Floo Stops

[OliveOil_Med]

I have been doing some thinking about stops on the Floo Network, and I have a few questions I need answered.

Does a fireplace actually need to be installed as a Floo Stop? How were the Weasley's able to end up in the Dursley's fireplace? Did someone turn their fireplace into a Floo Stop without them knowing, or will really just any fireplace do?

[psijupiter]

Don't the Weasley's say they had the Dursely's fireplace connected to the floo network for the morning? So I imagine any fireplace can be a floo stop, but it has to be connected to the floo network by some sort of spell, that is presumably controlled by the ministry.

I wonder if you can set up private floo networks between houses that don't have to be on the wider floo network?

[OliveOil_Med]

So a person doesn't need to have direct access to the fireplace in question in order to turn it into a stop on the Floo Network? Interesting....

[Northumbrian]

I believe that Arthur had a contact on the Floo Regulation Panel which allowed him to have the Dursleys house tempoararily connected. Although the connection can be made remotely, i don't think that it can be done by any wizard. Didn't Sirius break into a wizrds house to use the network to contact Harry?

I would make it a complicated magic requiring approval from the Department of Magical Transportation. The same for Portkeys.

-N-

[ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor]

I believe that Arthur had a contact on the Floo Regulation Panel which allowed him to have the Dursleys house temporarily connected. Although the connection can be made remotely, i don't think that it can be done by any wizard. Didn't Sirius break into a wizards house to use the network to contact Harry?

Sirius may have simply not known the spell. It's not like Hogwarts can teach students every spell there is, and it's definitely not like Sirius had his whole adult life to learn the missing ones.

I would make it a complicated magic requiring approval from the Department of Magical Transportation. The same for Portkeys.

While Floo Networking spells are probably more on the complex side, Portkey spells are relatively simple (Portus). I think it would more fall into the category of being heavily regulated for safety and security purposes. What kind of chaos would there be if one could Floo just anywhere one wished? It would be insanity.

[psijupiter]

I believe that Arthur had a contact on the Floo Regulation Panel which allowed him to have the Dursleys house tempoararily connected. Although the connection can be made remotely, i don't think that it can be done by any wizard. Didn't Sirius break into a wizrds house to use the network to contact Harry?

You're right, I'd forgotten that, but it definitely suggests the floo network itself is controlled by the Ministry, so even if you were next to a fireplace and knew the right spells, the ministry would at least know you were connected to the floo network or perhaps even be able to stop you from connecting.

It could also be that few people have learnt the nessacary skills and spells. I would guess that most if not all wizarding houses are connected to the floo network. Wizards seem to be creatures of habit, so they would be more likely to move into a wizarding house, rather than move into a muggle house and then try to connect it to the floo network.

If you don't need access to the fireplace to do the spell, it suggests that the spells simply 'open up' some sort of connection that is already there. I don't know what sort of connection that might be though!

EDIT: Of course, perhaps a Ministry wizard pretended to be a Meter reader or something else in order to get access to the Dursley's fireplace. There's no evidence of that in the books, but it's a thought.

[Karaley Dargen]

While Floo Networking spells are probably more on the complex side, Portkey spells are relatively simple (Portus). I think it would more fall into the category of being heavily regulated for safety and security purposes. What kind of chaos would there be if one could Floo just anywhere one wished? It would be insanity.

I think the post referred to the regulations bit. We do know that Portkeys require Ministry authorisation because Fudge almost imploded when Dumbledore just created one.

[OliveOil_Med]

I find myself wondering just how easy it is to create a stop on the Floo Network or a Port Key under the Ministry's nose. How easy is it to detect a new stop being built? Can it be picked up on some sort of network, or can small stops on the Floo Network exist without the Ministry even knowing?

[ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor]

I find myself wondering just how easy it is to create a stop on the Floo Network or a Port Key under the Ministry's nose. How easy is it to detect a new stop being built? Can it be picked up on some sort of network, or can small stops on the Floo Network exist without the Ministry even knowing?

I imagine they could do it, but it wouldn't work. Remember, the Ministry knew when Harry used his Patronus during the Dementor attack in OotP, when he used it, and probably where, as well. I imagine they can issue citations for illegal Floo and Portkey creation like speeding tickets - get so many and you go to jail.

[psijupiter]

I find myself wondering just how easy it is to create a stop on the Floo Network or a Port Key under the Ministry's nose. How easy is it to detect a new stop being built? Can it be picked up on some sort of network, or can small stops on the Floo Network exist without the Ministry even knowing?

They knew about Harry's patronus, because of the trace, presumably. That said, I do think the Floo Network would be under Ministry Control, just because Arthur went through the Ministry to get the Dursely's connected. The Ministry wouldn't want Muggle homes connected to the Floo Network, in case Wizards accidently (or deliberately!) popped out of their fireplace. I think it would be more of a case of the Ministry knowing what you'd done and sending out a squad to reverse it, rather than them being able to stop you doing the spell in the first place. Perhaps they have people monitoring the Network and when a new stop is created they can see the magic flowing in a new direction? Or maybe the Floo Network can be visualised as a 'string' of magic, with each stop being like a knot in the string. So when you create a new stop, it tugs on the rest of the network, so people cna see/sense it happening? /rambling ideas

I think it would be possible to create a smaller, independent network, that wasn't connected at all to the the Floo Network. So you could link up two or three (or more, I suppose) fireplaces to each other.