Little Questions Answered v14

[gertiekeddle]

Version 13.


The thread for all the quick questions coming to our minds. Happy posting!

[Mad_Druid]

Does anybody know if a portrait has to have been of an actual person for it to be able to move and interact with people?

[Dedalus Diggle]

Originally Posted by Mad_Druid

Does anybody know if a portrait has to have been of an actual person for it to be able to move and interact with people?

Well, that's the only kind we have seen.

[Mundungus Fletc]

Originally Posted by Dedalus Diggle

Well, that's the only kind we have seen.

Do we actually know whether all the pictures are of genuine people - was Sir Cadogan or the fat lady an actual person for example. It makes sense that they should be because the portraits are a sort of 'echo' of the person but I don't think it's canon.

[meesha1971]

Originally Posted by leah49

This reminds me of purchasing a plane ticket. You don't (usually) buy a ticket for the plane to take off whenever you want. You buy a ticket for a specific time and if you're not there the plane will still leave (I'm talking about commercial flights like Delta, US Air...). I think it could work that the person needing the portkey pays money to the Ministry and they set up the portkey to leave at a certain time. If ten people need to travel from one side of England to the other by next Monday, the Ministry will set up a portkey to leave on a certain date at a certain time and these ten people will meet up and leave together.


This kind of portkey would be more expensive and, in my opinion, be the equivalent of a private jet that would wait til you arrived to leave. If you don't come, the jet doesn't go anywhere.

That's a pretty good analogy. However, I don't think they actually had to pay for a portkey the way we muggles would pay for plane tickets or using a private plane. As we see in OOTP and DH, they can make their own portkeys. But, other than that, it's a pretty good analogy.

I think the Portkey set for a prearranged time would be more common - particularly for groups of people using them to travel.

Originally Posted by Mundungus Fletc

Do we actually know whether all the pictures are of genuine people - was Sir Cadogan or the fat lady an actual person for example. It makes sense that they should be because the portraits are a sort of 'echo' of the person but I don't think it's canon.

According to Jo, all the portraits at Hogwarts are of dead people. She talked about this at the Edinburgh Book Festival.

Edinburgh Book Festival All the paintings we have seen at Hogwarts are of dead people. They seem to be living through their portraits. How is this so? If there was a painting of Harry’s parents, would he be able to obtain advice from them? That is a very good question. They are all of dead people; they are not as fully realised as ghosts, as you have probably noticed. The place where you see them really talk is in Dumbledore’s office, primarily; the idea is that the previous headmasters and headmistresses leave behind a faint imprint of themselves. They leave their aura, almost, in the office and they can give some counsel to the present occupant, but it is not like being a ghost. They repeat catchphrases, almost. The portrait of Sirius’ mother is not a very 3D personality; she is not very fully realised. She repeats catchphrases that she had when she was alive. If Harry had a portrait of his parents it would not help him a great deal. If he could meet them as ghosts, that would be a much more meaningful interaction, but as Nick explained at the end of Phoenix—I am straying into dangerous territory, but I think you probably know what he explained—there are some people who would not come back as ghosts because they are unafraid, or less afraid, of death.

[BurrowGhoul]

Originally Posted by meesha1971

That's a pretty good analogy. However, I don't think they actually had to pay for a portkey the way we muggles would pay for plane tickets or using a private plane. As we see in OOTP and DH, they can make their own portkeys. But, other than that, it's a pretty good analogy.

But aren't portkeys regulated in some way by the Ministry?

[HarryPotterLover]

Originally Posted by BurrowGhoul

But aren't portkeys regulated in some way by the Ministry?

They are regulated by the MOM. I am sure someone will come along and elaborate on this.

[leah49]

Originally Posted by HarryPotterLover

They are regulated by the MOM. I am sure someone will come along and elaborate on this.

They are regulated, but that doesn't mean the employees at the MoM are the only ones who are able to make portkeys, just that they are the only ones who can make legal portkeys.

[DeathlyH]

Originally Posted by leah49

They are regulated, but that doesn't mean the employees at the MoM are the only ones who are able to make portkeys, just that they are the only ones who can make legal portkeys.

But the MoM employees aren't the only ones wh ocan make Portkeys, are they? They're the only ones who can authorize the making of a Portkey, but if it's been approved by the Ministry, like all the ones used for the Quidditch World Cup, then someone else can make them. What you can't do is make one whenever you want, like Dumbledore did in the MoM in OotP. Fudge even said to him that it was unauthorized.

[BublGumPnkHar]

Originally Posted by deathly721

But the MoM employees aren't the only ones wh ocan make Portkeys, are they? They're the only ones who can authorize the making of a Portkey, but if it's been approved by the Ministry, like all the ones used for the Quidditch World Cup, then someone else can make them. What you can't do is make one whenever you want, like Dumbledore did in the MoM in OotP. Fudge even said to him that it was unauthorized.

I would think as Headmaster, Dumbledore could make any/how ever many he wanted while at Hogwarts. In OOP, he was activating a portkey on Ministry property and hadn't officially regained his title as Headmaster, even though that's where he told Fudge he could contact him and was using said portkey to return Harry to Hogwarts.

To me, that would draw the distinction for Fudge, even though he wasn't too fussy about who he choose to do favors for *cough"Malfoy"cough* or how many rules he changed/bent (think Hearing). I guess it depends on who the offender is.

[Freaky]

Originally Posted by deathly721

Fudge even said to him that it was unauthorized.

This may have only been because all methods of communication and travelling had been watched all that year...perhaps it was simply instinctive to Fudge to say it wasn't authorised.

I have a feeling (although it is not canon) that in normal life any wizard/witch can make a portkey but it became an offence in "Order" simply because of Fudge's attitude.

Maybe it is a complex spell that few people know about as no-one seems to make any during the series, they do the Floo Network (which does cost because they have to buy the powder), apparate (they need a licence) and broomsticks - which anyone seems to be able to do - with or without lessons. Moody/Crouch Jnr were very able wizards who would probably know complex spells, and of course so too would be the Order in Order of the Phoenix when they say they won't be allowed to do it.

[X_luna_x]

Okay, so you know how Tom Riddle wanted the DADA position but was turned down by Dumbledore... and he put a curse on it so no one could have the job for more than one year... so why does the curse only take affect after the trios first year at Hogwarts? Because in the first book it says Quirrell was always nervous about his students and about teaching his subject DADA... so that would mean he was there for more than a year... am i missing something or is that whats happening... am i the only one thinking this?

.:. Call Me Luna.:.

[anabel]

Originally Posted by Freaky

I have a feeling (although it is not canon) that in normal life any wizard/witch can make a portkey but it became an offence in "Order" simply because of Fudge's attitude.

I dunno - I got the impression that the Ministry has always taken charge of Portkeys, perhaps because they are tricky to make and can go wrong. But we know that both Dumbledore and Crouch Junior can make them, so I suspect there are more "illegal" Portkeys around than the Ministry likes to think!

When you think about it, the Dept of Magical Transportation is in charge of the Floo Network and insists on testing people before they are allowed to Apparate, so it makes sense for Portkeys to fall under their jurisdiction too.

[Manisa]

Does Malfoy die?

[Tenshi]

Originally Posted by Manisa

Does Malfoy die?

None of the Malfoys died. Draco married and has a son in the end. No idea what happened to his parents in the end though.

[leah49]

Originally Posted by X_luna_x

Okay, so you know how Tom Riddle wanted the DADA position but was turned down by Dumbledore... and he put a curse on it so no one could have the job for more than one year... so why does the curse only take affect after the trios first year at Hogwarts? Because in the first book it says Quirrell was always nervous about his students and about teaching his subject DADA... so that would mean he was there for more than a year... am i missing something or is that whats happening... am i the only one thinking this?

.:. Call Me Luna.:.

Quirrell had the year off the year before Harry's first year and before that he did not teach DADA. So, yes, he was DADA professor for only one year.

[Isla Sofia]

Jo confirmed in an interview that Quirrell taught Muggle Studies before DADA.

[X_luna_x]

OOOH...OKAY I GOTCHA...SEE I NEVER KNEW THAT...THANKS EVERYONE FOR ANSWERING ME!!

[MeMyselfAndI]

Originally Posted by anabel

I dunno - I got the impression that the Ministry has always taken charge of Portkeys, perhaps because they are tricky to make and can go wrong. But we know that both Dumbledore and Crouch Junior can make them, so I suspect there are more "illegal" Portkeys around than the Ministry likes to think!

When you think about it, the Dept of Magical Transportation is in charge of the Floo Network and insists on testing people before they are allowed to Apparate, so it makes sense for Portkeys to fall under their jurisdiction too.

So how do we think they kept track of the portkeys then? Was it just that it was illegal to make one unauthorized (unless we're going by a previous theory that Fudge was just being difficult), or is it that they can track when the Portus spell is used? Or is it that when a portkey activates and takes you somewhere they can sense it with some sort of portkey-detector? In that case, they would only be able to punish you / reprimand you / do nothing after the fact and not prevent it at all.

Also, I didn't really get the feeling the Portus spell was hard to do, it just almost seemed like even though it might be easy it just wasn't the common way. It's like it's used for groups because everyone apparating to the same place at the same time could get messy, and we just don't see that happen a lot. Because the Ministry needed to regulate everyone coming to the World Cup so as not to alert the Muggles / cause confusion with everyone coming at once...those were Ministry regulated. But maybe other than that it's just monitored to make sure someone's nt misusin them? And then the reason we havn't seen casual use is because group transportation that we have seen is either by the train, Dumbledore, floo (it's just easier), or Harry Ron and Hermione on their own and they don't know how to make potkeys.

Just some thoughts.

[meesha1971]

Originally Posted by anabel

I dunno - I got the impression that the Ministry has always taken charge of Portkeys, perhaps because they are tricky to make and can go wrong. But we know that both Dumbledore and Crouch Junior can make them, so I suspect there are more "illegal" Portkeys around than the Ministry likes to think!

When you think about it, the Dept of Magical Transportation is in charge of the Floo Network and insists on testing people before they are allowed to Apparate, so it makes sense for Portkeys to fall under their jurisdiction too.

I think they're all very similar overall. And that makes sense to some extent. Traveling by such obvious magical methods would need to be regulated as much as possible to minimize exposure. A wizard apparating or using a portkey that caused them to just appear in the middle of a grocery store would cause quite a stir. Same thing for a fire really - it would be noticeable in a public place if the fire suddenly turned green and people jumped out or heads appeared. So it makes sense to regulate that as much as possible to make sure the destination is secure to minimize exposure.

And there are risks - primarily with apparation. Splinching turned out to be a lot more serious than it was first made to appear so that was more than a concern with exposure - it could be life threatening as well. But it was also a risk for exposure - as Mr. Weasley pointed out in GOF with the people splinching themselves and muggles seeing it.

I think the floo network was the easiest to regulate because the fireplaces had to be put on the network to begin with. And - as we saw in OOTP - they could monitor that very closely if they chose to. But apparition and portkeys would be more difficult. Essentially, all they could really do there is put laws in place - like having to have a license to apparate or getting authorization to make a portkey. But that would really only set forth the consequences for getting caught doing those things illegally. I'd say there would likely be a lot of things like that going on illegally where people were not caught.