OK, so there are Moody and Voldemort, but pretty much every other wizard ever is grossly.incompetent. Any normal Moogle SF fan thinking for an hour, or Harry Potter thinking for five minutes, could run strategic circles around them and kill half of all Dark Lords who ever lived by owling them bombs. Better?
OK, so there are Moody and Voldemort, but pretty much every other wizard ever is grossly.incompetent.
No — they simply have not chosen to prove themselves to Harry, the viewpoint character.
I expect we’ll find, soon, that Harry’s model is wildly out of whack — adult wizards are, by and large, competent but flawed, especially the leaders and heroes. They simply do not let on to children everything they can do, nor their level of control over the world. Why? Because gifted children are not really all that rare, and teaching kids more magic than they are responsible enough to cope with is how you get Dark Lords — and dead kids.
Expanding on this — The purpose of magical education (e.g. Hogwarts) is not to teach kids as much magic as possible, to enable them to fix the world as Harry wants to do. The purpose of magical education is to safely and gradually expose them to magic, to maintain the current status quo and certainly to prevent any dumbass kids from destroying the world or killing each other. It also includes giving them chances to prove themselves responsible and skilled enough to wield more, and to put them in touch with adult wizards who might choose to individually teach more. But none of this is served by powerful wizards flaunting their top abilities in blatant and imitable fashion in front of the kiddies.
Nothing stays secret from teenage kids for long. No conspiracy of a large size can be maintained for very long (especially if it must admit everyone). And the Lucius Malfoys of the world would want to give their kids every advantage.
Parents in the real world want to give their kids every advantage too, but few sign their kids up for calculus class and gun-range time at age 6, you know? Parental conspiracies aimed at preteen children are remarkably resilient things(cf. Santa Claus). Teenagers are harder, but you can rely on most of them not actually wanting to be bothered learning any more than they have to.
Harry had not made an original magical discovery, but rediscovered a law so ancient that nobody knew who had first formulated it:
A potion spends that which is invested in the creation of its ingredients.
But conversely, it also says that
The fundamental principle of Potions-Making had no name and no standard phrasing, since then you might be tempted to write it down.
McGonagall and Flitwick seemed to at least be familiar with the idea, though, so there’s a good chance that you’re right.
Edit: I should probably also point out the obvious. If knowing the general rule is “WTF? Stop!” dangerous, like the professors seem to suggest it is when Harry tries it, then it’s not generally the sort of thing you’d teach your 11 year old son. There’s plenty of time to pass things like that along when the kid’s closer to adulthood and mellowed out a bit.
Sure, that’s why this is a story written by Eliezer and not (say) Piers Anthony. But still, an educational system does not last for long if it obviously gives every kid a nuclear bomb.
could run strategic circles around them and kill half of all Dark Lords who ever lived by owling them bombs.
Harry thought he could figure out who the Death Eaters were by checking their arms for the Dark Mark. Turns out it’s not that simple.
Now he (and you) still think that you get rid of a dangerous enemy by owling them bombs. Does either of you even have any reason to believe that there isn’t a magical precaution against sending dangerous objects through the owl mail system?
Harry thought he could figure out who the Death Eaters were by checking their arms for the Dark Mark. Turns out it’s not that simple.
Er, he broke that protection in about five minutes of thought. That’s evidence for actually being able to run strategic circles around magical Britain.
And yet Dumbledore and everyone else he though of asking couldn’t solve it themselves for twenty years. For the last ten years, Snape would have told them if they’d even made the right suggestion.
Harry thought he could figure out who the Death Eaters were by checking their arms for the Dark Mark. Turns out it’s not that simple.
Like I said, Voldemort is one of the only two or three competent wizards shown.
Does either of you even have any reason to believe that there isn’t a magical precaution against sending dangerous objects through the owl mail system?
It’s more likely that there isn’t than that there is, and it’s something to be (quickly and easily) tested. This particular example aside, owling bombs isn’t intended to be taken literally; it’s a stand-in for a simple attack that wizards don’t expect. Any particular such attack may not work, but I strongly expect that if Harry dedicated a whole day to thinking up and actually trying such “low-tech” attacks, vetting them with Dumbledore against known defenses to save time, then he could come up with enough attacks to take down at least half the Dark Lords in recent history.
On the one hand, the fact that owl bombs are not a common tactic is itself evidence against the being usable. On the other hand, in canon you could definitely send dangerous objects through the mail.
In the MoR!verse, at least, Dumbledore is screening Harry’s mail instead of letting it go to him directly. So “owling hand grenades” won’t work against someone who takes precautions to prevent it. The question is whether the target is taking precautions or is simply going to let owls deliver strange packages.
Indeed. Dumbledore told Harry that he would have a hard time (emotionally) dealing with his “fan mail” and Harry pretty much agreed. Whether Dumbledore has any other motive is left as an exercise for the reader.
kill half of all Dark Lords who ever lived by owling them bombs.
Meh, Minerva mentions that a trained wizard can deal with a gun, I imagine explosive deactivating spells would be a standard part of your self defence/mail checking spells.
I may be unduly influenced by how its handled in the DAYD fan-verse, but my impression is that wizards understand the concept of a letterbomb and screen for them if circumstances (for example being Mad-Eye Moody) call for it. They just don’t do it routinely anymore than normal people do.
And I wouldn’t be surprised if wizards—at least those with know enemies—screen their mail (although this isn’t mentioned, and it’s apparently unavailable to students.) I was just nitpicking the idea that you couldn’t send a Wizard something they would be unable to neutralize with magic once they had it.
In the MoR!verse, Dumbledore is screening Harry’s mail instead of letting it go to him directly. So “owling hand grenades” won’t work against someone who takes precautions to prevent it.
That sounds like a cached thought. Bureaucracies can be programmed to have relatively well-understood side-effects of their survival. For instance, McDonald’s is a bureaucracy that has a side-effect of producing hamburgers; a military is a bureaucracy that has a side-effect of politically inconvenient people getting dead.
OK, so there are Moody and Voldemort, but pretty much every other wizard ever is grossly.incompetent. Any normal Moogle SF fan thinking for an hour, or Harry Potter thinking for five minutes, could run strategic circles around them and kill half of all Dark Lords who ever lived by owling them bombs. Better?
No — they simply have not chosen to prove themselves to Harry, the viewpoint character.
I expect we’ll find, soon, that Harry’s model is wildly out of whack — adult wizards are, by and large, competent but flawed, especially the leaders and heroes. They simply do not let on to children everything they can do, nor their level of control over the world. Why? Because gifted children are not really all that rare, and teaching kids more magic than they are responsible enough to cope with is how you get Dark Lords — and dead kids.
Expanding on this — The purpose of magical education (e.g. Hogwarts) is not to teach kids as much magic as possible, to enable them to fix the world as Harry wants to do. The purpose of magical education is to safely and gradually expose them to magic, to maintain the current status quo and certainly to prevent any dumbass kids from destroying the world or killing each other. It also includes giving them chances to prove themselves responsible and skilled enough to wield more, and to put them in touch with adult wizards who might choose to individually teach more. But none of this is served by powerful wizards flaunting their top abilities in blatant and imitable fashion in front of the kiddies.
Nothing stays secret from teenage kids for long. No conspiracy of a large size can be maintained for very long (especially if it must admit everyone). And the Lucius Malfoys of the world would want to give their kids every advantage.
Parents in the real world want to give their kids every advantage too, but few sign their kids up for calculus class and gun-range time at age 6, you know? Parental conspiracies aimed at preteen children are remarkably resilient things(cf. Santa Claus). Teenagers are harder, but you can rely on most of them not actually wanting to be bothered learning any more than they have to.
Did Draco know about the Secret of Potions?
Did Lucius?
I got the impression it was common knowledge among powerful wizards. Am I misremembering?
If you look back at Chapter 78, it says that
Harry had not made an original magical discovery, but rediscovered a law so ancient that nobody knew who had first formulated it:
A potion spends that which is invested in the creation of its ingredients.
But conversely, it also says that
The fundamental principle of Potions-Making had no name and no standard phrasing, since then you might be tempted to write it down.
McGonagall and Flitwick seemed to at least be familiar with the idea, though, so there’s a good chance that you’re right.
Edit: I should probably also point out the obvious. If knowing the general rule is “WTF? Stop!” dangerous, like the professors seem to suggest it is when Harry tries it, then it’s not generally the sort of thing you’d teach your 11 year old son. There’s plenty of time to pass things like that along when the kid’s closer to adulthood and mellowed out a bit.
Sure, that’s why this is a story written by Eliezer and not (say) Piers Anthony. But still, an educational system does not last for long if it obviously gives every kid a nuclear bomb.
Well, that’s true, at least.
Harry thought he could figure out who the Death Eaters were by checking their arms for the Dark Mark. Turns out it’s not that simple.
Now he (and you) still think that you get rid of a dangerous enemy by owling them bombs. Does either of you even have any reason to believe that there isn’t a magical precaution against sending dangerous objects through the owl mail system?
Er, he broke that protection in about five minutes of thought. That’s evidence for actually being able to run strategic circles around magical Britain.
Dumbledore did hand him the “You’re wrong, think about it for 5 minutes” cue in a way that got him to do it. That kind of thing is crazy helpful.
And yet Dumbledore and everyone else he though of asking couldn’t solve it themselves for twenty years. For the last ten years, Snape would have told them if they’d even made the right suggestion.
Like I said, Voldemort is one of the only two or three competent wizards shown.
It’s more likely that there isn’t than that there is, and it’s something to be (quickly and easily) tested. This particular example aside, owling bombs isn’t intended to be taken literally; it’s a stand-in for a simple attack that wizards don’t expect. Any particular such attack may not work, but I strongly expect that if Harry dedicated a whole day to thinking up and actually trying such “low-tech” attacks, vetting them with Dumbledore against known defenses to save time, then he could come up with enough attacks to take down at least half the Dark Lords in recent history.
On the one hand, the fact that owl bombs are not a common tactic is itself evidence against the being usable. On the other hand, in canon you could definitely send dangerous objects through the mail.
In the MoR!verse, at least, Dumbledore is screening Harry’s mail instead of letting it go to him directly. So “owling hand grenades” won’t work against someone who takes precautions to prevent it. The question is whether the target is taking precautions or is simply going to let owls deliver strange packages.
Dumbledore could also screen it for other reasons.
Indeed. Dumbledore told Harry that he would have a hard time (emotionally) dealing with his “fan mail” and Harry pretty much agreed. Whether Dumbledore has any other motive is left as an exercise for the reader.
Meh, Minerva mentions that a trained wizard can deal with a gun, I imagine explosive deactivating spells would be a standard part of your self defence/mail checking spells.
I think it was cannons, not guns :D
Magic bombs. Or other destructive artifacts.
I may be unduly influenced by how its handled in the DAYD fan-verse, but my impression is that wizards understand the concept of a letterbomb and screen for them if circumstances (for example being Mad-Eye Moody) call for it. They just don’t do it routinely anymore than normal people do.
P.S. I prepared explosive runes this morning.
DAYD?
And I wouldn’t be surprised if wizards—at least those with know enemies—screen their mail (although this isn’t mentioned, and it’s apparently unavailable to students.) I was just nitpicking the idea that you couldn’t send a Wizard something they would be unable to neutralize with magic once they had it.
Dumbledore’s Army and the Year of Darkness, one of the main stories involves anonymous owls.
In the MoR!verse, Dumbledore is screening Harry’s mail instead of letting it go to him directly. So “owling hand grenades” won’t work against someone who takes precautions to prevent it.
What about the other Aurors during TSPE? I thought they did pretty well overall.
Madam Bones, yes. The others seem average. Not owl-bomb-proof unless they’re given regulations about it.
Fortunately, things like that are why bureaucracy exists.
Bureaucracy is self-preserving. It doesn’t really have other builtin goals than that.
That sounds like a cached thought. Bureaucracies can be programmed to have relatively well-understood side-effects of their survival. For instance, McDonald’s is a bureaucracy that has a side-effect of producing hamburgers; a military is a bureaucracy that has a side-effect of politically inconvenient people getting dead.
That’s a good point. My comment was overbroad and oversimplified.
Avoiding assassination is generally considered to assist with self-preservation.