Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery

### Description

Prevents underaged witches and wizards from performing magic outside of school in heavily populated muggle areas

The **Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery** is a bylaw of the Ministry of Magic, written in 1875, which bans the use of underage magic outside of school. It followed the Education Act of 1872, which created the Hogwarts Board of Governors.

The Decree is enforced by the Improper Use of Magic Office in the Ministry of Magic. The restriction is for wizards and witches who are under the age of seventeen, upon which The Trace still operates. Even so, the Ministry does recognise that they may have to use magic in certain situations such as self-defence in a life-threatening situation.

In addition, young children below school age, or children who are not in possession of a wand, are mostly exempt from the rule since they usually have little or no control over the magic they perform. Overall, it appears the Ministry of Magic generally limits enforcement of the decree to situations where underage wizards perform magic in front of Muggles.

## Known Contents

Paragraph C of the clause states that it is a crime to knowingly perform magic in a Muggle-inhabited area and in the presence of a Muggle. However, Clause 7 also states that magic can be used in front of Muggles in exceptional circumstances, including situations when the life of the witch or wizard using the spell, or the lives of other witches, wizards and Muggles are threatened.

It seems that a high-authority person may give permission for an underage student to perform magic under circumstances; as Hogwarts Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore gave Harry Potter such an instruction if an attack was to eventuate, when he was 16 years old. Also, if an underage student unintentionally performed magic out of emotional stress, the Ministry may consider this to be accidental magic, and not punish said student, as Dumbledore noted that even the best of adult wizards cannot always control their emotions, and Fudge did somewhat take this into account when he spoke to Harry about it.

The use of objects already enchanted by someone else does not count as a violation, as stated by Ronald Weasley, at that time aged 12, when he and his brothers Fred and George, aged 14, used their father's flying Ford Anglia during the summer holidays.

## Known Breaches

### Undetected/Ignored Breaches

* Harry Potter performed the Wand-Lighting Charm shortly after his illegal usage of the Patronus Charm and letter, it did not add to his offence.
* Tom Riddle, at age 16 during his summer vacation, used the Stunning Spell to incapacitate his maternal uncle, and then took his wand for multitude of uses: the Unlocking Charm to break into the Riddle House, the Killing Curse to murder his paternal family, and then to implant a false memory into his uncle to frame him. The Ministry never even took Tom into account for the multiple breaches, let alone the crimes, as his uncle was in the vicinity, who instead became the suspect for every magic performed.
* Before Sirius Black defected from his family at age 16, he used the Permanent Sticking Charm to stick some muggle pictures of girls in his room. His breach was not detected due to his household being a magical family.