I was wondering, if the Ministry of magic, could trace specific spells that were cast, or if had something to do with the wands specifically. Also on that note how would they know if there is an attack or a use of magic in the non-magical area?

 

Basically, in HBP, JKR tells us that the Ministry doesn't really track magic, so much as look for it where it doesn't belong. But then in DH, she comes out with that Trace bs, which basically seems to be some sort of monitoring spell cast on a person/wand/whatever that 'disappears' the instant someone turns 17...so it seems to be some sort of charm in combination with a little good old fashioned scrying and a lot of FUD thrown in.

 

I personally believe that the ministry has hundreds of house-elves bound to their will spying underaged wizards with instructions to morph into a owl and drop a evil looking letter seconds after you cast a spell...

Or you could call it magic if you will...

But yea, JKR messed up on that so fell free to develop your own crazy ideas

Edit: oh, and why would they need to detect an attack? By the time Voldemort went all-out he got control of the ministry.

 

The attack was more for a fan fiction idea, but it could be for just, a wizard walking into a non-magical area, and using magic, that the muggles noticed, without modifying memories, i was wondering if it was covered if the Ministry could just track that use of magic.

 

To be honest, I always vaguely wondered about this too. They always talk about people running in to sort out a 'disturbance' but not how they found out about it in the first place. Like Arthur's branch, for instance--how do they find out about these biting tea kettles? Keep an eye posted at the local insane asylums?

 

Nope...they read the Sun.

 

This IMO.

Win idea.

 

I always imagined the Trace to be a perimeter-based charm. It detects magic done in a certain area around the wizard, and not done by said wizard's wand.

 

In DH, right after Harry an Co. get to the cafe, Ron says something about the automatic nature of the Trace and implies that it is on the person.

In any case, it would have been best had JKR not made an attempt to explain how the Ministry does it, because the two half assed attempts she did make equal nothing but nonsense.

 

Yeah. The Trace is on the person. That doesn't mean it only has to detect the magic done by said person. And I think that there isn't anything in canon that completely disproves my point.

Then again, I'm having difficulties recalling Canon and might have missed a situation where I am proved wrong.

 

Even though it's canon I dislike the Trace, and if I was writing a fanfic I would go with what DD says about magical tracking in HBP, namely that the ministry can't actually track the individual, just their known residence. This way it's possible to get around the underage magic law if you used magic in a wizarding home, an area with a high population of wizards, or just any location, say, > 2-3 miles away from your home (if you are muggleborn).

The main reason I don't like the Trace is that (IIRC) it seems pretty infallible in that there is no canon way to get around it if you are an underage wizard. This sucks if you want to write a story where you have HP getting around the underage laws and doing magic over the summer.

 

It also doesn't allow for mistakes...like Dobby doing stuff and Harry taking the blame.

Now something that has always struck me as odd...the Muggle that Harry did magic in front of was Dudley, but every other time any magice was done in front of the Dursleys it 'didn't count' so why, if the Ministry could figure out, without anyone being present, that there was a Muggle nearby, couldn't they figure out who the hell it was?

 

Bad example, they were probably trying to nail Harry on a technicality, so they wouldn't want to distinguish it further than 'Muggle present' at that time. The Dobby point could potentially be handled by claiming that Dobby imitated whatever the Trace tags as 'Harry doing magic'.

Of course, that begs the question why the little nutter didn't just repeat his stunt, and thus get Harry expelled that way. It isn't as if anyone actually checked up on what was being done. (Okay, so that would lead to Book 2 ending in the first chapter, but meh.)

The bigger question, for all the magical tracking, centers on something different. Unless it was some super-special dark magic, the taboo from DH should have allowed for the complete removal of the threat from the unforgivables. Just add 'Avada Kedavra' to whatever is handling that, if it has to be actual words, and you'll get instant tracking of all murders. Just dump a number of Aurors at the location and that would be that.

Given that magic doesn't really have to follow logic, there isn't even a reason why it would have to be linked to spoken words. It could just be linked to magic anyway.