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Inspired by some fan art, I was considering how possible it is to create a TARDIS using Harry Potter magic. Time travel seems to be nearly impossible, (Time-Turners are extremely limited in use, and only seem to let you go backward), but just about everything else seems doable.

Step 1: Find a blue police box.

Step 2: Use the charm to make it bigger on the inside (just like the wizards' car trunks or tents).

Step 3: Enchant it to fly (like the Weasley's car).

Step 4: Put a protective enchantment on it like the one on Hogwarts that makes muggles ignore or overlook it (analogous to the chameleon circuit's properties in the Whoniverse)

But in order to get the disappearing/reappearing effect the Tardis has, Step 5 would be to turn it into a portkey every time you want to teleport somewhere (there are the legal issues with authorizing said portkey with the ministry, but I'm ignoring that issue). All the portkeys we see in the books are small objects that can be held onto while they teleport, is it possible to turn a large object like a phonebox into a portkey and teleport inside it?

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    Didn't Hermione keep lots of stuff inside a small bag? I think the "bigger on the inside" concept already exists in the HP Universe. – tilley31 Dec 8 '15 at 19:18
  • @tilley31 Yeah, I mentioned that the bigger on the inside thing is possible. The only thing that I don't know is possible is turning a large object into a portkey and transporting while inside of it – childcat15 Dec 8 '15 at 19:29
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    When I saw a question with both harry-potter and doctor-who tags, I jumped. – Captain Cold Dec 8 '15 at 22:32
  • I feel like this question would be better suited on the World Building exchange. They are pretty good about answering these type of questions. – TaylorAllred Dec 9 '15 at 0:55
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In canon, there's no magical limitation on a size of an object which is a portkey.

Almost any inanimate object can be turned into a Portkey. (Pottermore)

The reason you only see small objects is mostly to avoid Muggles accidentally grabbing them as well as ease of grabbing.

Mass is clearly not an issue as mass-transportation portkeys are made for the Quidditch world games where tons (10+) of people get portkeyed.

P.S. More interestingly, you may not even necessarily NEED to portkey the whole TARDIS. Your cloths portkey with you as-is, as are your belongings; so there's a chance your vehicle (phone booth) may portkey as well, as they aren't very conceptually different. But that isn't directly addressed in canon so pure guess.

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  • So the only thing missing is, would there be any reason you can't stand inside a portkey while it's transporting you? – childcat15 Dec 8 '15 at 19:44
  • @childcat15 - nothing said you can't in canon. Presumably, if you stick your hand into an old boot, it won't bite your hand off while transporting? – DVK-on-Ahch-To Dec 8 '15 at 19:46
  • @childcat15 Just make the floor of the TARDIS Portkey... You are creating your own design flaw. – Captain Cold Dec 8 '15 at 22:29
  • I guess that leads to another question, can you make only part of an object be a portkey? I was assuming if you're using a phonebox, the entire phonebox has to be a portkey. Can you specify a particular part of the object, like the floor, to be the portkey? – childcat15 Dec 8 '15 at 22:37
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    While your clothes do go with you when you transport, the ground beneath you doesn't. I'm inclined to think that a portkey pulls you and stuff that moves with you (i.e. your clothes or someone you are holding onto). Also, it sounds to me like you have to have skin contact with a portkey, so the ground wouldn't work unless you want to put your hand on the floor (console would be a better choice). – Thunderforge Dec 8 '15 at 23:22
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As far as we know... Maybe. There aren't that much "rules" that we know about portkeys, other than they are typically targeted at small things Muggles will overlook, are heavily regulated by the MoM, have a limited number of locations they transport between, and can be used by anyone. It also would be something that needs to be grasped.

Because of those stipulations, that wouldn't be something you'd want for a phone box - It would only jump between a set number of locations, and would activate for anyone who grabs onto it, even the outside. A TARDIS would probably be best as a variation of the Knight Bus, just smaller with the ability to fly and teleport.

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  • I added a step to the creation process that addresses your concerns about Muggles grabbing it. Aside from that I envisioned it as the owner of this tardis casts a new portkey enchantment for a new location every time they want to leave. They can either make it touch-sensitive then, so as soon as they cast it they grab a lever and they're gone, or they could make it time-specific to leave 30 seconds after they cast it or something similar. It wouldn't always be set to transport at a touch. Perhaps I'm asking too much of it though, you may be right that the Knight Bus is a better model – childcat15 Dec 8 '15 at 20:04
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To quote Mr Weasley:

'You just need to touch the Portkey, that's all, a finger will do -'

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - p.69 - Bloomsbury - Chapter 6, The Portkey

Also, a few lines later:

his forefinger was stuck to the boot as though it was pulling him magnetically onwards ...

So, as long as you were touching some part of it when it went, I see no reason why it wouldn't work. So, if you were standing inside a portkey, I can't see any reason at all why it wouldn't transport you.

So, in other words, I believe the answer to your question title is yes, assuming DVK is right that there is no limit on the size of a portkey that a police box would fall foul of.

However, as for the whole TARDIS recreation thing, I think the magic that the knight bus uses might be a better place to start, than endlessly making your police box into portkey after portkey after portkey. (Edit: I genuinely hadn't noticed that Vogie's answer already mentions the Knight Bus. Sorry about that, so, yes, props to Vogie who got there first.)

(Although, really, I think a TARDIS made out of Potterverse magic is really not worth it any case ...)

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