But you may want to reconsider all the Death Eater’s spells registering on the Trace. Remember that Wormtail and Voldemort got away with casting Unforgivables in Harry’s presence on Little Hangleton’s graveyard in GOF. Apparently distance matters.

The Snowdrop, Head of Department, Uncanonical Department of Inaccuracies

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I did remember, and I theorized that they always kept enough distance from Harry, but I didn’t check until now. And now I may have caught JKR making a mistake, in GOF chapter 32:

It [the hooded figure who was Peter Pettigrew] stopped beside a towering marble headstone, only six feet from them [Cedric and Harry].

And yet, when Wormtail casted an unforgivable killing curse so close to Harry, no Aurors apparated to the graveyard to arrest the murderer? How did this not register on the Trace?

On the next page, Wormtail dragged Harry to the marble headstone on Tom Riddles grave and conjured tight cords around Harry, tying him from head to ankles to the headstone.

Well, using this spell near a kid on a graveyard may not be sufficiently suspicious to justify an immediate investigation.

Cedric’s body was lying some twenty feet away.

How did he move? Last page, he was six feet away from the marble headstone, lying spread-eagled on the ground beside [Harry].

So I’m not sure whether six feet or twenty feet from the nearest kid is sufficiently far away to escape being traced.

Anyway, the trio was near the other end of the time room – which is not small – when a Death Eater opened the door. This Alohomora should not be on the Trace’s report.

Also, Bellatrix and the other Death Eaters trying to stun Harry’s friends across the round room with twelve doors were probably too far away to be detected by the Trace.

But I believe that everything else is either sufficiently vague or justifiable.

And sorry for breaking the bad news to Ixi and Matt – apparently I’m the biggest Harry Potter nerd around.

HG

It was quite a fun read. Quick question: What format is used for the spell listings?

Very well-written! I loved the way you used the increasing lethality of the spells to highlight the growing tension. (Yes, I knew vaguely what was going to happen, but I still went OH S**T when the first Unforgivable got fired.

The idea of the Trace being connected to a physical item that lists underage spells and their location was a neat idea, and I loved the fact that it just straight-up exploded at the end.

BUT! I did notice one typo.

This early in the morning, most of the addressees would still be asleep, and half of them would probably not hear Dawlish's voice, but whoever got the massage would try to fetch others, and after a short period of chaos a counter-attack would be launched.

Massage should be message. ;)