Skip to main content

harry potter - How did the Ministry protect against the use of unauthorized portkeys?


I've noticed some confusion over portkeys and their use. On this site, in particular, Why was the Triwizard Cup used as the portkey?. The question Barring legal issues, why aren't portkeys used more often? clearly identifies ministry regulations as one of the major factors in deterring use of portkeys and logistics as another deterrent for mass transportation. But how does the ministry enforce its regulations.



We know Dumbledore can circumvent this rule and makes unauthorized portkeys on multiple occasions: After Arthur's Attack, and to help Harry in leaving the Ministry in OoP after the duel with Lord V to name two.


As far as we are aware, Dumbledore is the only wizard to break this rule in the books, (I believe) and although he does so easily (and apparently receives no more consequence than Fudge's admonishment. The only possible exception to this is the creation of the portkeys after the seven potters to return everyone to the Burrow. There is some question as to whether those were unauthorized or not. If they were not authorized, then Dumbledore is not the only one to circumvent Ministry regulations and their enforcement.



"Now see here Dumbledore!" said Fudge, as Dumbledore walked over and picked up the golden head "you haven't got authorization for that portkey! You can't do things like that in front of the Minister of Magic!"


Order of the Phoenix Chapter 36 (pg. 818 in the Scholastic edition from 2003)



As usual, Dumbledore makes things look pretty easy, but there is another example in Order to prove breaking this rule is no easy task.



"How're we getting - wherever we're going?" Harry asked.


"Brooms," said Lupin. "Only way. You're too young to Apparate, they'll be watching the Floo Network, and it's more than our life's worth to set up an unauthorized Portkey."



Order of the Phoenix, The Advance Guard, Pate 52 (Scholastic:2003)



In the example above, there were a number of highly capable wizards present, Lupin, Moody, Shacklebolt, . . .


Is there any information in Book Canon I am missing, interviews with Rowling herself, on Pottermore or other sorces (that use citations - wikia doesn't work for me) that would help clear up what kinds of protections were placed to prevent the use of unauthorized portkeys and whether this applied only in England or everywhere?




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...

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...

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...