This has been KILLING me about Potter

[Red States Rule!]

Ok.. if anyone wanted to find Sirius Black in #3 or Voldemort in any of the books, wouldn't they have just wrote either of them a letter, handed it to an owl, and tailed the owl on a broom?

[Briakale Nirene]

:lol:

 

That's kind of a good point...

[Kadere]

Since when has Valdemort ever replied to an owl? And before Goblet he's completely incapable of doing anything, since he has basically no body. As for Sirus, it would have lead them to a giant dog, who they wouldn't recognize, or go to Sirus's house which is suppose to be abandoned. Plus, I don't think Sirus answers owls after book 4, but I don't have the books with me to check.

 

So, no, that wouldn't work. What they could do is have Harry actually KILL Voldemort when he gets the chance instead of being a wossie who has to have his parents ghosts or Dumbeldore save him over and over and over again.

[Guest IluvatarND]

Straight from the mouth of J.K. Rowling (okay, from her website at least):

 

Section: F.A.Q.

 

Q: In 'Prisoner of Azkaban', why couldn't the Ministry of Magic have sent Sirius an owl, and then followed it, to find him?

 

A: Just as wizards can make buildings unplottable, they can also make themselves untraceable. Voldemort would have been found long ago if it had been as simple as sending him an owl!

 

 

Answers that question.

 

Luvi

[Isabel]

ACtually it doesn't answer the question. Harry could send his own owl to find Sirius. If I remmeber correctly he also send a school owl, which also found him. So you say that the wizards can differentiate between owls and see before hand if they have a message for them?????????????

[Talya]

Maybe it has more to do with who wrote the letter than which owl is doing the delivery.

Places maybe unplottable but they can still be found by certain people so I would say the same goes for people. Certain letters will get through others will not.

Good question though had never thought about it before really.

[Rian Tarai]

Maybe it has more to do with who wrote the letter than which owl is doing the delivery.

 

That's what I was thinking. It would make much more sense in regards to how Wizards communicate. And if you consider that there are many ways to distinguish letters before they arrive... I would say that it's entirely possible to do that.

 

Also, if it were that simple, the books would be fairly boring. :-P

[joeybsmash]

in # 5 and 6 the say the owls are being watched, but the owls aren't the smartest creature's in the world (look at your dog tying his leesh in a knot around a tree) so mamybe the owls find sirius or voldemort and they don't respond to ministry inqueries?

[BenTGaidin]

In that case, the Ministry should sign Voldemort up for as many spam-owl lists and they can, and wait for him to be buried under all the papers. *grins*

[Guest IluvatarND]

I would think it would work more like this:

 

Making yourself untraceable would be along the lines of (in the American Postal system) making it look like your zip code doesn't exist. The letter would get to the local post office, they would look up the zip code to see where it would go and, not finding it, would return to sender before even leaving the local post office.

 

Now, this is only a hand-waving argument: it would be more precise (only you wouldn't be able to be found) and it would be selective (you could choose to have someone allowed to send a letter to you). It wouldn't matter what owl sent it; the key is who sent the letter in the first place.

 

As to the owls being watched, I would guess that, if the owl is allowed to go to a person, perhaps it could be tracked; if it doesn't know where to go in the first place, though, then it shouldn't be able to be traced. (What good would it be to follow a letter that doesn't actually get where it is going. In the above example, you'd follow the letter to the post office, but then it went right back to the person who sent it. That doesn't tell you where the recipient is supposed to be...)

 

As to how the owl gets directions to where to go if it is allowed [and how it knows if it is allowed] is beyond me. But hey, that's why it's magic!

 

My $0.02.

 

Luvi

[Red States Rule!]

OK so say I am a shape shifter or have taken polyjuice potion and take the form of the person who wishes to find Black and is on his "approved list".

 

Does this trick the owl?

 

And if it is as simple as an approved list, can I go to the owl system instead of the USPS so that I don't get junk mail or have you seen me's?

[The Lord of Thunder]

I have a simple answer to this. Perhaps it's like MSN or Yahoo or AIM but with magic.

[Kadere]

maybe this series just isn't that good, so who cares?

 

wahahahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahahahah

 

my cynicism amuses me. :twisted: