Skip to main content

harry potter - Do Disillusionment Charms Fail At Very Close Range?


I've been informed by those who know much more about Harry Potter than I that Hogwarts is protected with a Disillusionment Charm so all muggles will see is ruins with a "Danger: Keep out!" sign around them. (Apparently this was in one of the first three books, but I'm not sure where it was.)


My first thought was, "Well, a danger sign would encourage some muggles to investigate!" Which leads to what I think is an obvious question: Will a disillusionment charm on a place like that still work when a person is real close to the location? Will it work from inside the location?


For example, if a curious muggle made it to the gates of Hogwarts and started walking around inside, would they still see it as abandon and in ruins, or once they entered, would they see it as it is?



Answer




‘It’s bewitched,’ said Hermione. ‘If a Muggle looks at it, all they see is a mouldering old ruin with a sign over the entrance saying DANGER, DO NOT ENTER, UNSAFE.’

‘So Durmstrang’ll just look like a ruin to an outsider, too?’

‘Maybe,’ said Hermione, shrugging, ‘or it might have Muggle-Repelling Charms on it, like the World Cup Stadium. And to keep foreign wizards from finding it, they’ll have made it Unplottable –’

‘Come again?’

‘Well, you can enchant a building so it’s impossible to plot on a map, can’t you?’

‘Er ... if you say so,’ said Harry.

Goblet of Fire - Page 148 - UK Hardcover



I think that Muggle-Repelling charms make the most sense. The trio uses them to protect themselves while they're on the run in Deathly Hallows, as well. "Salvio Hexia... Protego Totalum... Repello Muggletum... Muffliato..."


In general, I don't think there is a specific distance at which Disillusionment Charms fail, but a witch or wizard could use Homenum Revelio to see if there are people around who are under a Disillusionment Charm (which is the charm used by Dumbledore to become invisible) I believe Hogsmeade is one of the few all-wizarding towns and it's near Hogwarts; I doubt a lot of Muggles are in the vicinity of Hogwarts to begin with. But I'm guessing that any Muggle who finds their way to Hogwarts would not be able to approach it.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...
Post a Comment
Read more