Plot Help-Term Needed

[OliveOil_Med]

I need help coming up with a term for an object (or state of object) in one of my stories. Let me explain.

I'm working on creating a magic school, but Muggles live quite near it. So, the school needed a way to continue to exist without drawing attention. So a spell was created to keep the school hidden. The school sit in the middle of a suburban street, looking no different than any of the other house, and if a Muggle ever did enter the house, the interior would seem like nothing out of the ordinary.

But if a witch or wizard were to open the front door to the house, they would open it to the magic school, which may even be in an entirely different place (I'm not going to get into the physics of it).

Essentially, what I need is a term for a large magical object that hides itself within a small mundane object. Ordinarily, I think this spell would only be used on smaller items, but this school is the only one of its kind in the world.

Does anyone have any ideas? What I'm looking for is a nice Rowling-esque term.

TF: This thread didn't belong in Skele-Gro, nor did it follow the rules of that forum. It has been moved here.

[minnabird]

The Crypsis Charm?
(According to Wikipedia, "crypsis is the ability of an organism to avoid observation")

Thought I'd mention I'm pretty sure Hogwarts is under a similar charm--I remember reading that any Muggle who came that way would find falling-down ruins with a DANGER sign out front.
Good luck on finding a name, anyway.

[OliveOil_Med]

I was given an excellent suggestion for a spell from ginnygirl16: Velius modicus. The translation entails everything I wanted in the spell, and I can work out the mechanics of it for myself.

But on the subject of schools, what else do you think could be done to keep Muggles from stumbling in? I can't logically make it Unplottable, as it stands right in the middle of a Muggle development (you try and find empty land on the East Coast!).

So, what are some other spells that could potentially be used for the school?

[Equinox Chick]

Well, there's the simple Muggle repelling spell that Hermione uses in Deathly Hallows Repello Muggletum

i think they use this (or a form of this) at the QWC so when a Muggle approaches he suddenly remembers an important appointment.

You could make the house look really unappealing, but I doubt that would keep out Muggle children who tend to want to explore anything unusual. Perhaps you should just make the house look very very boring.

In Latin plumbeus means dull, stupid, oppressive, leaden and bad - perhaps you could cast a depressing spell over the house which would make Muggles stay away. They get an odd feel about it.

Hope this helps

Carole
xxx

[A.H.]

Ooohhh, kind of the magic school in Charmed? One day they're walking down the stairs and "Oh, look, there's a door on our landing!" And dun dun duuuunnnn, it leads to a school!

Sorry... Ari's a bit of a Charmed buff.

Magical hiding... Well, there's all the spells that were on Grimwauld place to hide it from the Muggles that lived beside the Blacks, but I'm going to assume that the house facade is the main entrance to the school (i.e. several hundred students enter it every year?) so maybe that wouldn't be possible.

Something simple would just be a magical lock on the door, unbreakable by Muggles. That way, if a Muggle ever tried to jimmy the lock they wouldn't actually be able to.

Another way of getting large groups of people into the house unnoticed might be to apparate them inside the building, and then have the actual entrance to the school in another part of the house. Maybe it's through the back door, instead? What I'm thinking is more like the boat-rides first years take: Have some sort of special ride (flying them onto the roof -- with the chameleon charm, like in DH) and then leading them down to the entrance. And then the older students would take side-along apparation instead.

Of course the last is probably no doable, as side-along would take a very long time considering the amount of students. Thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

/Ari

[Vittoria]

Apart from Muggle repelling charms, the school might need stronger protection. You say any witch or wizard could enter the school. Then it might become easy for Dark Wizards to enter the place. Apparition is out of the question (in my opinion). I'm sure a charm could be used to reveal the true nature of the building--like maybe knowing the exact location and chanting the name of the school, something which more or less works like a Fidelius charm.

Or the school could be disguised as a rundown motel (maybe?) that no one wants to visit.

[Sainyn Swiftfoot]

It could always be made to look shadier, broken down, or something which would make Muggles want to stay away from it.

It could be the Fidelius Charm-- in OOTP, Harry doesn't even realise a house exists there until he reads Dumbledore's note, and then Grimmauld Place suddenly appears in between two houses. So the Fidelus Charm sounds like a good bet...

~BB

[Vittoria]

It could always be made to look shadier, broken down, or something which would make Muggles want to stay away from it.

It could be the Fidelius Charm-- in OOTP, Harry doesn't even realise a house exists there until he reads Dumbledore's note, and then Grimmauld Place suddenly appears in between two houses. So the Fidelus Charm sounds like a good bet...

~BB

Yes, but the Fidelius Charm would become very dilute. The place in question is a school. So Imagine the number of people who would know the location--this considerably weakens the Fidelius Charm.

[ginnygirl16]

What about travelling by portkey? Then again, this might not be as dark wizard proof as you like. Remember in HP though, it is mentioned that Muggles are very ignorant of magic, and even when it is staring them in the face they don't notice it. You could probably find a way to use that to your advantage by having a simple object be able to get you there. ex// you walk through the wall at platform 9 3/4. You step in a phonebooth and dial a number to get into the Ministry of Magic. There are alot of possibilties that can be generated with this, and if it was used countless times in the Harry Potter Universe, than it shouldn't seem to strange in your fic.

--ginnygirl16

[Karaley Dargen]

Or remember St Mungos. It looks like an old warehouse (or something) from the outside, iirc like out of the 80's, and there's a sign outside that says that it's closed for maintenance or something.
Or you could just have it look like an ordinary house, I mean, what reason would people have to just walk into a random house?