On Tuesday, November 19, 2002 at 7:04:04 PM UTC-8, Richard Eney wrote:   
   > In article <171120021607102288%SiriusKase@earthlink.net>,   
   > Sirius Kase   wrote:   
   > >Shannon  wrote:   
   >   
   > >> I was wondering why Arthur Weasley never tried to re-claim his missing   
   > >> car. Seems that he'd want to get it back to keep anyone from   
   > >> discovering his magically altered muggle artifact. :>)   
   > >   
   > >He may have thought the car was doing a better job of keeping itself   
   > >hidden than he could.  After all, he couldn't drive it anymore since it   
   > >was evidence of a crime.  He'd be nabbed the minute it was seen, or if   
   > >he had possession of it and didn't turn it over, he'd be more of a   
   > >criminal himself.   
   >   
   > He'd already been fined for having made it. And the whole episode puts the   
   > lie to his earlier excuse, the loophole he built into the law, that if he   
   > hadn't intended to use the magical elements it was legal to have put them   
   > in.  So either the law was being ignored in order to extend its   
   > application, or he didn't write that loophole well enough to mean what he   
   > thought it meant, or they got him for having left it where someone else   
   > could have stolen it, e.g., a muggle might have (old and rusty as it was).   
   > Or the fine was because, as the parent, he was responsible for what Ron   
   > did.  (Which means he was darned lucky that Fred and George never got   
   > caught.)   
   >   
   > By the way, it just occurred to me - why didn't Harry and Ron just wait   
   > for Ron's parents to come back to the car?  Surely they wouldn't have   
   > Apparated home and left the car in London.  Once the boys had   
   > demonstrated that the gate wouldn't open for them, Arthur could have   
   > pulled some strings to get them to school somehow, maybe by Floo powder to   
   > a standard arrival location in Hogsmeade and from there to the school.   
      
   In the book, McGonagal asks why Harry and Ron didn't just send an owl to   
   Hogwarts advising of their problem.  Harry and Ron say that they simply didn't   
   thik of that solution!   
      
   Harry did suggest waiting by the car in the book!  Ron then got the idea of   
   flying it to Hogwarts.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)