This means if any magic is performed around underage witches or wizards that’s not at a known magical home or location, that underage wizard could get in trouble. The Ministry of Magic should have reprimanded Harry a lot more.Ī fan on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Stack Exchange pointed out the “Trace” makes little sense in the "Harry Potter" world.Īccording to Mad Eye Moody in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the Trace is described as a spell that “detects magical activity around under-seventeens.” Dumbledore also tells Harry in “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” that while the trace detects magic, it can’t detect who performed it, so the Ministry relies on wizard parents to “enforce their offspring’s obedience while within their walls.” By touching the tampered portkey, perhaps he hoped he could then enter Hogwarts without needing to apparate inside (since you can’t) or walk through the front gates. Since Rowling has never addressed this in the books, our best guess is that Voldemort wanted a tool which could somehow get him inside Hogwarts after he had returned to power. Instead of dropping him back in the middle of the maze where he grabbed the goblet, the portkey drops Harry in front of the crowd watching the Triwizard Tournament. That's bizarre enough, but what's truly unprecedented is that Harry is able to reuse the portkey to return to Hogwarts, again at his slightest touch. Again, there is a countdown before they are transported and for all we know, the object that became the portkey becomes unmagical again.īut in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” Harry and Cedric Diggory grab the goblet during the Triwizard Tournament, which responds at their touch to take them to the graveyard where Lord Voldemort is waiting. Then in the fifth book “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” Dumbledore quickly makes a portkey to transport Harry and the Weasley children to Number 12 Grimauld Place. They have to be on the hill at an exact time in order to “catch” the portkey.
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When we’re first introduced to portkeys in the Harry Potter series it’s at the start of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” when our heroes go to the World Quidditch Match. The function of portkeys in the books is a bit muddled.
Keep smiling, Cedric - this makes no sense. It would be remarkably convenient if Fred and George never checked on their older brother while causing mischief or looking over their secret map at night where they would have seen Pettigrew’s name. It’s possible Fred and George stopped looking at the map before Ron started school, but since Scabbers is “Percy’s old rat” Ron inherited, it implies that Percy had Scabbers for his first few years at Hogwarts. Remarkably as this Reddit user points out, neither Harry, Fred, or George ever realize there is another name sleeping in Ron and Harry’s dormitory every night - Peter Pettigrew, who went into hiding as a pet rat with the Weasley family for 12 years after helping to murder Lily and James Potter. They tell Harry they studied the map thoroughly during their time at Hogwarts and owe much of their mischievous success to it. In the “Prisoner of Azkaban,” Harry is given a magical map known as the Maruader’s Map by Fred and George Weasley which shows the location of every person at Hogwarts as well as their real name, even if they’re disguised or hidden. Peter Pettigrew must have been very lucky.