harry potter - Why didn't the Ministry use owls to find Sirius?

Harry, before the Triwizard Tournament, was able to send owls to Sirius when he was in hiding (not at Grimmauld Place) just by telling them "just find him, will you?", and the owl would come back a few days later with an answer. This doesn't happen with Hedwig only, because, if I recall correctly, he uses school owls as well.

If finding Sirius was as easy as telling an owl "find him", and a 13-year-old wizard could do it, how come the Ministry had no clue as to where he was? They could've sent an owl with a summons and followed it from a distance.

Two theories, neither mentioned in the book, and both a bit unlikely:

He was living as a dog and -hopefully- the Ministry would not be able to recognize him. Unlikely because the owl would have got there anyway, so they would have guessed the dog was Sirius in disguise, not necessarily as an animagus, but maybe he could perform human-animal transfiguration (remember he was brilliant at school)..

Kingsley Shacklebolt was already in charge of the hunt and Dumbledore told him Sirius was innocent and all that. Then, Kingsley would have prevented the Ministry from using any method that could've actually worked. Unlikely because they could've used owls before Dumbledore's tip, when Kingsley didn't know Sirius was innocent, and also because Kingsley was quite powerful and had the support of Crouch and others at the Ministry, so if he was in charge, they would probably have succeeded.

Your thoughts?

Answer

J.K. Rowling's Official Web Site FAQs, #18 states:

Q: In 'Prisoner of Azkaban', why couldn't the Ministry of Magic have sent Sirius an owl, and then followed it, to find him?

A: Just as wizards can make buildings unplottable, they can also make themselves untraceable. Voldemort would have been found long ago if it had been as simple as sending him an owl!

Comments

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