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Are you curious as well?
  Yes Hermione! Excellent question.
  No Hermione, you're obsessing.
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muggle-born and proud

PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:23 pm


So my question I have been podering for ages, and have sadly yet found an answer to, is why do we have wizards and witches still in glasses? Harry had bones for an entire arm regrown overnight for example. So why can't we repair something occular? There has to be a why.
PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:28 pm


Good question. Even Muggles have that "Lasik Eye Surgery" to fix sight. If Muggles can do it, wizards can too, right?

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PostPosted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:12 pm


A brilliant question Hermione which ends up bringing up a very interesting discussion on the limits of magic. One of the more particularly interesting limits magic has includes physical ailments like trouble with vision.

As we all know, magic can treat a variety of ailments and injuries in a manner far beyond our muggle technology. But there are limits on what medical magic can effect. The case of Mad-Eye Moody is perhaps the best example: he is hideously scarred from his many battles with Dark wizards, and has lost (though the details of his encounters remain frustratingly vague) a leg, an eye, and part of his nose. For some reason, his injuries could not be repaired. This may be due to the design of the Dark wizards' hexes, which we may assume are intended to be irreversible. To be fair, this may also be by choice: Moody very likely enjoys the fear his ghastly appearance generates. But Neville Longbottom's father and mother, who were also Aurors like Moody, were driven incurably insane after being tortured by Dark wizards in search of Voldemort's whereabouts; they are now hospitalized at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, and do not recognize even Neville when he visits. And of course, Harry himself wears glasses and no one has offered to fix his vision with magic, something they would certainly have done for him if it were possible. There are clearly limits, then, on what magical medicine can do.

Secondly, magic cannot be used to acquire material posessions or cover up one's own poverty. Take the example of an Accio charm. One can summon say a broomstick if it is in one's possession, but as for transfiguring a flying broom, from say a rock for instance, is quite impossible. Similarly, take the example of poor witches and wizards versus those who are well to do. I am certain that if he had the capacity to do so, Remus Lupin would have simply transfigured some very nice robes during his time at Hogwarts. He could battle Grindylows, boggarts, but could not muster the magic to fix his shabby appearance and luggage held together here and there with bits of strings? SImilarly, money and gold is something that magic can simply not create. Were it so, then witches and wizards everywhere I am certain would be rich beyond measure.

The restrictions on economics may reflect the fact that the wizards live in a capitalistic society. A great portion of the Wizarding world's populace make their living through commerce, and it would be destructive of their livelihood if other wizards could magically create the goods that they offer. Why go to Diagon Alley if you could magically create your own robes, wands, textbooks, and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans? Now, perhaps the laws should be altered so that every wizard could magically create what they needed? But a society where every person is totally self-sufficient would be ungovernable, just as a person who could satisfy his every desire would become quickly bored and satiated. As Dumbledore once told Harry, "As much money and life as you could want! The two things most humans would choose above all - the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them."

There are other restrictions on what magic can do as well, but I am afraid I ramble on too much. I'll leave the rest for you to decide.
PostPosted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:17 pm


Thank you Gabriel. These are all valid points of course but still leave the question of what is the limitation exactly? Obviously magic can not handle everything in the world - but there has to be something going on with this particular issue.

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 7:44 am


Then I believe it has to do with actual healing in and of itself. Naturally if one is born a certain way and is predisposed to having bad vision, I believe that it is something that quite possibly cannot be corrected. Magic does seem to tend to work with the natural order of things in my experience. If one is born a certain way, then magic and perhaps even fate has deemed that person to be that certain way. It is the same with mental conditions and other physical maladies. If a child is born without an arm or a leg, one cannot simply be created out of thin air for instance.

As for the regrowing of Mr. Potter's bones in his arm, that is another matter. The bones in his arm were removed, accidentally of course, through magical means and not through the use of dark magic. So, when Madam Pomfrey gave Mr. Potter the potion for re-growing bones, it worked with his body because it was naturally disposed to have bones there. In other words, the magic from the potion was able to aid in the growth as it worked with his natural DNA. The same goes with magical healing of other ways. Provided it is not from a dark curse, or life-taking, most all injuries can be healed so long as the magic can work with what is naturally predisposed to be there.

Muggles have a way of not necessarily working with the natural order of things, but more using technology and science to alter their way of life. Since most witches and wizards shun or tennd to avoid contact with muggles, it is only natural that spells and magicks have not yet been discovered to be able to simply correct one's vision. The field of magical optometry instead has yielded itself to the creation of better glasses, lens repair, and even lens strength. As for actually working with the eye and changing it as would a muggle laser, that is one thing where I would say, muggles have advanced further than wizard-folk.

Perhaps one day a spell will be discovered which may act as sort of a corrective laser. Perhaps we may one day discover a potion that can target specifically better ocular vision. Personally I doubt it, not because we won't be able to, but more because I rather believe that most witches and wizards like glasses and spectacles. It gives them more character. There is very little that can ever escape the eyes of Albus Dumbledore for instance, yet he still wears those half-moon spectacles. I am also certain that Alistair Moody would prefer to keep his magical eye no matter how hideous it looks rather than find a way to get a magical replacement that looks nicer. He seems to like filling his enemies with fear for instance. Actually there are many, many wizards who simply wear lenses just to look more refined and wise.

Ahhh, but once again I ramble on. I hope this response helped out a bit more than my last one.
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:22 pm


I understand what you are saying Gabriel. Genetic predisposition could be something magic can't change - rather like Harry's messy hair. mrgreen

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 10:27 am


Or your perfectly charming inquisitiveness for that matter.
PostPosted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 12:39 pm


...... sweatdrop

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