I was wondering how to weave this into a story, which is a bit of a mugglewank, in which drugs and other unsavory muggle products can solve all of the wizarding problems. I kinda want to make a crack series of oneshots, but that's just getting ahead of myself.

 

I’m not exactly sure how a synthetic opioid would solve any of their problems. Like, it’s a bit of a funny turn of phrase I suppose, but it isn’t much beyond that.

 

I was thinking about LSD to cure Neville's parents, etc.

 

I'm not going to write it for you, but you can start with the idea you wrote here -- who tries to use LSD? Where do they get it from? What are the amusing and unexpected repercussions? The unintended fallout? Start from there.

 

How easy is lipstick to remove from fabrics? Is it feasible for a group of girls who write their names in lipstick onto an inside corner of a tent to find these names years down the line? If not I’ll have to use a different method of achieving immortality.

 

The few times I had to deal with lipstick on clothes and the like it took a bit more work then a simple wash. But it is certainly possible to get most of it - if not all of it - out of the fabric. So if someone actively tried to clean the tent it would be illegible or gone entirety.

But if the tent was just packed away for five years, it should still be there. Most lipstick is wax based and has antioxidants to keep the colour vibrant. And while lipstick does expire, if the tent is in a cool dark place, like a attic or a basement, it should still readable.

But that's mostly what I learned by osmosis over the years. So perhaps someone with some actual hands on experience has a different take.

 

What operating system was used in various offices in 2004? I'm specifically asking about Los Angeles area.

While I'm aware that Windows XP came out in 2001, it is still used by some offices even in 2020, so in 2004 I guess Windows 95/98 would be still used in lots of places?

 

Depends on the business, I'd say.

Places which use significant amount of home-rolled automation, without actually being tech-companies tend to stick to ancient OSs long after their lifecycle has ended. I wouldn't be surprised if a bank was on a mix of 98 and 95 (older machines, or machines which are critical to some long-standing operation could quite easily be left on an out-of-support version like 95). It's possible that a few would have been updated to XP too, as the compatibility between XP/98/95 was generally better than Vista/XP and so might not have posed an issue to their little home-made (by some guy who left the company years ago) apps.

More tech savvy companies would mostly be on XP, with perhaps a few older legacy machines for running tests etc.

 

Thanks! One of the places in the setting is a Computing Company, so I'm guessing since they specialize in the stuff they'd have XP.

Other few places are either home or hospital computers so it would be believable if they had 95/98.

 

While for the most part private companies are faster to adapt new technology than public operations, the it company where I did an internship still had a lot of older stuff. A lot of programs work better on outdated systems, because that's the ones they were originally build on and updates for the more specialised stuff are often slow in coming.
At least that's what they told me.
Laboratories are even worse, some of the equipment in our part of the university only works in tandem with truly ancient software and hardware. Our it support has an impressive collection old hardware to cannibalise in order to keep the critical stuff going xD.

 

Then there's the more business-oriented line of Windows NT and Windows 2000. Those would be more suitable for a bank or hospital than 95/98, which were more consumer-oriented. XP unified the lines to single product.

Edit: and in case of banks and other institutional users, some of them still use some truly ancient mainframe systems, because that's the only thing that really works reliably. Of course you'd still use Windows (or Unix or Linux) PC to connect to them.

 

Any org with a primarily Windows Directory system at the time would have been pressing for Windows 2000 clients, as Win95/98 weren't securable, and WinNT 4.0 boxes were less user-friendly. Windows XP wasn't considered business-stable until 2003, and most orgs were slow to adjust their deployments after all the year-2000 anxiety had forced spending on upgrades. At the time Windows AD was gaining traction against the dominance of Netware (and for premium orgs, Lotus Domino) for client management and email.

EDIT: also depends on the industry as far as business control; AS400 was still widely deployed in manufacturing environments, using hard terminals.

 

For hospitals its very believable, in fact 98 may easily have been the new thing just being rolled out around that time.

I know of hospitals that still have machines on 95 and 98, because they're using scanners and lab equipment so old that it can't talk to anymore more modern than 95 or 98.

And in hospitals IT has historically been close to the bottom of financial priorities. They'd rather get a new nurse than upgrade the computers, for obvious reasons.

 

Could Voldemort have used the Fidelius to hide his horcruxes? Would the charm propagate across the pieces of his soul? Or would they count as separate things (assuming the Fidelius' secret-keeper is body+soul)?

Assume he was a secret-keeper. Now he makes a horcrux. Is the charm still active? Or has it been nullified?

If a secret-keeper dies and becomes a ghost, is he still the secret-keeper?

 

I'm sure he would have thought about it, but I like to think that he wouldn't ever be able to cast the charm because of how much trust it requires by its very nature. Similar to how I doubt he has ever been able to cast the patronus charm.

Also, I know it's canon that you can be your own secret keeper (see Bill), but man I don't like that.

 

Yeah. Perhaps there's an anti-Fidelius charm. Or perhaps a "it's my property!" charm that prevents just anyone from claiming your house under Fidelius.

Dumbledore put Grimmauld Place under Fidelius after its rightful owner (Sirius) returned.

James and Lily were under Fidelius. I think if the Fidelius was actually enforceable anywhere, Hermione would have mastered it. But maybe that is not how it works. You couldn't put Fidelius on a temporary campsite. You'd need to intentionally make it a permanent place of residence that you own (or have permission for from the owner).

So maybe we do have a commonly used "it's my lawn!" charm in the HP universe.

 

Yeah, it's kind of silly. There's no reason to make someone else the secret keeper if you can live under it.

However:

1 - Bill's a curse-breaker. If anyone could have made the fidelius charm do something silly (other than Dumbledore), I'd be tempted to say he could.

2 - If the secret keeper dies, then everyone who had the secret becomes a secret keeper. So maybe Bill just made a cancer patient the secret keeper, then killed them quickly, handily getting around the problem.

I'd be willing to accept either way, TBH. Either they remain the secret keeper, or everyone who knew it becomes a secret keeper, but including the ghost.

 

My headcanon always was the secret keeper could not remain in the fidelius too long because the charm would break, simple yet effective solution that stops it being too strong and allows for flaws.

 

Worth noting that despite Bill supposdely being the Secret Keeper in Deathly Hallows, Ron was still able to tell others the location and Dobby was able to follow the instruction to bring them there.

This suggests that either the Fidelius with Bill as secret keeper didn't actally work, or that they lied about it being Bill, and Ron was actually the secret keeper.

 

I like the idea of them redoing the whole Sirius/Wormtail feint, but I believe the Fidelius was only cast after the Malfoy manor episode. It's only once Ron is discovered to be with Harry that the Weasleys go into hiding.