*Cross posted on A03 and wattpad under same user name
The following is a transcript of a lecture presented by Doctor Geraldine Fowller; chair for the Society of object related mystery; presented last May at the Department of Mysteries as part of a series of public talks, given as part of the Exploring the Unknown campaign last year
What are portkeys? The Ministry defines them as charmed objects that transport a person, or persons, to a new location.
Okay wonderful now thats been established let us begin.
Portkeys have rules.
An inanimate object is required: living creatures are of no use. They key creator must have access to the designated departure and arrival location: thus preventing issues caused by wards. Depending on how they are charmed portkeys can be touch or time activated. A specific set timeframe for activation and expiration is highly recommended although not a necessity. It should be mentioned that the creation of modern portkey requires approval from the ministry of magic.
These are the facts
So why discuss all this. Its not that I believe you unaware of this knowledge, I'm sure many of you possess it.
Let me discuss with you a missing persons case that happened in the early noughties [2000's]. Missing persons cases are not all that uncommon, people go missing more often then found. This case could have been left and forgotten, but this was different in that there were witnesses to an 'unexplained' event.
The missing was a Mr James Alan Dobson aged 29 of Alfreton, Derbyshire, a muggle Royal Mail worker with a keen interest in archaeology and history.
On the morning of the 28th of April 2001 Mr Dobson vanished.
From what can be gleamed from statements and interviews, was that Mr Dobson had been kicking over molehills as he walked the grassy slopes on his way to further houses.
Of the 7 witnesses interviewed 5 agreed the he had been shouting in excitement -that he found something special in one of the molehills. From those 5, 2 had come to take a closer look at what was found.
One had mentioned the Mr Dobson had said something about 'Zooa' something, while the other had believed it was something about morphology or animals- he was unsure. The two closest witnesses said he [Mr Dobson] vanished in front of their eyes while cleaning the object by rubbing the soil off. All present agreed that the Mr Dobson had been there, and then suddenly was not. He had vanished from plain sight.
This particular case was very quickly handed over to the ministry and dealt with by our aurors. Witnesses were interviewed again this time being cross-examined with details provided by other witnesses to better confirm events, before being obliviated.
From what the department could determine from the statements was that the object found was most likely a zoomorphic (resembling an animal) buckle plate dating from the early middle ages. When the two key witnesses were presented with drawings of examples of early medieval buckle plates, they confirmed they believed it to be what Mr Dobson had found.
Take note how this case occurred in the early noughties; before the rise of modern muggle social media. If this had happened today, do you believe it would have been so easy to cover? Please save your response for after this lecture, I'd be more then happy to discuss this with you all further.
So back to portkeys.
The evidence from statements point to the buckle plate being a portkey, and as you all already know, the creation of modern portkey requires approval from the Ministry of Magic. This is not to say illegal keys are not made, they are.
What makes this special though is that not only had no key been registered for a zoomorphic medieval buckle plate, and I mean none whatsoever in modern keys, that's about 200 years with no record of this key being made. The fact this key was found in a molehill makes the probability of this being a modern illegal key extremely low, and the likelihood of it being historic much greater.
Lets examine the details further, in particular activation.
The set timeframe for activation and expiration was seemingly lacking in this case. While having these are not officially required, they are highly recommended and almost always done in creation of modern keys for security purposes. In the days before key regulation, this step was often left out due to the more difficult nature of creating time activated keys. This meant many keys of history had no definitive start therefore were active from set creation and immediately expired upon use.
Without the key which has been lost to time, we can never be sure when or who made they key, but it is likely that the key had no end timeframe, and that the original intended user for whatever reason never had the chance.
A peculiar note on this case was that Mr Dobson had contact with the key prior to 'vanishing', yet only when the key was rubbed to remove soil did it activate. This differs from historic keys as they were immediately activated on touch. This may be one of the only historic recorded cases of a key being possibly action activated instead of touch or time. If so it brings the question why did this practice cease in mainstream portkey creation? Again please withhold replies 'till the end of this lecture.
To date no one fitting the man's description has reported, using muggle phraseology 'teleporting'. No one ever claiming to be Mr Dobson has ever come forward. James Alan Dobson still remains missing to this date.
Last year James Alan Dobson was officially pronounced missing – presumed deceased. While this announcement neatly shut the case, it could not shut the questions that renamed. 17 years onward we still know nothing of who created the Alfreton ' Zoomorphic' portkey or the circumstances that let it to be found in a molehill. Nevertheless it is one of the more perplexing portkey cases of modern times.
To summarise, in 2001 a 29 year old muggle man went missing after by chance activating an unregistered portkey. The key was not automaticity activated when picked up. Due to the finding being from a molehill time based activation was unlikely. The action of the key being rubbed seemingly activated the key, possibly highlighting one of the only documented cases of action based historic portkey activation.
Our generation may think we have the mechanics of portkeys well understood, though a case like this seems to revel just how little we truly understand.
We must challenge the long accepted facts, many of which are scarce to find in written work before the implementation of the regulated database and approval system. There's no doubt the regulation of key creation should be maintained, keys in the wrong hands can be a huge security risk, with amount of exposure much higher then those of apparition and FLUE networks. We must carry out further research before we can understand what exactly happened on April 28th 2001.
Cases like these are a complete mystery and we as a field need to embrace and explore the unknown.
I'd like to close with this message
Mysteries surround us, often in the most mundane of places, those left un- searched, areas never overturned. You never quiet know what secrets the world has waiting to be found. Sometimes a molehill can be more then the mountain,
Stay curious.
Ill take responses and questions now.
early noughties: the early 2000's
If anyone one would like to comment id be happy to write a follow up chapter in character to reply.