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Related to: Why Use "Conventional" Travel to Get to the Tonks' House?

In OotP, some Aurors are sent to bring Harry to No. Twelve Grimmauld Place. They use brooms to fly to their destination. This is meant to explain why they have to fly:

"Brooms," said Lupin. "Only way. You're too young to Apparate, they'll be watching the Floo Network, and it's more than our life's worth to set up an unauthorized Portkey."

And this is meant to be a plausible explanation for why they would fly and freeze half to death? Why not just use side-along Apparition to transport Harry? He can't Apparate himself, but somebody could help him.

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    At the very least why didn't they case some sort of warming charm on themselves before takeoff? Tonks did magic in the house (and somehow this didn't set off an alarm?) so I don't see why they couldn't prepare for the trip a little more appropriately.
    – Dason
    Commented Feb 4, 2012 at 2:36

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Harry still had the Trace on him when the Advanced Guard came to fetch him from No. 4 Privet Drive for No. Twelve Grimmauld Place, because he wasn't yet 17. If he were being watched it might have lead the Ministry -- or whoever was watching -- straight to his destination. As well, there was the risk of Splinching, and no-one wanted the Boy Who Splinched!

I get what you're saying about freezing, though. I have always wondered why the DA members didn't freeze to death flying on Thestrals from Hogwarts to London in OOTP.

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    But Harry wouldn't be the one apparating so would the trace even apply? Edit: Does the trace register upon deapparation?
    – Dason
    Commented Feb 4, 2012 at 2:28
  • I think it might register. This is from DH: “I thought Mad-Eye was going to come and take me by Side-Along-Apparition?” [...] "As Dedalus probably told you, we had to abandon Plan A. Pius Thicknesse has gone over, which gives us a big problem. He’s made it an imprisonable offense to connect this house to the Floo Network, place a Portkey here, or Apparate in or out. What he’s done is to stop you from getting out of here safely." Page 37 - US. This seems to imply that the Ministry can possibly track Side-Along Apparition.
    – Slytherincess
    Commented Feb 4, 2012 at 2:42
  • @Dason Don't forget Dobby's first appearance, where Harry was blamed for Dobby's magic usage
    – Izkata
    Commented Feb 4, 2012 at 4:18
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    @Izkata Yeah that's why I was wondering if the trace registers upon arrival for apparation because Tonks used magic right next to Harry which I thought would register the trace. I never understood why Dobby using magic would register Harry's trace though - wouldn't underage wizards in a wizarding household have their trace going off every two seconds due to their parents using magic?
    – Dason
    Commented Feb 4, 2012 at 4:33
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    @Dason Here's the quote from HBP: "So if you're underage and you do magic inside an adult witch or wizard's house, the Ministry won't know?" "They will certainly be unable to tell who performed the magic," said Dumbledore smiling slightly at the look of great indignation on Harry's face. They rely on the witch and wizard parents to enforce their offsprings obedience while within their walls." I think this implies that contrary to my initial comment, all underage wizards have the trace, but only muggle borns can have it reliably enforced - quite unfair...
    – morganpdx
    Commented Apr 11, 2012 at 20:14
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Side-along Apparition probably requires more skill than just Apparating yourself.

The instructions for Apparition include “Let your yearning to enter it flood from your mind to every particle of your body.” This is probably easier if you only want to Apparate your body, rather than the body of other people too.

I believe we've seen only two wizards perform Side-along Apparition in the books. One was Professor Dumbledore, who has immense magical skill and experience. The other was Hermione, but she only used it as an emergency measure to escape from the Ministry, and then started regularly using it when they were fugitives and didn't have much choice.

Further, we know that Apparating can be dangerous. If someone without the experience tries side-along Apparition, there's probably an even higher chance of accidents than for just Apparating themselves, and they'd be risking to injure their passengers.

Dumbledore is dead by this point. Hermione might not trust herself enough to be able to perform Side-Along Apparition at this point, or the Order might not trust her to be able to do that, or they might not be aware of the full extent of Hermione's magical brilliance. If Side-Along Apparition is as difficult as I believe, then nobody else in the Order could perform it at this point.

(This answer is based on my previous answer "Why did Amos Diggory not use Side-Along Apparation?".)

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    For all that Hermione is extremely gifted, I don’t think we can realistically say that a girl who had only just passed her sixth year is realistically better at Apparating than a team of highly experienced Aurors. While it may be true that side-along Apparation is more challenging than regular Apparation, I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that someone like Moody or Kingsley would not have been perfectly capable of doing it quite effortlessly. Harry himself also successfully Disapparates with not just one but two others (Griphook and Dobby) tagging along.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Aug 6, 2018 at 0:11

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