Imperius can be beaten. Harry did it in his 4th year.

 

What do people think are the great unanswered questions of the HP fandom?

A few of my own:

Magic
What makes magic difficult?
What factors contribute towards the success/power of a piece of magic, and how are those factors balanced?
What makes wizards like Dumbledore and Voldemort so much better at magic?
What magical abilities do goblins, house-elves, centaurs, etc. have?
What are the 5 exceptions to Gamp's law?
What other hard limits are there on magic, other than the exceptions to Gamp's law?
Are successfully transfigured items permanent unless untransfigured?
How do wide area spells like the Trace and the Taboo work? How are they cast?
How are new spells created?
What role does arithmancy play in cursebreaking?
Can secrecy spells work through technology? E.g. if you put a camera next to Hogwarts with a live feed to a remote location, would the anti-Muggle spells affect the person at the remote location?
Are there any physical forces that could overcome a shield charm, or can only magic overcome magic?

Story
How many Aurors would it take to out-duel Voldemort?
Did the Aurors ever have any realistic chance of capturing/killing Voldemort?
What was stopping Voldemort from just walking into the Ministry and taking over?
Why did the first war take so long compared to the second?
What did James and Lily do for a living?
How much money does Harry have?
How much money did the Blacks have?
How much money do the Malfoys have?
In addition to making horcruxes, did Voldemort undergo any other magical transformations?

World
What is the population of magical Britain?
What is the worldwide magical population?
Is there any significant variation in the number of magical people, relative to Muggles, between countries?
How many wizards like Voldemort and Dumbledore are there in the world?
Do other countries practice magic that is significantly different to the type of magic taught at Hogwarts?
Are there magical farms?

Politics
What is the exact relationship between the Muggle and magical governments? Is the magical government technically part of the Muggle government?
How is the Minister for Magic chosen in Britain?
What limits are there on the Minister's power?
What powers does the Wizengamot have?
What is Britain's position in the international magical community?
What is the ICW's exact role and powers?

Education
Are there any institutes of tertiary magical education in the world?
What do Aurors and healers learn post-Hogwarts? Do they learn a lot of new magic, or is it more learning to apply magic from Hogwarts?
Where are the 11 magical schools worldwide and what are they called? What are their student populations?
What about countries without a magical school?
What forms of magical education are there, other than formal schooling? How many people are formally schooled compared to those in other forms of education?

History
Did imperial colonialism occur in the magical world concurrent with the Muggle world?
How is international magical travel managed?
Has there ever been a war between magical states? How does that affect the corresponding Muggle states?
When a Muggle state divides, or conquers another Muggle state, what happens to the corresponding magical states?
What relation, if any, was there between Grindelwald and the Nazis?
When exactly was Hogwarts founded?
When was apparition discovered/invented?
When was obliviation discovered/invented?
When did magical people discover the new world?

Economy
What is the GDP of magical Britain?
What is the average wage in magical Britain?
What are the average monthly costs for a magical household?
Are galleons made of actual gold?
How is the Ministry funded? Do wizards pay taxes?
How is the exchange of Muggle and magical currency controlled?
Does the wizarding world have a financial system? (E.g. double entry book keeping, interest on bank deposits, deposits leveraged for loans, the use of financial instruments like bonds.)
How big is the private sector relative to the public sector in wizarding Britain?

 

How about what is Gamp's Law?

Edit: Taure's is probably a topic that deserves it's own thread.
Edit #2: "Who has the bigger magical core: Dumbledore or Voldemort?" (kidding)

 

At a guess:

The exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration are things you can't create from nothing with magic, so it seems logical that the law is about what you can create with magic. So I'd say the law amounts to something like "magic can create any substance". The law likely has a more complex statement, perhaps being more specific about composition (maybe "magic can create any substance and any combination of substances"), but I think, from the exceptions, that is the main force of it.

 

At least we have one answer (of dubious canonicity).

Radford, Mnemone Spells. Ministry of Magic (1562 - 1649)

Mnemone was the first Ministry of Magic Obliviator due to her creation of Memory Modifying Charms.

Radford was J.K. Rowling's Wizard of the Month for February 2007

The timing is appropriate- it's only with the possibility of memory modification that the Statutes of Secrecy [1692] even become plausible.

 

If that is Gamp's Law, which I agree is a reasonable inference from canon evidence, then one could imagine more than 5 exceptions:

1) Food (from canon)
2) Money (extended canon, i.e., JKR's comments, the exception being Flamel's stone)
3) Humans (canon: Dumbledore did not conjure a replacement Ariana, but rather sought Cadmus's stone)
4) Fissile material (canon: no Muggleborn terrorist has yet started WWIII)
5) Smallpox
6) Black holes
...

 

Actually, Pers. I'd argue that magic can create radiation, because light is a form of radiation and magic can clearly affect it (Lumos, Nox, Peruvian Powder of Instant Darkness).

Hah, dirty bomb spell.

 

An escape from the "only 5 exceptions" problem is that some of those things are magically possible, it's just that the specific spells have not yet been discovered, or they are so difficult that no wizard is capable of casting them (or both). I'd especially say this of humans, because we know that individual human parts can be created.

Another escape is to make the 5 things abstract enough that they cover a variety of possibilities.

Philosopher's Stone, as alchemy, is presumably not covered by a law of transfiguration.

I've changed my opinion of the five several times before, but my current "abstract five" would be:

1. Nutrition
2. Wealth
3. Souls
4. Creativity
5. Enchantments

 

Worldbuilding questions are fine and all, but it seems to me that if we had the answers to them, a lot of writers wouldn't have a reason to make up their own anymore.

I propose that we start with the basics. Where the fuck does magic come from, if it even comes from somewhere instead of just... being there, I guess.

 

Something created magic, obviously, otherwise exceptions to its rules wouldn't map so neatly onto abstract, human-generated concepts.

 

Unless humans are the centre of the universe.

Or unless human created concepts are in fact universal concepts.

Or unless magic is universal but its behaviour not. Magic could be mutable, bending itself to fit sentient minds.

Or unless magic spontaneously appeared in humans.

Edit: not to mention that any being capable of creating magic would itself have to have magical powers surpassing the magic they created, in which case you've just passed the buck.

 

Humans and their consciousness are part of a world that includes magic. You're acting as though the way humans think, feel, and perceive are entirely separate from the universe, but they aren't. There's no real reason why the way humans understand their environment shouldn't be influenced by it (and able to influence it in turn), just as the physical parts they have (arms, legs, etc.) were formed and developed in response to it (and are able to influence it in turn).

Language and technology were developed by a brain developed by nature, so it stands to reason that wands and spells crafted by human beings are a legitimate way of accessing magic, just as thought and other forms of wandless magic are. Yes they use materials produced by magical creatures, but they do so in ways beyond that creature. And the spells created are possible across disparate materials like phoenix feathers, unicorn tail hairs, and dragon heart strings.

EDIT: There's also no reason that magic, as a force beyond or superior to natural law, couldn't be accessible in different ways by different types of consciousness (centaurs as opposed to humans, or goblins, or House Elves, etc.)

EDIT #2: partially ninja'd by Taure.

EDIT #3: Because I CBA to re-write this all over again:

And, as to why so many different language groups are used:

 

Given that we are shown proof that souls and afterlife exists in the Potterverse, then probably God created magic.

I like that explanation, because it cannot be countered with wow!science.

And this is Mr. Atheist speaking here.

 

Answering the questions would require their own threads, but merely generating a list of good questions is perhaps something we can do here. Though probably could fill its own thread too.

 

Three posts with possible answers to my poorly worded question feature T3t using English in an elegant way I probably won't ever be able to emulate myself, Taure being Taure and afrojack being generally smart.

There are days (usually it's every other day) when I think I should direct allegedly wise people I don't like to DLP just to bring them down to my level by making them feel stupid.

Back on topic. Money.

I think a good start would be listing all instances of actual numbers being used in the books, prices of goods and services, the Tri-Wizard prize, Weasleys' lottery winnings, etcetera. We could work from there and see if all that stuff even makes sense put next to each other.

edit:

God is just an alien from the previous galactic cycle who had ascended to a higher plane of existence. Everyone knows that.

edit2: Where God lives, everything is made of tachyons.

 

Neat.

Does that make the Law Enforcement subdepartment hilariously overfunded, or Misuse of Muggle Artefacts underfunded, or both?

 

Btw, I don't have it in me to now check PS, but was it stated how much Harry paid for all his first-year school supplies? Books, wand, potions stuff, all that.

 

I've always wondered if the Hit-Wizards are the Ministry's army.

The Aurors are generalists, it seems: they find the enemy, track them, gather intelligence, and can capture them. They also protect VIPs. The Hit Wizards, by contrast, seem to be combat specialists, from what Fudge says in PoA.

To make the Muggle comparison:

Aurors: Spies/Special Forces/Secret Service
Hit-Wizards: SWAT/Soldiers

I generally don't like the "magical police" interpretation of Aurors. Do we ever see them working on mundane crimes? They seem to specialise on serious threats - dark wizards. Regular crime seems to be handled by specialised civil servants like Arthur Weasley.