Wards

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering where the idea of magical protective wards comes from. It's a fairly ubiquitous concept in HP fan fiction, but I'm not finding anything about wards in the books. There is the blood protection on 4 Privet Drive, but I don't think that's ever called a ward.

Comments

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Like madderbrad, I did a word search through all the books for "wards" and didn't find anything.

Sirius says that his father put "every security measure known to wizard kind" on Grimmauld Place, but only says specifically that it's unplottable.

But I did look more carefully, and Rowling does use the language of "enchantments" throughout the books. Hogwarts has an anti-apparation "enchantment."

However, "enchantment" seems to be a rather vague term in the Potterverse. The teachers call the various protections around the philosopher's stone "enchantments," and none of those really fit the concept of wards that we find in fan fiction.