During the Draco fiasco various characters say the wards are triggered to detect rapid harm to students
Hmm, this does appear to be a hole in my logic, and also the response of “the wards only trigger on death” to “if Dumbledore had show up seconds sooner things would have been different.” The text from earlier:
The clear intent of the Blood-Cooling Charm had been to kill Draco Malfoy so slowly that the wards of Hogwarts, set to detect sudden injury, would not trigger.
Hmm, this does appear to be a hole in my logic, and also the response of “the wards only trigger on death” to “if Dumbledore had show up seconds sooner things would have been different.” The text from earlier:
Something else interesting, from Chapter 84:
Grievous bodily injury, unfortunately, is not covered under that warranty.
Also,
Now I guess we know why it started with her legs.
The portkey would only work if she was taken outside Hogwarts.
Not true. Portkeys can work in Hogwarts—cf., the end of Goblet of Fire. It’s only Apparation that doesn’t work.
In HPMOR, portkeys do not work in Hogwarts (chapter 63).
Right. I was thinking of the “rip the playing card” portkey, but in retrospect that said to get beyond the wards first.
It seems reasonable for the Headmaster to be able to make portkeys that can bypass those wards.