Owl post — owls carrying letters and parcels — is one of the most common ways that wizards communicate with each other. Wizards either tie messages or parcels to owls’ legs or have the owls carry the parcel in their beaks. Considered by wizards to be “the normal way” of communicating (GF3), owl post functions in a manner similar to Muggle post, complete with post offices. It is different, though, as it seems to simultaneously serve the purposes of both Muggle post and the telephone, as well as replacing newspaper delivery boys.
Owls can travel much faster than Muggle mail delivery; extremely urgent messages are sometimes sent this way (ps16) and even letters sent from scotland to romania can get a reply within a few days (ps14), although it takes harry many weeks to hear from sirius when he’s holed up in the tropics . (gf15). long trips tire birds; hedwig often flies sleepily to sleep in the owlery after a trip (gf15) and after particularly tiring trips, hagrid sometimes has to nurse the owls back to health (ps12).
owl magic
Owls use some magic to find their recipients; Hedwig, for example, is easily able to locate Sirius Black when he is on the run from the Ministry of Magic, although the Aurors cannot (pa2). Hedwig also routinely hunts Harry down at Hogwarts, in Gryffindor Tower or even in his classroom (op17), and Pigwidgeon successfully delivers a letter to Harry while he is on the moving Hogwarts Express (pa22). however, wizards cannot send an owl to someone they want to find and then “follow” the owl to discover the person’s whereabouts (jkr).
Other birds are also sometimes used to carry messages, including tropical birds (pa1) and phoenixes (op22).
owls at hogwarts
at hogwarts, owls live in the owlery in the west tower and deliver mail to students once a day, at breakfast, although more urgent messages are frequently delivered to harry in his bedroom. Hogwarts also has several school owls, which can be used by students who don’t have an owl. harry used school owls on several occasions when he needed to contact sirius without drawing attention (gf18). these owls seem to be used on occasion even to communicate throughout the school, such as when hagrid sends harry a note at the end of his first week at hogwarts (ps8), though this method seems to have been abandoned by harry’s sixth year, when grades are regularly handed over to students (hbp22).
As of Harry’s fifth year, all owl stalls at Hogwarts were searched and inspected as a security measure. This was originally seen as an authoritarian method of control by the Umbridge Ministry of Magic and Dolores (OP17), but once Voldemort’s return was made public it was widely accepted (HBP8). intercepting owls, it seems, can be done crudely or routinely; hedwig is hurt when umbridge intercepts his letter (op17), but the weasley mail (hbp4) and hogwarts mail (hbp8) are later checked in as a matter of course, without any harm being done to the animals. /p>
business use
Owls are also used for institutional births; in fact, the first time we see an owl making a delivery is when one arrives with hagrid’s daily prophet at the hut on the rock. In this case, the owl has a bag that he uses to collect Hagrid’s money (PS5). later, however, hermione also subscribes to the daily prophet, and the owls that deliver it don’t seem to charge anything (op12). Some companies also use owls for the owl ordering service, to deliver goods. This service is put to prominent use, at least for Harry, when a Slug Club Christmas party nears its sixth year, and the girls buy Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes love potions through Fred and George’s Owl Ordering Service. (hbp15).
list of letters we have seen sent by post: pd & cs
- hagrid writes a note to dumbledore letting him know that he successfully picked up harry (ps6)
- according to hagrid, cornelius fudge peppers dumbledore with owls asking for advice (ps6)
- harry receives a note from hagrid inviting him to visit and replies “yes please see you later”: his first owl post card (ps8)
- professor mcgonagall sends a note along with a new nimbus 2000 to harry (ps10)
- charlie sends ron a note with hedwig agreeing to take norbert, after ron presumably writes to ask, and ron replies (ps14)
- quirrell sends dumbledore an urgent note, supposedly from the ministry of magic, to get him away from hogwarts (ps16)
- hagrid sends owls to james and lily’s old school friends to get pictures of them for harry (? who are they, besides lupino?) (ps17)
- ron, hermione, and hagrid send a “thick bundle of envelopes” to harry over the summer, but dobby intercepts them (cs2)
- shortly after dobby performs a floating charm, harry receives a letter from mafalda hopkirk warning him not to do magic (cs2)
- hogwarts second year book lists arrive while harry is in the burrow (cs4)
- ron uses errol to write hermione, and she responds with plans to meet them in diagon alley (cs4)
- dumbledore writes to the weasleys and the dursleys after ron and harry crash their car into the whooping willow (cs5)
- Mrs. weasley sends ron a howler when he finds out he took the car (cs6)
- harry addresses the envelopes to be sent to gilderoy lockhart fans while he’s in custody (cs7)
- sir patrick delaney- podmore sends nearly headless nick a letter rejecting his request for the headless hunt (how did he send that?) (cs8)
- dumbledore writes to azkaban to secure hagrid’s release ( cs18)
- the eleven governors of hogwarts, apart from lucius malfoy, bombard dumbledore with owls demanding his return to hogwarts (s18)
list of letters we have seen sent by owl: pa & girlfriend
- ron, hermione and hagrid write to harry on his 13th birthday (pa1)
- harry’s third year hogwarts letter also comes with hagrid’s birthday present (pa1 )
- augusta longbottom sends neville’s hogsmeade letter directly to professor mcgonagall (pa8)
- neville also receives a howler from augusta, after he loses the passwords to the tower of gryffindor (pa14)
- hagrid writes to ask harry and ron to visit him, to talk about hermione (pa14)
- hagrid writes to hermione to let her know that buckbeak lost in her trial (pa15)
- hagrid writes to ron to tell him that buckbeak lost his cool too (pa16)
- harry receives a letter from sirius on the hogwarts express, explaining the firebolt, giving him permission to go to hogsmeade, and giving ron pigwidgeon ( pa22)
- sirius says that crookshanks took his firebolt order to the owl’s office, where he presumed probably sent (pa22)
- sirius writes to harry twice from his hiding place; letters are not sent with owls but with tropical birds (gf2)
- harry writes to sirius for the first time to let him know his scar is pricked (gf2)
- ron sends his first letter with pigwidgeon to invite harry to the quidditch world cup (gf3)
- a large number of people send howlers to the ministry of magic to complain about the security of the quidditch world cup (gf10)
- sirius writes to harry to let him know that he is flying north, concerned for harry’s safety (gf14)
- harry writes back to sirius asking him not to return to britain and send the note with hedwig (gf15)
- sirius writes back to harry with hedwig to let him know he is hiding in britain (gf15)
- harry sends sirius a school owl to inform him that his name was chosen for the triwizard tournament (gf18)
- sirius writes back to harry and asks for a face to face meeting on nov 22nd sember (gf18)
- pigwidgeon gives sirius congratulations because harry has surpassed the hungarian horntail (gf23)
- sirius sends a brown owl with a very short letter: “ship date from next hogsmeade weekend for owl’s return”. (gf26) harry replies
- sirius asks harry to bring him food and meet him next hogsmeade weekend (gf27)
- the trio write to percy to ask him if he has seen mr. crouch (gf27); he responds irrationally (gf28)
- after rita skeeter’s article defaming hermione, she receives hate mail; hagrid says he got some too (gf28)
- harry continues to write regularly to sirius in the cave near hogsmeade (gf28)
- fred and george send owls to ludo bagman demanding his money , though the trio don’t find out until later (gf29)
- harry sends an owl to sirius to tell him about his trip to dumbledore’s pensieve (gf31)
- sirius rebukes harry por walking the grounds with viktor krum (gf29) and starts sending owls daily (gf31)
list of letters we have seen sent by post: op & hbp
- a barrage of owls is sent to harry after he produces a patronus with a little moan (op2):
- mafalda hopkirk expels him from hogwarts and informs him that his wand will be broken;
- arthur weasley tells harry not to leave his house or hand over his wand;
- mafalda hopkirk writes again, rescinding harry’s expulsion and giving him notice of a hearing;
- sirius writes to tell harry not to leave the house;
- dumbledore sends a howler to petunia with the mysterious message, “remember my last one”
- dumbledore sends harry a note to let him know he’s coming to pick him up at privet drive (hbp3)
- owls deliver owl. results to harry, ron and hermione in the burrow (hbp5)
- book lists arrive at the burrow, with news that harry is captain of quidditch (hbp6)
- bob ogden send an owl to notify the haggards he’s coming, but they won’t accept him (hbp10)
- parents send regular owls to their children at hogwarts to make sure they’re okay after voldemort returns (hbp11)
list of articles we have seen sent by postal mail
How are Christmas gifts shipped? errol certainly couldn’t bring six sweaters and a bunch of sweets to hogwarts for mrs. weasley, and harry gets presents every year from the dursleys, who certainly wouldn’t use an owl. this is probably a question we will never know the answer to. Here are the items we’ve seen safely submitted by owl:
- a daily prophet for hagrid (ps5), and delivered to malfoy, hermione, harry and others in many places
- packages of sweets, which draco maloy usually receives from home through the malfoy ‘ eagle owl (ps9)
- a keepsake, given to neville by his grandmother (ps9)
- a nimbus 2000 broom, from mcgonagall to harry (why didn’t he give it to him to him?) (ps10)
- some things neville forgot from home, sent by his grandmother (cs6)
- the kwikspell course, although not explicitly stated, seems to have been sent via owl (cs8)
- a pocket scanscope, gift from ron to harry for his 13th birthday, sent with errol and almost killed him (pa1)
- a kit broomstick service, hermione’s 13th birthday gift to harry, which hedwig showed up to pick up (pa1)
- a copy of the monster book of monsters, hagrid’s 13th birthday gift to harry , sent with a tawny owl from school (pa1)
- dung dragon ol, which fred and george have delivered to percy’s office (gf5)
- a ham, a dozen cakes and some fruit, which harry sends to sirius when he hides in hogsmeade (gf28 )
- bubotuber pus, locked in hate mail sent to hermione (gf28)
- easter eggs from mrs. weasley, although hermione’s is very small (gf28)
- prefect badges for ron and hermione (op9)
- a copy of the quibbler, which harry receives after giving an interview ( op26 )
- molly weasley sends easter eggs for her kids and harry (op29)
- a copy of advanced potion brewing, which hedwig brings harry from bloom and erase (hbp11)
- love potions, as part of fred and george’s owl ordering service (hbp15)