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harry potter - What protection does Hogwarts have at the school entrance?


In Prisoner of Azkaban, Cornelius Fudge decides that the dementors are no longer appropriate protection after they tried to steal Harry's soul with the Dementor's Kiss. He then says the following:



No, I’ll have them packed off back to Azkaban tonight. Perhaps we should think about dragons at the school entrance ...’ -Prison of Azkaban



I find it interesting that dragons at the school entrance were considered, but to my knowledge, this never happened. By the time of The Half-Blood Prince, the school entrances were secure enough that the Death Eaters couldn't just waltz in, requiring them to use the teleporting cabinets instead.


So what type of protection does Hogwarts have at the school entrance (by which I mean the intended entrance, not hidden ways into the school)? And aside from the presence of the dementors, did this change over the course of the books?



Answer




Not much, until Voldemort's return


For most of the books, there is no particular magical protection on the gates. Of course, presumably the gates have Muggle-Repelling Charms on them, like the rest of the castle, and they are undoubtedly included in other spells as well, but they seem to have no special magical protection. People (or at least witches and wizards) can walk through them at will. For example, in Goblet of Fire the Trio can simply run through the gates:



Breaking into a run, she led them all the way back up the road, through the gates flanked by winged boars, and up through the grounds to Hagrid’s cabin.


—Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire



Of course, after the escape of Sirius Black dementors were posted at the gates. Fudge's suggestion that dragons be put at the gates was in the context of Sirius's continued freedom, but Sirius indicated that he would allow himself to be seen far from Hogwarts, in order to get the Ministry to lift security.



I am planning to allow some Muggles to glimpse me soon, a long way from Hogwarts, so that the security on the castle will be lifted.


—Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban




After the public return of Lord Voldemort, security was stepped up massively, and the gates received some extra protection.


At the very least, the gates cannot be unlocked through magical means:



But when he put out a hand to push open the gates, he found them chained shut.


“Alohomora!” he said confidently, pointing his wand at the padlock, but nothing happened.


“That won’t work on these,” said Tonks. “Dumbledore bewitched them himself.”


—Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince



Note the word "them": the spell is on the gates as a whole, not just the padlock.This protection is presumably specific to the gates, since the walls and grounds cannot be opened in the first place.



The gates also probably have anti-intruder jinxes of some sort:



“I could climb a wall,” he suggested.


“No, you couldn’t,” said Tonks flatly. “Anti-intruder jinxes on all of them. Security’s been tightened a hundredfold this summer.”


—Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince



If such jinxes have been placed on the walls, it seems very likely that they also were placed on the gates.


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