Deathly Hallows question

[mountaingirl777]

I noticed this when reading a fanfic and it has been puzzling me for a while. Why didn't the three use disallusionment charms on themselves while on the run or do what Hermione did to Ron during the Gringotts breakin? If they did that then they wouldn't have had to been so careful and always hiding in the wood like they did.

[Dimcairien]

Interesting question, and not one I've thought about.

I'm not an expert in spell-lore, but I would assume that a disillusionment charm is very difficult to perform and probably wouldn't last for an overly long time. As for disguise, again, that would probably work for a set amount of time. Now, that doesn't explain why they didn't use disguises every so often, but they also didn't want to risk the chance of anyone being able to see through the disguises. They have no idea if there are any other eyes like Moody's

[mountaingirl777]

true, but they could have used the disguise at Grimmauld place, or at least when they were going to and from instead of using the cloak.

[teflonbilly]

A bigger question is if by Gamp's Law of Elementary Transfiguration you can't create food but you can increase it's quantity if you already had some, why didn't they make ONE daring food raid into a grocery store grab one each cans of meat, beans, vegetables, and other non-perishables and just gemino them ad nauseam?

I love the world JKR has made, but some things she chose to mandate simply for plot purposes just made no fucking sense in the wider context of the world she created.

TB

[physicssquid]

There is the possibility that duplicating cans of food wouldn't work. They might have been able to duplicate vegetables or other perishables, but it might not actually be possible to duplicate something that you can't see because it is inside a can. JK never fully explained the limits of any of the magical subjects, but I would hazard a guess and say that it just isn't possible to duplicate something that is inside another object.

[lucyolsen]

Gringotts has protections on it to negate such spells, I believe. Didn't they go through a spell barrier after they were inside that caused Hermione's polyjuice to stop working?

makes me wonder why they don't have these types of protections at Hogwarts, if it is supposedly even safer than Gringotts...

[mountaingirl777]

Aug 9, 2012 20:56:52 GMT -5 lucyolsen said:

Gringotts has protections on it to negate such spells, I believe. Didn't they go through a spell barrier after they were inside that caused Hermione's polyjuice to stop working?

makes me wonder why they don't have these types of protections at Hogwarts, if it is supposedly even safer than Gringotts...

Gringotts was just an example of their disguises. I doubt anyone would have thought that they were in disguise. To me the death eaters were stupid and i doubt they would have put up a Thief's Downfall (which is what they went through that took away their disguises) everywhere...it would look very awkward to have a waterfall in the middle of a street. Harry, Ron and Hermione could have used disguises through a lot of the book, just change disguises every once in a while. It would have cut down on stealing food ( Hermione asked if it was stealing when she put money on the window sill after taking a pie) and a lot of stress of "what if we are found". I believe that Harry and Hermione used disguises at Godric's Hollow, but I'm not too sure. If they did, that would be the only other time that I know of that they used disguises between the Ministry break and Gringotts.

[lucyolsen]

Well, in that care, I agree. When wizards think of disguises they think about polyjuice, which is difficult and time-consuming to brew. But it's odd that two muggle-raised teenagers couldn't come up with an idea that involved wigs and makeup, isn't it?

[penumbria]

They used Polyjuice in Godric's Hollow. But that is a long potion to make and with what they stole of Mad-Eye's supply before he died they would have a limited pre-made amount. Per the transfiguration in the Gringott's break-in, that probably takes a lot of power to maintain long term, otherwise why not have Sirius use it to go to 9 and 3/4 and see Harry off and not Snuffles or to go on missions. And why didn't Pettigrew use it, he would not have had a problem with running into Bertha then. It is complex magic, human transfiguration, that was always said, so I suspect power level had something to do with it. But yes, it is a blindness in the plot. They were often not prepared for things it seemed, like planning on how to get into the Ministry but once there they had no plan other than find Umbridge's office. No contingency plans, which you would think Mr Strategy (Ron) or Miss Crazy About Plans (Hemione) would have brought up.

As far as food goes, I agree they could have gotten cans or re-sealable foodstuffs and made it stretch for at least a week at a time if not longer. They just open the cans and put the new stuff in Tupperware or something. Hermione (the packer and thinker about this stuff) is not always logical and the longer she is in the wizarding world the less she thinks about Muggle (Tupperware) solutions to problems. They could have gotten a cooler and use cooling charms on it to keep food longer too. Again a wizard/muggle mix idea but I feel that Hermione really took to heart the ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT! when she panicked over the Devil's Snare and tried to think more like a witch than a muggle so these things did not occur to her.

[weasleyatheart99]

A reason they didn't steal food is because they have morals. They would have felt bad about. And even muggles might notice, if food is there one minute and gone the next. They didn't risk stealing very often.

As for the disguises Hermione would most likely be the only one that could do it and it would be difficult for her to do it for all of them in a row. A for Wormtail he was 'hopeless' at magic. He could only really do dark magic learned by Voldemort. So he wouldn't have transfigured himself, he needed all the help he could get from James and Sirius when he was in school to become an animgius

Also they are teenagers. Hermione and Ron are only 18 when the war ends and Harry 17 there are still young. Hermione often over looks obvious things, Harry thinks more on the fly, and Ron is almost useless when he's hungry so they would't have thought of that.

With the disallusionment charms. They never learned it and none of them gave any sign of ever being able to do one.

As for the Grimmauld Place part, the only people who can get it there are members of the Order. So even if they did they would still be caught.

[werewulfking]

Good explanation weasleyatheart99. I also think that there are different strengths of Disillusionment Charms and they would probably be much weaker under pressure. In my opinion the charm can go as far as making someone invisible and as weak as just making an object slightly harder to see.
And they did use the charm on their tent while they were hiding.

[viralic1]

Here's a good question: Why didn't they use muggle methods of disguising themselves? A simple Lasik surgery, hair dye, and a little makeup would make Harry completely unrecognizable, and Ron dying and shaving his head would practically transform him as well.

Simple things like Hair cuts and makeup which are both easily accessible would have turned the trio into completely different people

For those who don't know, the LASIK technique was officially patented in 1989, and in 1991 was optimized to be faster and less risky, meaning by 1997, it was definitely an option.

[mountaingirl777]

Aug 10, 2012 11:05:47 GMT -5 viralic1 said:

Here's a good question: Why didn't they use muggle methods of disguising themselves? A simple Lasik surgery, hair dye, and a little makeup would make Harry completely unrecognizable, and Ron dying and shaving his head would practically transform him as well.

Simple things like Hair cuts and makeup which are both easily accessible would have turned the trio into completely different people

For those who don't know, the LASIK technique was officially patented in 1989, and in 1991 was optimized to be faster and less risky, meaning by 1997, it was definitely an option.

hmmm, that would have been a possibility, but 1) they are wizards and a witch apparently only think of magic, especially Harry and Hermione after being in the wizarding world so long. 2) where would they get the money. I know Harry had galleons galor and could have turned exchange it, but he was a wanted person so how would he have gotten into gringotts without being seen to change his money. I know he imperioused one of the goblins, but that was later in the book when everything was coming to a head and he was getting desperate. I don't think he would have done that so early in the story.

Interesting concept though....would probably make a very interesting story. *hint hint*

[viralic1]

I do have an idea for Harry using LASIK, but unfortunately it wouldn't be a DH AU, it would be all years AU (That seems to be all I write)

[mountaingirl777]

didn't you use LASIK in the story you are writing now?

[viralic1]

No, his sight was healed by the bindings and horcrux being taken down.

Now that I think about it, but isn't Harry's sight actually pretty good?

I don't know how glasses work exactly, but don't different people need different prescriptions? I can't see the Dursleys taking him to an eye doctor and paying for his own prescription, and I'm pretty sure somewhere it said they found them in some kind of value bin.

If the glasses weren't his prescription, and he had good enough eyesight to spot the snitch regularly while it was moving in between all of the normal chaos, how good would his eyesight have been if he had glasses for his prescription?

[mountaingirl777]

Aug 10, 2012 13:06:32 GMT -5 viralic1 said:

No, his sight was healed by the bindings and horcrux being taken down.

Now that I think about it, but isn't Harry's sight actually pretty good?

I don't know how glasses work exactly, but don't different people need different prescriptions? I can't see the Dursleys taking him to an eye doctor and paying for his own prescription, and I'm pretty sure somewhere it said they found them in some kind of value bin.

If the glasses weren't his prescription, and he had good enough eyesight to spot the snitch regularly while it was moving in between all of the normal chaos, how good would his eyesight have been if he had glasses for his prescription?

The books say nothing about how he got his glasses, but I do remember atleast two times where he had his glasses off and one of the descriptions he gave while they were off was that it was blurry. like in DH it says " Harry was not wearing his glasses; Ron's face appeared slightly blurred" (DH ch7). I believe there were others, can't remember. I might be mixing fanfics with the books as well.....

[viralic1]

I'm not debating his sight without glasses, but aren't prescriptions that don't match the ones you need screw up your sight more?

[physicssquid]

I think they do, but given that the books don't mention anything about the limits of magic, I don't know what effect Harry's magic would have on his eyes. Reading between the lines, I get the feeling that Harry's eyesight either improved slightly over the years, or his magic altered the prescription of his glasses to suit his needs better.

[werewulfking]

No not necessarily. For example I wear glasses that are only one and a half year old but still do not fit my eyes anymore. My eyesight has gotten even weaker but the glasses still help.
The only problem you would have with glasses if the prescription is for weaker eyes then yours. Then the sight would get blurred again.

[physicssquid]

We don't know the limits to the magic in the HP world, so any person can put forward a theory and say it's possible, through magic. We do know that Neville's magic protected him from an injury worse than a broken wrist in their first flying lesson, so Harry's magic could have worked to improve his eyesight a little. We just don't know, and anything we come up with is just a theory, but we don't have any proof.