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Wizarding
World - Magic
Medicinal Magic
The Hospital Wing A long line of beds, screens available for privacy, Madam Pomfrey's office is at one end. A painting on the wall shows a woman caring for a patient in a bed. The woman walks into the painting and sits down. (SS/f) Medical
Procedures and Spells
Common Magical Ailments and Afflictions Other
medical terms etc.
That Had To Hurt...Or Did It? Steve Vander Ark How can a one-year-old baby survive the destruction of his parents' home? Hey, a Killing Curse is one thing, but how could Harry block tons of bricks and wood crashing down on top of him? As if that weren't enough, the kid was on the second floor of the house! It would seem that Harry's surviving the destruction of his parents' house is an example of the fact that wizards have some sort of built-in protection against mundane accidental injury. They simply can't be killed as easily as Muggles. Here's a few examples from the books: Neville's family thinks he may be a squib. In order to test him, his Great Uncle tries to surprise the little fellow by nearly killing him. He pushes him off a pier into the ocean, for example. Apparently, the magic-ness in him, if there is any, will manifest itself in a surprise of that kind. Then he gets dropped from an upper story window and he bounces! This built-in protection indicates to his family that he's in fact magical. in the Muggle world, this Great Uncle would be up on child endangerment charges. In the Wizarding World, there's a celebration. Various Quidditch players are injured in spectacular ways, including, for example, ploughing into the ground at top speed. Krum takes a bowling-ball-sized iron ball to the face. In every case, they are not permanently injured and certainly not killed. Neville again, this time in flying class. He falls fifty feet from a broomstick. Fifty feet. I don't care if he's falling onto grass, this kid should be dead. All that happens is a broken wrist. Hagrid's reaction to hearing that the Dursleys told Harry that his parents were killed in a car crash is particularly telling. He considers it laughable that anyone would think that a car crash could have killed them. Obviously, although car crashes seem all too deadly to us Muggles, Hagrid finds them of no concern at all. Notice too that Harry, before he even knew he was a wizard, saved himself from being pounded by Dudley and his friends by levitating to the top of the school (or was it Apparating!). It seems that wizards have the magical equivelent of "airbags," and when danger strikes, they instantly and without intention fire off some counter or pretection spell. It is also possible that they have a sense we Muggles don't recognize which alerts them to danger in advance. After all, Harry does seem to be able to sense people that he can't see (Snuffles, for example, and Winky and Crouch Jr. in the wood). Whatever the actual mechanics of it, wizards clearly are not injured as quickly as Muggles. Must be nice.
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