it just the fact that a nuke is the deadliest Muggle thing you know of?

Is Protego Maxima book canon? Thought there was just 'Protego Horribilis.'

 

There's Protego horriblis and Protego Totalum. Probably for Dark magic and wide expanses respectively.

 

Why was it only Durmstrang, Beauxabatons and Hogwarts that participated in the tournament. Why not any of the other schools?

 

In-universe, because they're presumably the three biggest schools of magic within a reasonable distance from each other. Probably also combined with "Because that's the way it's always been, so why change it?"

Out of universe, probably a combination of JKR not having thought up any of the other schools at that point, and it just not being necessary to have more - GoF is a pretty big book anyway, and the last thing the latter books in the series need is more filler.

 

So, wait, is there any Canon evidence of any other schools existing? Also, can't be sure but is Beauxabatons actually an all girls school?

 

Check out Pottermore, if you consider that canon, it has info on other schools if I recall correctly.

 

IN canon they mention that the TWT was originally created as a friendly competition for those three specific schools.

 

Well, JKR has mentioned them a few times...which I was sort of assuming you knew about and were taking as canon given that you asked why they didn't take part in the Tournament...I think there's a reference to another school in GoF.

It was in the films, but not in the books.

 

Other schools have canonically almost definitely existed as far back as GoF. We have African wizards and a sign saying The Salem Witches' Institute on page 76, chapter Bagman and Crouch.
Although it is Institute, not School, that sign shows that there is definitely an organisation of witches in some part of America, and if there is an organisation, we can conclude that they probably aren't made up of home-schooled or self-taught people, thus they almost definitely went to a school in America.
Ron mentions home-schooling in Hallows, but that doesn't really count as school.
Then there's Pottermore, which definitely claims other schools exist, but some people don't like Pottermore.

 

Beauxbaton is co-ed:

It's funny- when I look up this stuff I get such a shock of dissonance between what the movies suggest and what the books reveal: only a dozen students from each visiting school came for the tournament, almost all from later years.

 

I have stated it several times already and I will do so again: the movies are the worst thing that has happened to the HP fandom. I wish they were never made.

 

Nah. The movies gave us Rickman!Snape so theyre worth it.

 

Which indirectly led to Severitus. Urks.

EDIT: SNARRY. SNARRY. How the fuck does one confound those two?!