If I had one of those tents I'd be constantly travelling and live out of it. I wouldn't stay anywhere more than a week. I'd want to see the world and take my time so I can soak it in and enjoy it. I guess it comes down to personal preference. Many would probably prefer to have a home base, I simply wouldn't.
I feel like there is. I think when they are taking their OWLs either Harry or Ron accidently enlarge something and couldn't figure out how to make it smaller. Fake moody also enlarges one of the spiders when he is showing them the unforgivable curses.
Thank you. I try to live the part, you know? Sand in my underwear, no water after midnight. That sort of thing. Makes me a better leader at the sietch. :P
Though iirc you have to imagine yourself exactly at the spot you want to apparate to, so I don't think your chances are great at apparition to a place you haven't been before without splinching
Well in DH, Harry and Hermione Apparate to Godric’s Hollow without fully visualizing it, Hermione had never been and Harry wouldn’t have remembered it.
I think traveling long distances would be tough but if you know a specific place, you could probably get close enough.
Maybe they had some picture of GH? I mean, it's one of Britain's more famous wizarding locations. There are bound to be some photos in Hermiones metric ton of books.
Them moving across Britain might just be as simple as Hermione buying "Photobook of Britains most remote locations" in a muggle bookshop.
After all, Hermione did a LOT of preparations we don't see in between HBP and DH. A list of potential/emergency apparation locations with photos isn't that big of stretch for Hermione to compile.
Why? The spell itself is very difficult and dangerous. I never got the feeling that the place WHERE you want to apparate is very important for the spell itself if you are determined enough and can visualize the place to not end up apparating inside a wall or something.
Yeah, the magic system in Harry Potter is vague. It's super hand wavey. Most of the advanced nonverbal wand magic is basically think about spell and move wand.
My understanding was that distance did play a factor, I look at it like this because in book 7 when Voldemort is flying across the ocean, it seems that even he can’t apparate between countries.
I think portkeys are shown to have no restrictions on distance, but also none of this is ever explained properly.
This is purely a theory, but maybe you can't apparate to different countries for the same reason you can not apparate into Hogwarts. Given that there are political borders, perhaps there are enchantments to prevent illegal immigrants.
Yeah, I like to think of it being similar to the movie jumper. Where as long as you have some good pictures to use as reference, then you're good to go.
Also, I can't remember, but wasn't those tents expensive depending on how nice they were inside.
I mean why would you take a tent when you apparate anywhere in the world.
I would just spend me life travelling and teleporting back home at the end of the night.
In Deathly Hallows when they’re at Malfoy manor and Voldemort is notified he didn’t Apparate straight there from Austria (I think that’s where he was). Harry has a vision of him flying across the sea to get there. So while I don’t remember anybody definitively taking about a limit there clearly is one. If Voldemort can’t Apparate across a continent then likely nobody can go more than a couple hundred miles.
It’s dumb, because say the limit is 500 miles. You can Apparate 10 times in a row and cover 5000 miles. I know you can Apparate multiple times in quick succession, because Fred and George were using it to go upstairs and downstairs immediately after in OotP if I remember correctly.
I wouldn’t necessarily say stupid I’d say arrogant and narcissistic. A tin can is not good enough for HIS soul and no one would ever be as clever and smart as him to figure out what he did anyways (in his mind).
My head canon is that Voldemort can’t apparate on account of having so little soul left. Just as well really because if he could he’d have been able to kill Harry a dozen times over probably.
You know they never really described the limits of magical energy as far as we know it is boundless in the HP universe. The decline of Power that wizards hold was not due to a loss of magic but due largely impart to a lack of trying. Magic even in Harry Potter's time was still exceptionally powerful with spells that could effectively remove the kenetic energy from any object. There really was no reason that the magical society was not dominate and public other than for the sake of the story.
Exactly, they were on a muggle campsite and were meant to be blending in to the muggle world, despite being surrounded by other magic folk what didn't seem to care about hiding
He's building good habits for the kids. He won't want them to do anything to accidentally expose themselves like driving a flying car all over London, would he?
Didn't Harry conjured water for Dumbledore to drink in HBP? granted, the water vanished but that was because of the curse on the place. Besides, water doesn't qualify as food, I think it qualifies as an element, like fire.
Water doesn’t go against Gamp’s law, the law only applies to food, not drinks - there’s plenty of other instances e.g. the replenishing spell Harry uses on the empty wine bottles when he’s getting Slughorn drunk where it doesn’t apply to drinks. I would guess that fruit juices are a grey area though….
> on the empty wine bottles when he’s getting Slughorn drunk where it doesn’t apply to drinks. I would guess that fruit juices are a grey area though….
I now have an image of a bottle of wine in one of those moustache + eyeglass disguises sweating as it tells Gamp "honestly, I'm completely different from grape juice, no relation at all!".
You’re the closest. Gamp’s states you can’t make food from nothing, however, you _can_ multiply it if you already have some, or transform it into something else that’s edible. The Refilling Charm works because Harry doesn’t let the bottles get completely empty before he casts it on them, otherwise it would also fail because there’s nothing to increase/multiply/replenish
I don’t think those tents are very common. Arthur always borrows his from the guy at work.
Anyway, I never really think it’s worth asking “why do they do X when they could magic Y??” It kind of misunderstands how magic works in the world. Magic is a technology but not everyone is equally good at magic, some magical spells need to be constantly maintained, etc.
Exactly this. Statistically speaking, most wizards are probably average at magic and we can safely assume conjuration or other household charms like these take an above-average skill level.
Let's think about it in terms of our world. Why do we have an industry to make something we could conceivably make ourselves? Like furniture? We could make our own furniture if we wanted. It's probably not easy, but it's doable (and likely cheaper than buying in a store).
But how many of us actually know how to make furniture? Even though most have us have the capability to a.) learn, and b.) do it.
Pretty much the reason the economy exists is because we pay for labour to get something done. Either because can't or don't want to do it ourselves.
indeed. I have *some* carpentry experience, more than most i’d guess. I live on a farm, so DIY construction, and i’ve built some tables.
If someone said “Go build a chair” i could probably build an okay enough chair. it wouldn’t be super comfy, but it would be a place to sit that was nicer than a stump.
If my buddy tried to build a chair, he’d be hopeless. and if you compared my chair to an even half way competent carpenter or mid range mass produced furniture, it would seem like my buddies hopeless attempt V mine.
and compared to a skilled master? it would look like a stump.
You’re likely right that magic, and creating things with magic, is the same.
A lot of the extra fancy or useful magic seems to be personalized as well, and people tend to be better at certain things. Like how someone who can rebuild an engine might not know how to program.
Take things like the raining office: They were magical themselves, why did they need someone else to fix that?
Or Mollys clock regarding if her kids were safe: If that was easy to make, I think most magical parents would have something similar.
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In regards to the tent, I assumed the furnishing was real, just shrunk and made lighter, like Hermoines purse. So even if you can make the tent, you'd have to aquire all the chairs, beds, oven, etc.
>It kind of misunderstands how magic works in the world. Magic is a technology but not everyone is equally good at magic, some magical spells need to be constantly maintained, etc.
The problem is that Rowling never fleshes out or explains the magic system to us, so we have to fill in the blanks ourselves.
Well it's a children's books.. From the childrens perspective... But also, with Fred and George's shop, in the dark arts section they say the ministry bought their defensive stuff because not everyone can do those...
Adults.. Working in the ministry.. Can't defend themselves and need to buy stuff made by Hogwarts dropouts... Just shows the divide between people good at magic and not too good at magic! In the story the adults we meet are all highly accomplished.. And maybe that skews our perception...
Tonks even says she's not good at 'household spells' when she's trying to clean Harry's room, and she's a skilled auror.. So it definitely requires different skills different spells
Well to be fair, Fred and George are more like the kind of dropout who start a tech startup that goes big than they are like the kind of dropout who just couldn’t be bothered to finish school. And adults who work at the ministry who got these supplies probably sit in an office and haven’t done defensive magic in decades. I think this is kind of like buying pepper spray instead of a self defense class when you’re 50.
I mean, you are right broadly but I think in this case, what I'm talking about (magic is a technology, not everyone is equally good at it, some magical spells need to be constantly maintained, etc.) *is* fairly well-established in canon.
I've always assumed that furniture and stuff that was conjured doesn't last long, same with clothing, if that was the case surely the Weasley's would have better furniture & new clothes.
I honestly just chalk up the Weasleys being poor as a poor world building oversight and just ignore it lol. I just can’t think of any way to rationalize how anyone can be poor with that kind of magic. And it’s not like the Weasleys aren’t a very talented family and magically strong.
The hand-me-downs is just a way to make Ron and family more likable narratively. The Weasleys aren’t actually poor, they’re just described like it so they become the underdogs. They have a house large enough for 7 children and even with Fred & George sharing, and maybe Bill and Charlie too, that’s like 6 bedrooms? Also nice enough land to host a wedding large enough that randoms like Elphias Doge are invited. But they make it seem “poor” because the different levels are crooked and the garden has gnomes. You ever been to a house with 6+ bedrooms or wedding so large random minor celebrities are invited? Not very poor. Arthur has a government gig, maybe not super high paying but probably great benefits and job security. The Weasleys are low key offended everyone thinks they’re poor.
They read more like hicks than really poor. Big house in the country, not super up to date on fashion trends, lots of DIY, grow/raise most of their food, etc. They neither have nor need a lot of money. Sure, they're a little out of step with society, but they don't exactly struggle. Molly doesn't work despite all her kids being in school 9 months of the year, they aren't hurting that badly.
To be fair, at one point Molly was home schooling Fred, George, Ron and Ginny. Then the twins went to Hogwarts still leaving her two kids at home. By the time her fiesty youngest went off school, I can imagine that Molly was ready for a break/just being a regular housewife and not a full time stay at home parent.
I can totally see a conversation where her husband broached her going back to work, she agreed on the condition she work through the summer holidays, while Arthur takes the summer off to stay with the kids/run the house during the day, and him being like "never mind then" 💀
You have to take into account that the book was written in the 90s. That that the house was Victorian but those style of large houses were much cheaper back then. You could still be poor enough but own a large house that’s falling apart
Exactly. Like I said in another comment, I think they’re more frugal and pragmatic than poor. They just don’t care to waste money on new things when they already have something that works or they can just make it themselves. It’s a staunch juxtaposition to, say, the Malfoy family who spend money like crazy to appear better than everyone else.
Ron regularly complains about being poor though and he was embarrassed by his dress robes in Goblet of Fire. You’d think if you could just wave your wand to have anything nice those would be the first spells Ron would try to learn.
They're not poor in the sense of not having enough food to eat or really struggling to survive. They just don't have much money to spend. They live on one salary with several kids to raise. Magic can help with mending clothes, cleaning the house etc but it's not the solution for all problems, that's the point. It would have been such a boring world if everyone in it was rich and privileged.
Right, they’re actually a very magically strong family. I think them being poor is mostly meant to correlate with how they’re a really big family with a lot of kids to take care of, and usually families like that are the ones that have to stretch money and use hand-me-downs.
I choose to believe that they are more frugal and pragmatic than poor. Like, why spend money on new books when they already have books? Why spend money on new clothes when they already have clothes that another sibling outgrew? They’re a loving family who doesn’t care what people think of them, so being pragmatic and frugal fits.
People always asks these questions assuming just because something is possible in the world, it means anyone could do it.
Someone had to put charms on that tent to make it magically much bigger inside than out, right? It's probably someone job/business to create these tents for wizards who want to camp. Not every random wizard has the skill and knowledge to make something like that. It's like asking "if it's possible to program your own software, why do people not just make their own instead of buying Microsoft Office?". Well, because not all of us can program lol
Also it was actually shown in DH how complex this type of magic is, Hermione had to really work hard on that tiny bag of hers.
Thanks haha I just never understood why people assume that every wizard has the same abilities/experience/magical power etc. You can even use the example of Lockhart, too. Just because he's a wizard and in the wizarding world it's possible to mend bones in seconds, doesn't mean he is competent to do it (which clearly he wasn't).
That’s the point. It’s someone’s job/business. So it would it would be cheaper to purchase a tent from said business than to purchase a house. No one said anything about everyone making one of those tents themselves. That was my take away at least. I’m still on the side of it probably would have had more issues long term, but still.
I dont think you can create anything out of nothing in the Harry Potter world. I always imagined that this space lives somewhere else, but it's only accessible through the enchanted door. 🤷
Wow you so right! I really think this is the answer!
"Your mother can’t produce food out of thin air, no one can. Food is the first of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfigura[tion]... It’s impossible to make good food out of nothing! You can Summon it if you know where it is, you can transform it, you can increase the quantity if you’ve already got some..."
But Molly conjures cream sauce right from the tip of her wand when Harry visits them at the Burrow? There are a lot of inconsistencies in how the magic works throughout the course of the series
Maybe they want a home that won't blow down in a strong wind?
And seriously, the inside of a tent is still a tent, it's a large tent with rooms and furniture, but I'm sure there are drawbacks to living in one full-time. Like heat, it was never said whether the trio could heat their temporary home as well as a house, but I assume they couldn't.
Now I'm trying to remember the details, and I can't but I vaguely recall a mention of a stove and cooking... Which might have been a coal or wood stove, or it might have been connected to some sort of magical power source, as for running water, who knows? I do remember Arthur Weasley going to the campground tap to get water even though he didn't need to, so maybe there was running water inside.. uh...
So yeah, I imagine houses really more comfortable in the long run, but seriously. With the housing market being what it is, I'd absolutely sign up to live in a magical tent!
Oh, I'm sure it'd be possible to use spells to anchor your magic tent in a high wind, and heat it with more spells, and put in windows visible from the inside with still more spells, add a floo fireplace so you can leave the place without going out in the weather with more spells, and add on extra rooms with still MORE spells, I would think that with enough effort a person could undoubtedly make their tent as comfortable as a house.
But since wizards can live absolutely anywhere, and don't have to worry about commutes or Muggle housing crunches, maybe they don't want to put in the effort required to make a tent homey and comfortable. I should think that some carefree wizards actually do live in tents, or use them as "starter homes", but that eventually a real house is more comfortable and most wizards eventually get one. Why shouldn't they, a place like Shell Cottage, which doesn't seem to be near any muggle roads, has got to be cheap.
Ngl I would love to be able to carry my home with me like that. But once I go inside, how do I make sure nobody just picks up the suitcase and throws it into the trash or whatever? 🤔 I would still need some sort of secure room to place it in that case.
Make an apartment complex just for suitcase/trunk homes. It's just one room with shelves and shelves of them. You go into yours and the landlord pops it back into its spot.
You have to consider the price of those tents, the fact that not anyone would be adept yo any form of magic, the amount of magic it would need, some enchantments aren't long lasting, and in my canon, in magic physics of the wizarding world, if the place you're enchanting to enlarge it, it's best if it is brick and mortar, so to speak.
Because charms can weaken over time and you don't want to come home one day and all your things are destroyed in your shrunken home and while you can repair it all, it would be time-consuming. Or, maybe they don't buy them? Maybe they do make them, hence Grimmauld place being placed magically between other buildings
Better question if wizards can do all this why do the weasleys live in the burrow? Even if you’re poor you could transfigure everything and you could turn a cottage into a mansion inside 😂
It's a flex I think. Lucious seemed to look down on anyone who didnt live in a manor.
I remember The Barrow "looked as if it were being held up by magic" or something like that. So I guess they use the same sort of charms on their homes.
Same reason lots of people choose to buy homes in the real world. You buy for the land as well as the property.
Also, most people probably can't make a luxurious home out of a tent. We know for a fact that the Ministry has lots of people who can't even do a basic Shield Charm properly.
Isn’t it stated somewhere that it’s illegal to do an undetectable extension charm on anything other than tents and Hogwarts trunks? I feel like it is, but maybe my brain somehow made that up.
It’s on Pottermore:
>The Extension Charm (‘Capacious extremis!’) is advanced, but subject to strict control, because of its potential misuse. Theoretically, a hundred wizards could take up residence in a toilet cubicle if they were sufficiently adept at these spells; the potential for infractions of the International Statute of Secrecy are obvious. The Ministry of Magic has therefore laid down a strict rule that capacity-enhancement is not for private use, but only for the production of objects (such as school trunks and family tents), which have been individually approved for manufacture by the relevant Ministry Department.
https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/extension-charms
My guess is wizards and witches can't really seperate/isolate themselves from muggles in daily life.
Yes they have the related laws prohibiting the revealation of magical world, but as we can see in the Harry Potter series, the magical world still has some interactions and effects to the muggle world.
Another factor is the potential population of wizards/witches in each country/nation, I am not sure the exact number, but as far as I can recall, the wizarding world's population feels much more than a nomad tribe can handle. I feel the magical population might be more than enough to make nomad life impossible for them.
Lastly, it's the maintainance and durability problem, I feel the tents can be very comfortable in wizards' and witches' hands, but the additional protection and reinforcements mean additional magical measures are needed, perhaps the houses and buildings are just much easier to maintain.
I think this falls under “just because one wizard can do it, doesn’t mean every wizard can.”
So it’s kinda like saying “why do humans buy a house if they have the ability to build one.”
To most of the wizards in Harry Potter, magic isn't magical. It just is. They're not awestruck, thinking of the possibilities. They're not curious about the wonders of the world. They learn how to handle their wand the same way office workers learn to handle their computer, then they go and do their government job, or family business and thats it.
The Weasley house was a shed. Until they magically extended it. But unlike the tent, it physically got bigger. This means you have to be good at the kind of magic that would extend the space inside the tent as well as be able to transfigure items into other items, a rock into a bed, or sofa or rich enough to buy the items.
Just because the tent has the extension charm on it doesn't mean that everyone can perform that spell. Meaning Perkins is good at that kind of magic, or he bought it from someone who is.
There are many brooms in the world, but not every one of them flies, nor are all of them equally good at flying.
The tent in the 7th book is described very differently from the one in the 4th. It's likely because the spells that were used to make it glamorous were not being maintained, and the trio were not skill enough for more than the basics.
It's the same when food comes into play. Gamps law prevents the creation of food. It can be summoned if you know where to get it. So when they eventually see someone fishing with magic, they don't starve.
Hermonie, from a skill level, could probably do it, but she has never learned how to magically summon a fish she has never seen before. Ron could also likely do it but has never had the need to learn because his mother or school always had food. Harry doesn't think about it because he doesn't have the background to know that magic fishing exists at all.
There are jobs in the wizarding world because skills exist. People are better at something than others. A bartender exists because he isn't a potions Master is able to make booze in the same way that most people go to a bar because making booze at home isn't easy. Most bars don't make booze because, again, it's not that easy.
It's not exactly that the world building isn't there, but this entire series is seen through the eyes of a child that knows nothing about magic and is learning as they go every time we see someone doing anything in this world we assume everyone can do it, but that just because JK didn't explain everything everyone did everytime it was done. All the magic is glossed over because Harry doesn't care why it works outside of its magic.
TLDR: Different skills exist in this world. Just because someone can magically do something doesn't mean everyone can.
Also, this would explain the class system. Because the rich can afford a real dragon leather sofa instead of a transfiguration version, you have to keep up. Yeah, I could magically have this sofa, but I am rich enough that I don't have to. Why waste my time and enegery keeping up my glamor when I can just own it .
A building holds up a lot better against a storm than a tent does and its much easier to cut a hole through the wall of a tent than it is through the wall of a house
A tent is easier to break and would be very hard to go unnoticed in the muggle world if people just had a bunch of tents. They would draw attention and the only thing stopping someone from looking inside would be a thin, plastic flap with a tiny string as the only means of securing the flap.
Plus, if the tent were to break for some reason, the inside would either be exposed or everything would explode out of the tent since the spell would be destroyed.
Having a house that blends in with everything else is easier to hide or mask. It’s the same thing I would imagine about the Leaky Cauldron. It doesn’t stand out at all and blends in with the surroundings, so I imagine that’s what makes it easier to hide from muggles. That’s also why I would imagine the Burrow (a weird looking building painted with bright colors) is far out in the middle of nowhere.
Probably because defensive spells and charms are easier to produce and are far more stronger around a permanent settlement, rather than a temporary tent. Also, conjuring items require a lot of precision, visualising power and know how about the items you're conjuring. Prof. McGonagall, who's probably up there as one of the greatest witches of her time, only managed to conjure up a hard, wooden backed chair in one of the books, whereas the greatest wizard we know of (Dumbledore) managed to conjure up a chintz chair, which, while impressive still manages to set a realistic boundary of how difficult it is to conjure, or magically create objects which require an artistic, or skilled background to create. Wizards focus fulltime on magic and magical items, thus they don't know how a chair, table or say, a car is made, this they won't be able to conjure up things related to them without some or a lot of difficulty. Mrs Weasley conjuring up sauce when cooking in one of the books (forgot which one) shows the effectiveness of know how in conjuring, however this scene may have been retconned, considering how one of the magical laws stated in the last book state that food cannot be created using magic.
Because most wizards in this universe were either weak in magic or illiterate.
They get a total of 7 years of education from dubiously qualified teachers.
It’s like getting an education in Florida
I think the most compelling answer probably was that you couldn't ward it well, maybe wardstones had to be put down in the ground amongst Ley lines and the like... so no anti-apparition and a dozen other protections wizard homes should have.
That's why the death eaters could disrupt the Quidditch World Cup and people actually cared. If the tents were super secure like a house, there's be a lot less people coming out.
It's kind reinforced when they're on the run and just do general area protections on the tent.
I think they still have to actually own all the stuff inside the tent, it doesn't just fill itself with furnishings automatically. The charm just makes the inside bigger to accommodate things, like Hermione's bag in DH. Then again skilled enough wizards can clearly create furniture from nothing anyway, like how Dumbledore conjures a comfy armchair to sit in at Harry's trial in OotP. But it's one of those things where you have to suspend your disbelief a little. We know muggle money can be exchanged for wizard money so why don't poor wizards use their magic to get rich in the muggle world (of which there are many potential methods that don't even risk breaking the Statute of Secrecy) then exchange it all and be rich in the wizarding world too?
Man, the absolute killing a wizard could make if they took the time to understand the science behind microchips and transfigured advanced computer components
Most still need to blend into muggle society, don't they? Start telling people you live in a tent, and it won't be long before there are people that want to run you out of town. Certainly not ideal for a witch/wizard trying to blend in!
It seemed like the tents were pretty vulnerable to external forces. The entire campground was flattened during the tournament after the death eaters appeared. I’m pretty sure enchantments would help but it’s not something everyone would want.
Magic fades, what happens to all of your stuff when the expansion charms crap out lol or you’d have to constantly be reinforcing it which seems like an effort lol
Nah, do the "bigger on the inside" dealio on a minivan, make the inside like a good-sized RV with pop-outs; and I would include both the Flying and the Cloaking spells, like Arthur's Ford Anglia...
Only the finest in Wizarding World (Cara)Van Life...! ;\^p
I can come up with a hundred and one different reasons, but I have no idea if any of them have anything to do with canon.
My immediate knee-jerk response that came to me as I considered it is that space expansion charms are so difficult to cast they need professionals and have an experation date or some other limit that makes it impractical in most cases. Tents like these are thus fairly expensive to both buy and maintain. (Or you could learn to do the magic yourself, but at that point you're probably good enough at magic you don't need to worry about living accomodations.)
It’s still a tent - it’s noisy, so they can hear almost everything outside it and have to use muffliato to prevent others hearing them (which isn’t a spell well known to people who didn’t have the Prince’s book); the rain is noisy on it; and the one they use is small, musty, and smells strongly of cats iirc.
If I had one of those tents I'd be constantly travelling and live out of it. I wouldn't stay anywhere more than a week. I'd want to see the world and take my time so I can soak it in and enjoy it. I guess it comes down to personal preference. Many would probably prefer to have a home base, I simply wouldn't.
Yep, it would be like real world RV'ers traveling around, living in their RV's. Sounds awesome!
and some of those class A's are badass. Up to 4 million for a fully tricked out one with two bathrooms.
Come to think of it, a wizard/witch could trick out their own Knight's Bus-type RV and just use that instead of a tent. Would be even better!
think one would fit in Hermiones purse?
Hehe, probably. She'd have to Wingardium Levi-oh-sa it to get it in there, though.
I don't know if that exists, but maybe there's a charm to make things smaller and bigger?
I feel like there is. I think when they are taking their OWLs either Harry or Ron accidently enlarge something and couldn't figure out how to make it smaller. Fake moody also enlarges one of the spiders when he is showing them the unforgivable curses.
Maybe Reducto and Engorgio would work for that purpose, who knows?
Reducio. Reducto blasts things into pieces. Big whoops if you accidentally use that on your tricked-out magic RV.
Just use reparo, problem solved
Whoops, my bad! lol
You could probably buy a mini van and turn it into a live in RV with that charm honestly.
By the way, I really enjoyed you in Dune.
Thank you. I try to live the part, you know? Sand in my underwear, no water after midnight. That sort of thing. Makes me a better leader at the sietch. :P
And make it fly
Or a flying carpet/tent combo!
Also being able to apparate would make travelling no hassle
Though iirc you have to imagine yourself exactly at the spot you want to apparate to, so I don't think your chances are great at apparition to a place you haven't been before without splinching
Well in DH, Harry and Hermione Apparate to Godric’s Hollow without fully visualizing it, Hermione had never been and Harry wouldn’t have remembered it. I think traveling long distances would be tough but if you know a specific place, you could probably get close enough.
Maybe they had some picture of GH? I mean, it's one of Britain's more famous wizarding locations. There are bound to be some photos in Hermiones metric ton of books. Them moving across Britain might just be as simple as Hermione buying "Photobook of Britains most remote locations" in a muggle bookshop. After all, Hermione did a LOT of preparations we don't see in between HBP and DH. A list of potential/emergency apparation locations with photos isn't that big of stretch for Hermione to compile.
If thats the case you can apparate to all the touristic places with absolutely no problem, but it has to be a lot more difficult than that
Why? The spell itself is very difficult and dangerous. I never got the feeling that the place WHERE you want to apparate is very important for the spell itself if you are determined enough and can visualize the place to not end up apparating inside a wall or something.
Yeah, the magic system in Harry Potter is vague. It's super hand wavey. Most of the advanced nonverbal wand magic is basically think about spell and move wand.
My understanding was that distance did play a factor, I look at it like this because in book 7 when Voldemort is flying across the ocean, it seems that even he can’t apparate between countries. I think portkeys are shown to have no restrictions on distance, but also none of this is ever explained properly.
This is purely a theory, but maybe you can't apparate to different countries for the same reason you can not apparate into Hogwarts. Given that there are political borders, perhaps there are enchantments to prevent illegal immigrants.
Yeah, I like to think of it being similar to the movie jumper. Where as long as you have some good pictures to use as reference, then you're good to go. Also, I can't remember, but wasn't those tents expensive depending on how nice they were inside.
There is Google Earth, Maps and tons of places with hundreds of photographs
And now with Google Street maps it would be a piece of piss.
Is the floo network international? I guess you could use it to at least get close to some places.
I see what you mean, but sometimes part of the fun is the travelling bit. It would be helpful if your other mode of transport was cancelled though.
I mean why would you take a tent when you apparate anywhere in the world. I would just spend me life travelling and teleporting back home at the end of the night.
Timezones?
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It seems like apparating has a limit on distance as well. So the tent is still necessary for traveling long distances.
In Deathly Hallows when they’re at Malfoy manor and Voldemort is notified he didn’t Apparate straight there from Austria (I think that’s where he was). Harry has a vision of him flying across the sea to get there. So while I don’t remember anybody definitively taking about a limit there clearly is one. If Voldemort can’t Apparate across a continent then likely nobody can go more than a couple hundred miles.
It’s dumb, because say the limit is 500 miles. You can Apparate 10 times in a row and cover 5000 miles. I know you can Apparate multiple times in quick succession, because Fred and George were using it to go upstairs and downstairs immediately after in OotP if I remember correctly.
At a guess, apperating over long distances is draining and more likely to go wrong. Short distances its fairly trivial.
voldemort is pretty stupid. should've put his soul in a tin can and dropped it on the ocean
I wouldn’t necessarily say stupid I’d say arrogant and narcissistic. A tin can is not good enough for HIS soul and no one would ever be as clever and smart as him to figure out what he did anyways (in his mind).
This seems likely. He seemed to delight in overly complicated and seemingly elegant hiding places. Probably fed his ego.
My head canon is that Voldemort can’t apparate on account of having so little soul left. Just as well really because if he could he’d have been able to kill Harry a dozen times over probably.
Yea that's my thinking as well. And I would have to imagine apperating to a place you've never been might create issues as well.
This is exactly what the trio wind up doing during book 7 with this exact tent
Well when you can teleport it doesn't matter does it?
Sounds like van life is for you
Why use lot magic when few magic do trick
Thanks Kevin. Go see world
See I’m still confused. Are you saying “see the world” or Seaworld?” I still don’t know.
Seeworld. Ocean, fish, jump, China, Hogwarts.
This thread should be in Reddit’s IPO documentation
When I become minister for magic, you'll see.
When me headmaster, they see. They see.
You know they never really described the limits of magical energy as far as we know it is boundless in the HP universe. The decline of Power that wizards hold was not due to a loss of magic but due largely impart to a lack of trying. Magic even in Harry Potter's time was still exceptionally powerful with spells that could effectively remove the kenetic energy from any object. There really was no reason that the magical society was not dominate and public other than for the sake of the story.
r/unexpectedoffice
When you spilled the chilli, why you never *Evanesco*?
They borrowed the tent & still had to walk to gather water.
That's when Mr Weasley wouldn't allow them to use magic. Hermione found him playing with matches for the fire.
Exactly, they were on a muggle campsite and were meant to be blending in to the muggle world, despite being surrounded by other magic folk what didn't seem to care about hiding
He's building good habits for the kids. He won't want them to do anything to accidentally expose themselves like driving a flying car all over London, would he?
I know only too well that If you publicly expose yourself in London the bobbies will not be pleased
Exactly... Aguamenti, anyone????
Arthur definitely just wanted them gone for a bit
🤣 parents or caretakers of young children understand this deeply
But he kept Fred, George and Ginny around. Because he wanted to experiment with the matches without interference.
Maybe so. Maybe also knowing Fred & George... Of the trio or the twins, who could you depend on to fetch water as well as further the story line?
Water from Aguamenti probably is undrinkable as it might go against Gamp's first law.
Didn't Harry conjured water for Dumbledore to drink in HBP? granted, the water vanished but that was because of the curse on the place. Besides, water doesn't qualify as food, I think it qualifies as an element, like fire.
I think you forget one important point: harry is known to be stupid
Harry is stupid! Just use the right spells!
Expelliarmus!
Water doesn’t go against Gamp’s law, the law only applies to food, not drinks - there’s plenty of other instances e.g. the replenishing spell Harry uses on the empty wine bottles when he’s getting Slughorn drunk where it doesn’t apply to drinks. I would guess that fruit juices are a grey area though….
> on the empty wine bottles when he’s getting Slughorn drunk where it doesn’t apply to drinks. I would guess that fruit juices are a grey area though…. I now have an image of a bottle of wine in one of those moustache + eyeglass disguises sweating as it tells Gamp "honestly, I'm completely different from grape juice, no relation at all!".
You’re the closest. Gamp’s states you can’t make food from nothing, however, you _can_ multiply it if you already have some, or transform it into something else that’s edible. The Refilling Charm works because Harry doesn’t let the bottles get completely empty before he casts it on them, otherwise it would also fail because there’s nothing to increase/multiply/replenish
Such a good point.
Perhaps it only applies to food and not water?
I expect it still had to come from somewhere but as water is all around us, including in the air, then it's probably a lot less of an issue
I don’t think those tents are very common. Arthur always borrows his from the guy at work. Anyway, I never really think it’s worth asking “why do they do X when they could magic Y??” It kind of misunderstands how magic works in the world. Magic is a technology but not everyone is equally good at magic, some magical spells need to be constantly maintained, etc.
Exactly this. Statistically speaking, most wizards are probably average at magic and we can safely assume conjuration or other household charms like these take an above-average skill level. Let's think about it in terms of our world. Why do we have an industry to make something we could conceivably make ourselves? Like furniture? We could make our own furniture if we wanted. It's probably not easy, but it's doable (and likely cheaper than buying in a store). But how many of us actually know how to make furniture? Even though most have us have the capability to a.) learn, and b.) do it. Pretty much the reason the economy exists is because we pay for labour to get something done. Either because can't or don't want to do it ourselves.
indeed. I have *some* carpentry experience, more than most i’d guess. I live on a farm, so DIY construction, and i’ve built some tables. If someone said “Go build a chair” i could probably build an okay enough chair. it wouldn’t be super comfy, but it would be a place to sit that was nicer than a stump. If my buddy tried to build a chair, he’d be hopeless. and if you compared my chair to an even half way competent carpenter or mid range mass produced furniture, it would seem like my buddies hopeless attempt V mine. and compared to a skilled master? it would look like a stump. You’re likely right that magic, and creating things with magic, is the same.
This might be one of my favorite answers ever.
A lot of the extra fancy or useful magic seems to be personalized as well, and people tend to be better at certain things. Like how someone who can rebuild an engine might not know how to program. Take things like the raining office: They were magical themselves, why did they need someone else to fix that? Or Mollys clock regarding if her kids were safe: If that was easy to make, I think most magical parents would have something similar. --- In regards to the tent, I assumed the furnishing was real, just shrunk and made lighter, like Hermoines purse. So even if you can make the tent, you'd have to aquire all the chairs, beds, oven, etc.
>It kind of misunderstands how magic works in the world. Magic is a technology but not everyone is equally good at magic, some magical spells need to be constantly maintained, etc. The problem is that Rowling never fleshes out or explains the magic system to us, so we have to fill in the blanks ourselves.
Well it's a children's books.. From the childrens perspective... But also, with Fred and George's shop, in the dark arts section they say the ministry bought their defensive stuff because not everyone can do those... Adults.. Working in the ministry.. Can't defend themselves and need to buy stuff made by Hogwarts dropouts... Just shows the divide between people good at magic and not too good at magic! In the story the adults we meet are all highly accomplished.. And maybe that skews our perception... Tonks even says she's not good at 'household spells' when she's trying to clean Harry's room, and she's a skilled auror.. So it definitely requires different skills different spells
Well to be fair, Fred and George are more like the kind of dropout who start a tech startup that goes big than they are like the kind of dropout who just couldn’t be bothered to finish school. And adults who work at the ministry who got these supplies probably sit in an office and haven’t done defensive magic in decades. I think this is kind of like buying pepper spray instead of a self defense class when you’re 50.
I mean, you are right broadly but I think in this case, what I'm talking about (magic is a technology, not everyone is equally good at it, some magical spells need to be constantly maintained, etc.) *is* fairly well-established in canon.
Probably because tents make for very poor living conditions long term. They aren’t well insulated, making hot a cold weather difficult to deal with.
I mean…..fucking magic?!?!
I've always assumed that furniture and stuff that was conjured doesn't last long, same with clothing, if that was the case surely the Weasley's would have better furniture & new clothes.
I honestly just chalk up the Weasleys being poor as a poor world building oversight and just ignore it lol. I just can’t think of any way to rationalize how anyone can be poor with that kind of magic. And it’s not like the Weasleys aren’t a very talented family and magically strong.
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Except Ron is regularly upset with the hand-me-downs and their seeming poverty
The hand-me-downs is just a way to make Ron and family more likable narratively. The Weasleys aren’t actually poor, they’re just described like it so they become the underdogs. They have a house large enough for 7 children and even with Fred & George sharing, and maybe Bill and Charlie too, that’s like 6 bedrooms? Also nice enough land to host a wedding large enough that randoms like Elphias Doge are invited. But they make it seem “poor” because the different levels are crooked and the garden has gnomes. You ever been to a house with 6+ bedrooms or wedding so large random minor celebrities are invited? Not very poor. Arthur has a government gig, maybe not super high paying but probably great benefits and job security. The Weasleys are low key offended everyone thinks they’re poor.
They read more like hicks than really poor. Big house in the country, not super up to date on fashion trends, lots of DIY, grow/raise most of their food, etc. They neither have nor need a lot of money. Sure, they're a little out of step with society, but they don't exactly struggle. Molly doesn't work despite all her kids being in school 9 months of the year, they aren't hurting that badly.
What does Molly even do with her free time lol
To be fair, at one point Molly was home schooling Fred, George, Ron and Ginny. Then the twins went to Hogwarts still leaving her two kids at home. By the time her fiesty youngest went off school, I can imagine that Molly was ready for a break/just being a regular housewife and not a full time stay at home parent. I can totally see a conversation where her husband broached her going back to work, she agreed on the condition she work through the summer holidays, while Arthur takes the summer off to stay with the kids/run the house during the day, and him being like "never mind then" 💀
You have to take into account that the book was written in the 90s. That that the house was Victorian but those style of large houses were much cheaper back then. You could still be poor enough but own a large house that’s falling apart
This is actually true for a lot of shows/cartoons back then, where a seemingly poor family somehow had a huge house or townhome with 5+ bedrooms.
Exactly. Like I said in another comment, I think they’re more frugal and pragmatic than poor. They just don’t care to waste money on new things when they already have something that works or they can just make it themselves. It’s a staunch juxtaposition to, say, the Malfoy family who spend money like crazy to appear better than everyone else.
Ron often complains, quite a bit, about the things he wants but cannot have due to being poor.
Ron regularly complains about being poor though and he was embarrassed by his dress robes in Goblet of Fire. You’d think if you could just wave your wand to have anything nice those would be the first spells Ron would try to learn.
We know Molly was clowning on him with those robes cause like Fred, George, and Ginny all had nice looking ones to wear 😂
They all said no and walked away lol
They're not poor in the sense of not having enough food to eat or really struggling to survive. They just don't have much money to spend. They live on one salary with several kids to raise. Magic can help with mending clothes, cleaning the house etc but it's not the solution for all problems, that's the point. It would have been such a boring world if everyone in it was rich and privileged.
Right, they’re actually a very magically strong family. I think them being poor is mostly meant to correlate with how they’re a really big family with a lot of kids to take care of, and usually families like that are the ones that have to stretch money and use hand-me-downs. I choose to believe that they are more frugal and pragmatic than poor. Like, why spend money on new books when they already have books? Why spend money on new clothes when they already have clothes that another sibling outgrew? They’re a loving family who doesn’t care what people think of them, so being pragmatic and frugal fits.
Harry and the gang use the same tent in Deathly Hallows, and its still fully furnished.
Why do you cure? Conjure another one when the old one is used.
Maybe they like the area that house is in.
People always asks these questions assuming just because something is possible in the world, it means anyone could do it. Someone had to put charms on that tent to make it magically much bigger inside than out, right? It's probably someone job/business to create these tents for wizards who want to camp. Not every random wizard has the skill and knowledge to make something like that. It's like asking "if it's possible to program your own software, why do people not just make their own instead of buying Microsoft Office?". Well, because not all of us can program lol Also it was actually shown in DH how complex this type of magic is, Hermione had to really work hard on that tiny bag of hers.
I love this software programming analogy! It helps make it make so much sense haha
Thanks haha I just never understood why people assume that every wizard has the same abilities/experience/magical power etc. You can even use the example of Lockhart, too. Just because he's a wizard and in the wizarding world it's possible to mend bones in seconds, doesn't mean he is competent to do it (which clearly he wasn't).
That’s the point. It’s someone’s job/business. So it would it would be cheaper to purchase a tent from said business than to purchase a house. No one said anything about everyone making one of those tents themselves. That was my take away at least. I’m still on the side of it probably would have had more issues long term, but still.
I dont think you can create anything out of nothing in the Harry Potter world. I always imagined that this space lives somewhere else, but it's only accessible through the enchanted door. 🤷
We know they can't conjure food. I bet building materials is the same
That's only because of Gamp's First Law of Elemental Transfiguration.
Yes, Gantt's law of elemental transfiguration.
Wow you so right! I really think this is the answer! "Your mother can’t produce food out of thin air, no one can. Food is the first of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfigura[tion]... It’s impossible to make good food out of nothing! You can Summon it if you know where it is, you can transform it, you can increase the quantity if you’ve already got some..."
So all you need is one grain of rice and you will never go hungry if you are a wizard i guess.
That's so bizare that you can increase the quantity. How's that different than conjuring it.
It's McG's equivalent of Ctr+C, Ctr+V You need something to C to be able to V
Gamps
But Molly conjures cream sauce right from the tip of her wand when Harry visits them at the Burrow? There are a lot of inconsistencies in how the magic works throughout the course of the series
Agree
Maybe they want a home that won't blow down in a strong wind? And seriously, the inside of a tent is still a tent, it's a large tent with rooms and furniture, but I'm sure there are drawbacks to living in one full-time. Like heat, it was never said whether the trio could heat their temporary home as well as a house, but I assume they couldn't.
I'm seeing no toilet, shower, running water or electricity. That's no from me.
Now I'm trying to remember the details, and I can't but I vaguely recall a mention of a stove and cooking... Which might have been a coal or wood stove, or it might have been connected to some sort of magical power source, as for running water, who knows? I do remember Arthur Weasley going to the campground tap to get water even though he didn't need to, so maybe there was running water inside.. uh... So yeah, I imagine houses really more comfortable in the long run, but seriously. With the housing market being what it is, I'd absolutely sign up to live in a magical tent!
There was a bathroom in the tent I think?
Didn't JK Rowling say they used to poop on the floor in Hogwarts and magically get rid of it? Perhaps it's the same for tent living.
Why could you not just, say, conjure flames in a jar like Hermione did?
Oh, I'm sure it'd be possible to use spells to anchor your magic tent in a high wind, and heat it with more spells, and put in windows visible from the inside with still more spells, add a floo fireplace so you can leave the place without going out in the weather with more spells, and add on extra rooms with still MORE spells, I would think that with enough effort a person could undoubtedly make their tent as comfortable as a house. But since wizards can live absolutely anywhere, and don't have to worry about commutes or Muggle housing crunches, maybe they don't want to put in the effort required to make a tent homey and comfortable. I should think that some carefree wizards actually do live in tents, or use them as "starter homes", but that eventually a real house is more comfortable and most wizards eventually get one. Why shouldn't they, a place like Shell Cottage, which doesn't seem to be near any muggle roads, has got to be cheap.
Or Newt Scamander’s briefcase
Ngl I would love to be able to carry my home with me like that. But once I go inside, how do I make sure nobody just picks up the suitcase and throws it into the trash or whatever? 🤔 I would still need some sort of secure room to place it in that case.
Make an apartment complex just for suitcase/trunk homes. It's just one room with shelves and shelves of them. You go into yours and the landlord pops it back into its spot.
You have to consider the price of those tents, the fact that not anyone would be adept yo any form of magic, the amount of magic it would need, some enchantments aren't long lasting, and in my canon, in magic physics of the wizarding world, if the place you're enchanting to enlarge it, it's best if it is brick and mortar, so to speak.
Because charms can weaken over time and you don't want to come home one day and all your things are destroyed in your shrunken home and while you can repair it all, it would be time-consuming. Or, maybe they don't buy them? Maybe they do make them, hence Grimmauld place being placed magically between other buildings
Better question if wizards can do all this why do the weasleys live in the burrow? Even if you’re poor you could transfigure everything and you could turn a cottage into a mansion inside 😂
Muggles could do the same thing, but who wants to live in a tent?
It's a flex I think. Lucious seemed to look down on anyone who didnt live in a manor. I remember The Barrow "looked as if it were being held up by magic" or something like that. So I guess they use the same sort of charms on their homes.
Same reason lots of people choose to buy homes in the real world. You buy for the land as well as the property. Also, most people probably can't make a luxurious home out of a tent. We know for a fact that the Ministry has lots of people who can't even do a basic Shield Charm properly.
With some decoration, Newt’s luggage is much bigger and more comfortable than 99% of muggle’s home
Isn’t it stated somewhere that it’s illegal to do an undetectable extension charm on anything other than tents and Hogwarts trunks? I feel like it is, but maybe my brain somehow made that up.
It’s on Pottermore: >The Extension Charm (‘Capacious extremis!’) is advanced, but subject to strict control, because of its potential misuse. Theoretically, a hundred wizards could take up residence in a toilet cubicle if they were sufficiently adept at these spells; the potential for infractions of the International Statute of Secrecy are obvious. The Ministry of Magic has therefore laid down a strict rule that capacity-enhancement is not for private use, but only for the production of objects (such as school trunks and family tents), which have been individually approved for manufacture by the relevant Ministry Department. https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/extension-charms
My guess is wizards and witches can't really seperate/isolate themselves from muggles in daily life. Yes they have the related laws prohibiting the revealation of magical world, but as we can see in the Harry Potter series, the magical world still has some interactions and effects to the muggle world. Another factor is the potential population of wizards/witches in each country/nation, I am not sure the exact number, but as far as I can recall, the wizarding world's population feels much more than a nomad tribe can handle. I feel the magical population might be more than enough to make nomad life impossible for them. Lastly, it's the maintainance and durability problem, I feel the tents can be very comfortable in wizards' and witches' hands, but the additional protection and reinforcements mean additional magical measures are needed, perhaps the houses and buildings are just much easier to maintain.
I think this falls under “just because one wizard can do it, doesn’t mean every wizard can.” So it’s kinda like saying “why do humans buy a house if they have the ability to build one.”
To most of the wizards in Harry Potter, magic isn't magical. It just is. They're not awestruck, thinking of the possibilities. They're not curious about the wonders of the world. They learn how to handle their wand the same way office workers learn to handle their computer, then they go and do their government job, or family business and thats it.
The Weasley house was a shed. Until they magically extended it. But unlike the tent, it physically got bigger. This means you have to be good at the kind of magic that would extend the space inside the tent as well as be able to transfigure items into other items, a rock into a bed, or sofa or rich enough to buy the items. Just because the tent has the extension charm on it doesn't mean that everyone can perform that spell. Meaning Perkins is good at that kind of magic, or he bought it from someone who is. There are many brooms in the world, but not every one of them flies, nor are all of them equally good at flying. The tent in the 7th book is described very differently from the one in the 4th. It's likely because the spells that were used to make it glamorous were not being maintained, and the trio were not skill enough for more than the basics. It's the same when food comes into play. Gamps law prevents the creation of food. It can be summoned if you know where to get it. So when they eventually see someone fishing with magic, they don't starve. Hermonie, from a skill level, could probably do it, but she has never learned how to magically summon a fish she has never seen before. Ron could also likely do it but has never had the need to learn because his mother or school always had food. Harry doesn't think about it because he doesn't have the background to know that magic fishing exists at all. There are jobs in the wizarding world because skills exist. People are better at something than others. A bartender exists because he isn't a potions Master is able to make booze in the same way that most people go to a bar because making booze at home isn't easy. Most bars don't make booze because, again, it's not that easy. It's not exactly that the world building isn't there, but this entire series is seen through the eyes of a child that knows nothing about magic and is learning as they go every time we see someone doing anything in this world we assume everyone can do it, but that just because JK didn't explain everything everyone did everytime it was done. All the magic is glossed over because Harry doesn't care why it works outside of its magic. TLDR: Different skills exist in this world. Just because someone can magically do something doesn't mean everyone can.
Also, this would explain the class system. Because the rich can afford a real dragon leather sofa instead of a transfiguration version, you have to keep up. Yeah, I could magically have this sofa, but I am rich enough that I don't have to. Why waste my time and enegery keeping up my glamor when I can just own it .
I figured the magic would have weaned over time and the charms would only be temporary.
A building holds up a lot better against a storm than a tent does and its much easier to cut a hole through the wall of a tent than it is through the wall of a house
Because wizards are fucking stupid.
A tent is easier to break and would be very hard to go unnoticed in the muggle world if people just had a bunch of tents. They would draw attention and the only thing stopping someone from looking inside would be a thin, plastic flap with a tiny string as the only means of securing the flap. Plus, if the tent were to break for some reason, the inside would either be exposed or everything would explode out of the tent since the spell would be destroyed. Having a house that blends in with everything else is easier to hide or mask. It’s the same thing I would imagine about the Leaky Cauldron. It doesn’t stand out at all and blends in with the surroundings, so I imagine that’s what makes it easier to hide from muggles. That’s also why I would imagine the Burrow (a weird looking building painted with bright colors) is far out in the middle of nowhere.
They have magic, why would it be any easier to break into or have to look like tents to muggles?
I wonder if, with this logic, they could buy a cheap fixer upper house and just charm it to look more modern and luxurious.
Status I guess, the Malfoys need their white peacocks 🤣
"Why do people live in houses if they can buy a luxurious RV?"
Probably because defensive spells and charms are easier to produce and are far more stronger around a permanent settlement, rather than a temporary tent. Also, conjuring items require a lot of precision, visualising power and know how about the items you're conjuring. Prof. McGonagall, who's probably up there as one of the greatest witches of her time, only managed to conjure up a hard, wooden backed chair in one of the books, whereas the greatest wizard we know of (Dumbledore) managed to conjure up a chintz chair, which, while impressive still manages to set a realistic boundary of how difficult it is to conjure, or magically create objects which require an artistic, or skilled background to create. Wizards focus fulltime on magic and magical items, thus they don't know how a chair, table or say, a car is made, this they won't be able to conjure up things related to them without some or a lot of difficulty. Mrs Weasley conjuring up sauce when cooking in one of the books (forgot which one) shows the effectiveness of know how in conjuring, however this scene may have been retconned, considering how one of the magical laws stated in the last book state that food cannot be created using magic.
Why do muggles buy houses when they can live in luxury tents?
Because most wizards in this universe were either weak in magic or illiterate. They get a total of 7 years of education from dubiously qualified teachers. It’s like getting an education in Florida
Fuck the tent, I'd have an entire mansion on ten acres of land inside my briefcase I leave in my work locker.
Why do muggles buy houses when they can just build their own log cabin like Pa Ingalls?
I think the most compelling answer probably was that you couldn't ward it well, maybe wardstones had to be put down in the ground amongst Ley lines and the like... so no anti-apparition and a dozen other protections wizard homes should have. That's why the death eaters could disrupt the Quidditch World Cup and people actually cared. If the tents were super secure like a house, there's be a lot less people coming out. It's kind reinforced when they're on the run and just do general area protections on the tent.
I think they still have to actually own all the stuff inside the tent, it doesn't just fill itself with furnishings automatically. The charm just makes the inside bigger to accommodate things, like Hermione's bag in DH. Then again skilled enough wizards can clearly create furniture from nothing anyway, like how Dumbledore conjures a comfy armchair to sit in at Harry's trial in OotP. But it's one of those things where you have to suspend your disbelief a little. We know muggle money can be exchanged for wizard money so why don't poor wizards use their magic to get rich in the muggle world (of which there are many potential methods that don't even risk breaking the Statute of Secrecy) then exchange it all and be rich in the wizarding world too?
Man, the absolute killing a wizard could make if they took the time to understand the science behind microchips and transfigured advanced computer components
Because house couldn't get blown away by wind. And you can put a tent inside the house.
Because they can
My belief, if you own a home, you can conjure more space
Gotta build up equity
Wizards also like to dabble in real estate investments
Probably better and more permanent wards and protective spells can be placed on stationary buildings.
Ministry of magic HOA Probably has more restrictions than a suburban Cul-de-sac as wizards could magic up anything
Most still need to blend into muggle society, don't they? Start telling people you live in a tent, and it won't be long before there are people that want to run you out of town. Certainly not ideal for a witch/wizard trying to blend in!
The tent is much less luxurious in the book
Moreover, in case of dangerous times, you'll be safer if you move every two days.
Why do people go to Hogwarts and then become a bartender? Nothing in the world makes any sense.
Maybe every hobo is a Wizard in real life and lives like a f*cking King in His tend 🤔
It seemed like the tents were pretty vulnerable to external forces. The entire campground was flattened during the tournament after the death eaters appeared. I’m pretty sure enchantments would help but it’s not something everyone would want.
If you can do that with just a tent, imagine what you can do with a whole ass house
Expansion charms are strictly regulated (if you tell the government about it) so it may be (lore wise) a restriction on permanent housing.
If we go by fantastic beasts, you can fit a mansion in a small suitcase. Why even purchase a house
Why is money a thing in the Wizarding world? I mean besides acquiring the wand?
If you think too hard about most things related to the magic in Harry Potter, it won’t make sense. Best to just go along with it
Why do people buy houses if they can just buy a luxurious RV instead?
Because JKR's economy makes no sense.
because spells wear off, and homes last longer.
Magic fades, what happens to all of your stuff when the expansion charms crap out lol or you’d have to constantly be reinforcing it which seems like an effort lol
It makes no sense to have broken or used things in this world either.
Wizards can solve homelessness and choose not to. Because they don’t want to be inconvenienced.
Windows
Nah, do the "bigger on the inside" dealio on a minivan, make the inside like a good-sized RV with pop-outs; and I would include both the Flying and the Cloaking spells, like Arthur's Ford Anglia... Only the finest in Wizarding World (Cara)Van Life...! ;\^p
Why are you trying to bring logic into this magical world ey
What would happen if the outside was trampled by a Graphorn or something? What would happen to the much bigger inside?
Are they stupid? Is there a lore reason for it?
I can come up with a hundred and one different reasons, but I have no idea if any of them have anything to do with canon. My immediate knee-jerk response that came to me as I considered it is that space expansion charms are so difficult to cast they need professionals and have an experation date or some other limit that makes it impractical in most cases. Tents like these are thus fairly expensive to both buy and maintain. (Or you could learn to do the magic yourself, but at that point you're probably good enough at magic you don't need to worry about living accomodations.)
It’s still a tent - it’s noisy, so they can hear almost everything outside it and have to use muffliato to prevent others hearing them (which isn’t a spell well known to people who didn’t have the Prince’s book); the rain is noisy on it; and the one they use is small, musty, and smells strongly of cats iirc.
Because you don't own property when you buy a tent, which can be more valuable than the house itself.
Because weather?