DEATHLY HALLOWS CONUNDRUM : underage magic?

Question

In deathly hallows, Moody says that the "trace" is used magic used by the ministry to detect magical activity in under-seventeen year olds and that thats how underage magic is detected.
Yet in half-blood prince, Dumbledore specifically says that the ministry can ONLY detect magic in locations but not the perpetrators, they rely on wizard and witch parents to enforce rules, thats how Tom Riddle got away with killing Morfin,and thats why Harry got in trouble for the hover charm cast by Dobby.
These two ideas completely contradict eachother. Did rowling make a mistake or am i missing something? Someone please clear this up =)

Answer 1

Rowling contradicts herself all the time. Note that in the first book, an eleven-year-old Hermione said she did a bunch of spells, they all worked, and she apparently had no visits from the Ministry because of it. And Fred/George imply that if the note were not given out at the end of the year forbidding them from doing magic over the summer, they'd be able to.



BTW, Tom Riddle didn't kill Morfin, he framed Morfin for the murders of Riddle's father and grandparents. Morfin died in Azkaban.

Answer 2

yeahh these things contradict each other but im pretty sure its talking about the location. an underage wizard can perform magic and the ministry would know that someone in that place did it, and then thye would expect the parents to enforce the laws and teach them proper behavior. atleast thats what i think it meant.

Answer 3

perhaps the trace detects the area the magic is perpetrated in but generally cannot be linked to a specific witch or wizard perhaps being a breach of privacy laws(dunno what magic laws there are) or perhaps she made a mistake

Answer 4

Nice observation:) But I personally believe that Riddle did not get into trouble because he performed the magic in a magical household while Harry got in trouble because the magic was performed in a muggle house in the presence of muggles.

Answer 5

I always saw it as the Trace being more of a location thing, like Dumbledore said.