harry potter Article: Why does the Trace really exist?

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posted by bendaimmortal

I think there's something fishy to it. Because it's horribly unreliable and through that horribly unfair and useless.

Some theorize that magical children are born with the Trace but I don't think so because the books talk about it as something that is put on people, as in a charm. And in magic it should be possible to make a mais specifically effective charm. Even the Magic Quill at Hogwarts lists the names of every magical inhdividual born. The Trace should be working the samw way but it isn't.

I've racked my brain with the Trace matters after I (in the respostas part of thsi club) brought up the pergunta whether it remains active until the 17th birthday even if a minor drops out of Hogwarts years before he/she turns 17. (Because the Trace seems to be placed only on verified Hogwarts students to begin with (as Hermione received nno warnings though she studied spells before she began Hogwarts) and expulsion seems to be the worst thing they'll do if taking action seems needed. As in the Trace seems to very strongly relate to literally studying at Hogwarts, so I wondered if they'd remove it when a person chooses to drop out.)

But then I figured it really doesn't make much of a difference if it is or isn't, because 95% of minors can get away with magic even with the Trace on. To some extent, everyone can.

Because if I've understood corerectly...To the Ministry of Magic, the Trace can only detect:
1. that magic has been performed nearby an underage wizard or a witch
2. which charm/spell/curse was used
3. the location

But it does not detect who the underage wizard was. They can only try to figure it out por the location.

This leads into it being completely impossible for the MoM to blame a minor living with one or mais magical adults, and thus (supposing the parents are not around or just dont' care) for the minor to perform any amount of magic at their own house without any consequences. But minors living with muggle adults are totally opposite case.

And a minor could walk into the area of said kind of minor and perform magic there, and this innocent minor would get the blame! (Much like what happened with Dobby the house-elf and Harry.)

And a minor could throw charms, even in the presence of a muggle, in any location that has numerous underage wizards living there, and then just flee from the crime scene before someone from the Ministry gets there to try and identify who it was. The Ministry would have hard time finding out who of the numerous minors living on the area, is guilty, if any as it mightr as well have been an adult in the company of a minor. And even if it was the unknown minor around whom the magic happened, they could've used someone else's wand and thus if the Ministry actually took time to go through all the houses with a minor living in, they'd never find out who it was or might end up accusing the wrong person.

And seeing to the fact that totally muggle-free areas are rare, it is likely there usually do live mais than one underage wizard or a witch on one muggle-habited area. Which again deeply affects the chances of the finger being pointed at the right minor, if the magic happened outdoors.

They obviously rely much on the parents enforcing the rules on their children for the sake of the secrecy and the child's safety. But if the Ministry really wanted to give their two cents to the cuase...Why did they make the Trace so gawddamn vague instead of making it detect the sourcerer's indetity? That way the effect would be maximum and it would be catching equally everyone. The way the Trace is, doesn't offer any real help whatsoever but on the contrary it picks on those and only those children with less pure blood and/or not so fortunate início location. And even if it did offer a little help, it's minus aspects are far mais numerous/significant.

Thus, to me it seems that with the Trace, the Ministry does not have the childrens' best interest in mind, nor do they care about the secrecy that much.

It seems to have a touch of attitude problem towards muggle-borns and favorism of purebloods and half-bloods. And also of a lust for power, (hence the 'we can accuse, warn and punish children based on our vague assumptions, and you have to live with it because there's no hihgher law to our society than us. Har-har-har!')

The law forbidding underage sourcery in presence of a muggle is of course all good and well and certainly out of right and respectable motives. But "the Trace" that supposedly enforces that law, really seems to be ill-motived and completely useless to far extent.

Do you think I'm on to something here, or that this is just Rowling's failure to pull together one aspect of her fictional world - or am I missing something crucial?

angelbarbie20 and bdavis98 like this

BlackHound Why should it be a surprise to anyone that the Ministry [i]doesn't[/i] have childrens' best interest in mind? Especially if they're Muggle-born? Whether or how the Ministry law is enforced often depends upon who Minister for Magic is at any given time; Fudge was a corrupt bastard who did what he damn well pleased and when it pleased him; Rufus Scrimgeour was a heavy-handed SOB who I think would have enforced that law to the best of his abilities just so he could feel more in-control. Kingsley Shacklebolt will be more far more fair, I believe. At any rate: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/The_Trace

bendaimmortal BlackHound: It's not necessarely a surprise. I just haven't seen anyone talking about the Trace's ways and its enforcement from this point of view. All I've seen always discuss as if it existed for the solid and pure purpose of doing good and enforcing the law.

dragonsmemory Iam certainly not a fan of theFudge and Scrimgeour administrations. However, after years of research into the magical world, I have come to a conclusion about the Trace. The Trace is placed on the Wizarding child from birth and is removed when the child comes of age at 17. As has been mentioned, the charm only detects the magic, not the caster. Underage witches and wizards living with anyone overage have more…leeway…than those living with Muggles. Wizarding parents are expected to enforce the "no underage magijc outside school" rule, since the Ministry can't pinpoint who cast the spell in that hhousehold. In Muggle households, the witch or wizard, before they start school, is visited by a teacher, who explains some very basic things, including "no magic at home." Also, at the close of each school year, notices are passed out to the students, reminding them not to use magic outside school. Now, the Trace breaks at 17. There is no possible way to put it on anyone older. If we go by the logicv that it also breaks when you leave school, when would it have broken for Hermione Granger, had she stayed in school? Would it have broken in September or June? There is a contradiction there, whijch means part of your thedory is incorrect. Thed Trace breaks the moment a witch or wizard turns 17

bendaimmortal @ dragonsmemory: Thank you for making a good counter-point for my previous theory, but it is not poking any hole into this article's theory. See I brought up the when-put/removed thoughts I've had, as something I'd thought of [i]before[/i] giving it more thought and ultimately to lead up to this article's actual point. Hence, me saying that "But [i]then[/i] I realized it doesn't really make much of a difference if it is or isn't removed..." So please note that this article's point is not to theorize when the Trace is put on or removed, but instead to theorize [b][i]why[/i][/b] the Trace exsists in the first place, through looking at how it works while it's on. But to anyway shortly address your theory on when the Trace is placed on; I really don't think it's palced on the person at birth. I see no sense in doing that when the Trace is detecting so little details. Because as it is now, if it was placed at birth, MoM's alarms would go off every second of every day because thousands of babies and kids do accidental magic, some even with their parents' wands as seen in Goblet of Fire. No, I really truly believe the Trace is placed only on kids who start formal learning at Hogwarts, and no before than at the beginning of the first school term. (Hence, Hermione apparently didn't get any trouble by practicing spells at home even before she literally left to Hogwarts.) But, anyway, as said the when it's placed on or removed is not the point of this article. I wish to discuss [i]why[/i] it exsists at all, which, as I believe my article points out - clearly is not to ensure the secrecy of the magical kind or even to prevent underage magic. Because if it was for such purposes they would've made it detect the person instead of just the spell, time and place.

dragonsmemory If it didn't detect the spell, place, and time, HOW WOULD THE MINISTRY ENFORCE THE STATUTE OF SECRECY? You need a who, what, where, when, why, and how for a good case. The Trace picks up what, where, and when. That information then can be used to find who. After that, the Ministry can then inquire as to why and how. Let's use a famous example: the summer of 1995. Once Harry cast thespell, the Trace alerted the Ministry about the following: WHAT: Patronus Charm WHERE: Little Whinging, Surrey WHEN: ((somewhere around)) 10:23 pm It was fairly easy to pinpoint whho it was. Harry is the only wizard in the area (Squibs like Mrs. Figg don't count). They summoned Harry to a hearing to get thewhy. *** Now, I'm going to address the previous point. The series only followed Harry's perspective. Harry was sent to live with his Muggle relatives in a town with a magical population of zero until he arrived. Doesn't that seem suspicious? Special allowances must haave been made for Harry's accidental magic for those ten years. I realize it sounds outlaandish, but when placed in conjunction with the circumstances, it makes logical sense. *** And now on tok the point before that. This one, in all honesty, is the easiest of all. THE TRACE EXISTS TO ENFORCE THE STATUTE OF SECRECY, AS DOES THE REASONABLE RESTRICTION FOR UNDERAGE SORCERY. That's it. You will probably counter thisby bringing up Rita Skeeter's quote: "The Prophet exists tok sell itself." She was right, you know. If it didn't, it wouldn't be the most read news sourced in Wizarding Britain. *** And now for my closing point. You mentioned the following: "But then I realized it doesn't really makemuch of a difference if it is or isn't removed…" Imagine the Wizarding world if the Trace never breaks. No one could perform magic without tghe noktices from the Ministry. Now imagine if it never existed. Young witches and wizards would perform all sorts of magic in front of ((and on) Muggles WITHOUT ANY FORM OF PUNISHMENT. The Statute of Secrecy would not evenexist. Muggles would turn tok wizards to solve all their problems. Asses like Voldemort would have a field day hunting Miggles IN THE OPEN WITHOUT FEAR OF PUNISHMENT. So you see, it would be anarchy if the Trace neverexisted okr never broke.

dragonsmemory One last note. Harry woke up on his seventeenth birtday and was immediately able to do magic. He Summoned his glasses first thing.

bendaimmortal Did you read this article? As in your example of the summer of 1995 doesn't work because it [i]could[/i] have been [i]anyone[/i]. Even if Harry was the only wizard [i]living[/i] on that area it doesn't mean he's the only magical person to ever set a foot there and do magic. And still, it's obvious from the case of Harry getting the blame for Dobby's magic, that the MoM doesn't give a shit about investigating further than what their alarms tell them. If the MoM really cared about the secrecy and fair play, they would've had the Trace go right down to the identity of the offender, instead of just the what-where-when. *** And I don't think Harry had any special allowances, because there'd be no sense for the MoM to supervise [i]any[/i] person under 11 years of age when most usually start their formal learning - becaue if they did, their alarms would be going off every second every day, not to mention it would become a total chaos. And I don't see anything suspicious about Harry being the only magical person in the town. It's not like anyone could affect where Lily's sister happened to live. Nor who wanted to live in that town and who not. *** ---[i]"And now on tok the point before that. This one, in all honesty, is the easiest of all. THE TRACE EXISTS TO ENFORCE THE STATUTE OF SECRECY, AS DOES THE REASONABLE RESTRICTION FOR UNDERAGE SORCERY."[/i]--- You don't have to use capslock. I can see normal text. And I agree that on the paper it sure exists for that purpose. But my point is that the MoM certainly doesn't work it that way. And no I wouldn't have brought up that Rita Skeeter quote, I didn't even remember such exists. Another reason is that I'm not sure if it works too well for a comparasion. *** ---[i]"And now for my closing point. You mentioned the following: "But then I realized it doesn't really makemuch of a difference if it is or isn't removed…" Imagine the Wizarding world if the Trace never breaks. No one could perform magic without tghe noktices from the Ministry."[/i]--- Please notice that I was not talking about it [i]ever[/i] breaking. I was talking about my earlier ponderings about if it's removed or not if someone leaves Hogwarts before his/her 17th birthday. As in that it doesn't make much of a difference if it's lifted off of [i]a minor[/i] or not, because the Trace doesn't work as it should anyway. ---[i]"Now imagine if it never existed. Young witches and wizards would perform all sorts of magic in front of ((and on) Muggles WITHOUT ANY FORM OF PUNISHMENT."[/i]--- Except from their parents. Which the MoM anyway expects to happen first and foremost, instead of jumping in immediately. But please do notice that at no point have I ever suggested that the Trace should not exist at all. I have only been critisizing that it seems to exist with the wrong motives when looked into further than the written word on the law books.

dragonsmemory Of course I read it. I wiouldn't haaved so much tok say if I didn't. Since when has the Ministry ever done ANYTHING right? Harry is the only wizard living in Litle Whinging. I invite you to revisit Harry's hearing in OOTP. Hmm, people not affecting the home of the famous Harry Potter? I'm fairly certain Dumbledore had at least a partial hand in the circumstances, however, there is an entire organization that wants Hearry dead. I used the capslock to show emphasis, to make that point stand out. The Ministry doesn't work at all. You can pretty much count on me to remember random stuff like that. For your reference, it was in OOTP during the Hogsmeade visit (the same day as the disaster date with Cho). I made those two exaamples as a worst-case scenario to shows what could hhappen with the most extreme cases. And if I'm notf mistaken, the Ministry does jump in right away, with a letter informing the householld what happened. It might also help if you put that (your point) in big bold print at the top of the article, instead of this whole cat-and-mouse dance. On a side note, please read "Wild and Crazy Theories: Theory #1: The True Passage of the Elder Wand." It's an interesting theory of mine. I am an Aspergian, so my train of thought runs on different tracks than yours.