Portkey

Portkey
Object information
Manufacturer	Witch or wizard using the Portus charm
Made	By using Portus on any object
Usage	Transports people to a pre-determined destination

Harry: "Why are we all standing round some manky old boot?"

Fred: "Not just any manky old boot, mate, it's a Portkey!"

Harry: "What's a Portkey?"

— Fred Weasley and Harry Potter

A Portkey is an object enchanted to instantly bring anyone touching it to a specific location. Most of the time, a Portkey is an everyday object that would not draw the attention of a Muggle. Travelling by Portkey is said to feel like having a hook "somewhere behind the navel" pulling the traveller to their location.

Properties

Portkeys have an advantage over Floo Powder in that they may transport many people at once, but each Portkey can only transport its users to one destination. Unlike Apparition, Portkeys may also be used by anyone, such as underage witches and wizards and even Muggles. At least once such instance occured in 2003, when two Muggle dog-walkers were accidentally transported to a Celestina Warbeck concert.

Before the creation of the Hogwarts Express, Portkeys were used as a means of transportation to not draw the attention of Muggles. Eventually another method was sought, because the majority of students would either not find the item that was their Portkey or not arrive in time to take the Portkey. Many students were 'Portkey-sick' and the Hospital Wing was filled with students for the first few days of term, while they got over their nausea and distress.

Types of Portkeys

Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and others land after being transported from Ottery St. Catchpole to Quidditch World Cup.

Some Portkeys are preset to travel to their destinations at a specific time. Examples include the Portkeys that transported wizards to the Quidditch World Cup in 1994, and the ones that transported members of the Order of the Phoenix from the different Order safehouses to the Burrow, after the Battle of the Seven Potters in 1997. Other Portkeys are triggered immediately by a person's touch; examples include the Triwizard Cup, which transported Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory to Little Hangleton, and the broken statue head that sent Harry Potter back to Hogwarts after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. It is unknown how one affects the difference between the two types of Portkeys.

Both types of Portkey travel to the destination along with their users. With touch-activated Portkeys, touching it again might transport the users back to their original location, as was the case with the Triwizard Cup. Time-activated ones can be handled before and after their assigned moment of use without effect.

Creating unauthorised Portkeys

According to Remus Lupin, the creation of unauthorised Portkeys incurs some sort of punishment, and Cornelius Fudge was quite angry when Albus Dumbledore created one in front of him without permission. However, as demonstrated by Dumbledore and Barty Crouch Jr., the Ministry does not have the ability to detect the creation of such Portkeys.

List of Portkeys

Portkey	User(s)	Starting point	Destination	Creator
Broom	Unidentified Quidditch referee	Quidditch pitch	Sahara Desert	Unidentified Quidditch fan
An old boot produced by the Book of Potions	A Hogwarts student	Potions Classroom	Enchanted garden	Zygmunt Budge
Unknown	Gellert Grindelwald	Godric's Hollow	Central Europe	Bathilda Bagshot
An old boot	Amos and Cedric Diggory Harry Potter Hermione Granger Arthur, Fred and George, Ginny, and Ron Weasley	Stoatshead Hill	1994 Quidditch World Cup	Unknown, presumably the Ministry of Magic
An old newspaper	Unknown	Unknown
A punctured football
An empty drink can
An old rubber tire	Harry Potter Hermione Granger Arthur, Fred and George, Ginny, and Ron Weasley	1994 Quidditch World Cup	Stoatshead Hill
Triwizard Cup File:Tumblr mfigpvo2ls1qdab59o9 250.gif The cup being activated	Cedric Diggory Harry Potter	Quidditch pitch, Hogwarts	Little Hangleton graveyard	Barty Crouch Jr.
A blackened kettle	Harry Potter Fred, George, Ginny, and Ron Weasley	Headmaster's office, Hogwarts	12 Grimmauld Place	Albus Dumbledore
The head of a golden statue	Harry Potter	Ministry of Magic	Headmaster's office, Hogwarts
A small, silver-backed hairbrush	Harry Potter Rubeus Hagrid	The Tonks' house	The Burrow	Unknown member of the Order of the Phoenix
A rusty oilcan	None	Unknown house of a member of the Order of the Phoenix
An ancient sneaker
Unknown	George Weasley Remus Lupin
A bent coathanger	Hermione Granger Kingsley Shacklebolt

Etymology

French porter, meaning "to carry", and English "key", in the sense of a secret of trick.

Behind the scenes

• According to W.O.M.B.A.T., in order for portkeys to be arranged between countries, the consent of both Nations's Ministries of Magic may be required.
• Also on W.O.M.B.A.T., it is possible that releasing a Portkey before arriving at one's destination may result in serious injury or death.
• It is unknown why the Death Eaters used the Vanishing Cabinet when they could have created a portkey to Hogwarts unless there is a specific spell that stops portkeys, however Albus Dumbledore made one from the Ministry so this is also a contradiction. However, it may be possible that only the Headmaster or Headmistress of the time can make a Portkey in and out of Hogwarts, especially as such has been established to be the case with Apparition. Of course, as the Ministry had finally accepted the fact that Voldemort has finally returned, and increased security at Hogwarts, preventing Portkeys from functioning within the school may had been one of the new defensive measures.
• The incantation for creating a portkey is Portus.
• On Pottermore, series author J. K. Rowling jokes that she has a real Portkey: the key to the city for La Porte, Indiana, which was given to her by MuggleNet founder Emerson Spartz.
• In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, when Harry grabbed the cup again in the graveyard, he was transported to the edge or entrance to the maze. However, Harry should not have returned there, since the cup is supposed to transport the user back to where they started from. The cup should have taken Harry back to the center of the maze.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film) (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• Quidditch Through the Ages (real) (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter: A Pop-Up Book
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• Pottermore
• Wonderbook: Book of Potions