It's magicked to be passable, but only ever with difficulty. But either the first human entering sets the parameters for difficulty, or in the case when multiple people are in the tunnel, it sets itself to "difficult for the largest/most burdened" in the group (for the whole length of the tunnel, apparently). Ron could NOT possibly have traversed that passage doubled-over with a broken leg, so it allowed him to travel upright, but narrowed so his group had to go sideways.
And most likely Poppy and Albus had an override that expanded it to allow adults to stroll briskly along.
Were this actually the case, Dumbledore's overwhelmingly-inadequate security measures for ickle Remus were quite a bit more sophisticated than we had ever realized.
If any student got idly curious about the Willow and somehow discovered the tunnel (and eventually the knot to freeze the Willow), if they entered it they'd find themselves in a claustrophobicly-tight and uncomfortable space. How far would an idler explore before giving the tunnel up in disgust? Even a Weasley twin might hesitate after the first several hundred yards with nothing of interest.
And Remus--as long as no (untransformed) human had first entered the tunnel, if the werewolf ever did so the tunnel would constrict itself to force the wolf to crawl on its belly. Even if the wolf sensed that there were human scents wafting down that long, long, tunnel from the far-off entrance, it would take the wolf forever to get near them. And it couldn't ever get up the momentum to make a break past the Willow's branches.
If the tunnel did work that way, the only possible exposure, thought Dumbledore, would be if some student was stupid/unlucky enough actually to enter on full-moon night after moonrise. When hir presence would enlarge the tunnel enough to allow the wolf to lope down it to investigate the offered snack.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2012-08-05 03:20 am (UTC)It's magicked to be passable, but only ever with difficulty. But either the first human entering sets the parameters for difficulty, or in the case when multiple people are in the tunnel, it sets itself to "difficult for the largest/most burdened" in the group (for the whole length of the tunnel, apparently). Ron could NOT possibly have traversed that passage doubled-over with a broken leg, so it allowed him to travel upright, but narrowed so his group had to go sideways.
And most likely Poppy and Albus had an override that expanded it to allow adults to stroll briskly along.
Were this actually the case, Dumbledore's overwhelmingly-inadequate security measures for ickle Remus were quite a bit more sophisticated than we had ever realized.
If any student got idly curious about the Willow and somehow discovered the tunnel (and eventually the knot to freeze the Willow), if they entered it they'd find themselves in a claustrophobicly-tight and uncomfortable space. How far would an idler explore before giving the tunnel up in disgust? Even a Weasley twin might hesitate after the first several hundred yards with nothing of interest.
And Remus--as long as no (untransformed) human had first entered the tunnel, if the werewolf ever did so the tunnel would constrict itself to force the wolf to crawl on its belly. Even if the wolf sensed that there were human scents wafting down that long, long, tunnel from the far-off entrance, it would take the wolf forever to get near them. And it couldn't ever get up the momentum to make a break past the Willow's branches.
If the tunnel did work that way, the only possible exposure, thought Dumbledore, would be if some student was stupid/unlucky enough actually to enter on full-moon night after moonrise. When hir presence would enlarge the tunnel enough to allow the wolf to lope down it to investigate the offered snack.
And how likely was that?