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The Invisibility Cloak, as the name implies makes you invisible to sight of those around you. Can the Cloak "hide" your presence in any more significant ways?

For example, are there examples of the Cloak hiding (or, just as well, not hiding) its wearer from other senses, such as physical contact, or ambient noise, or from someone who could sense someone's body heat?

According to the "The Tale of the Three Brothers", the cloak originally belonged to Death, and he gave it up to grant the third brother's wish to "evade Death". Does that mean the Cloak is even capable of "hiding" its user from deadly effects in the environment? Could it block a spell like Avada Kedavra, or prevent physical harm (like from a fire)?

FuzzyBoots
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user931
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  • Why the downvotes? – user931 Apr 03 '15 at 14:21
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    I am not one of the downvoters, but I suspect that it's people who feel that it's asking questions about the cloak's nature that have no real grounding in the aspect of invisibility. shrug Given all senses involve the interaction of matter, I've got a neutral vote myself. – FuzzyBoots Apr 03 '15 at 14:29
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    Related, possible dupe (abstaining for now, as I think it's a fine line): Why could Madeye Moody/Barty Crouch see through the Invisibility Cloak using his Magical Eye? – phantom42 Apr 03 '15 at 14:37
  • @Sean But, it can be answered using Canon. – user931 Apr 03 '15 at 14:54
  • Some parts of it... as I mentioned below, we have evidence that it's not impervious to tactile senses and probably does not mask sound. Other parts, like fire or sonar, I doubt it. – FuzzyBoots Apr 03 '15 at 14:55
  • Put on hold as "not clear" because it references science (visual spectra) and magic (will it protect you from Avada Kedavra?), two completely different phenomena – Valorum Apr 03 '15 at 16:44
  • @MichaelEdenfield - Substantially improved. – Valorum Apr 03 '15 at 17:16
  • @MichaelEdenfield That's great edit. Thanks. Although, I would still suggest the community for not being robot.. :) I just used words like SONAR and IR light which should exist in HP universe. Everyone was understanding the material. – user931 Apr 03 '15 at 17:19
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    those things might exist in-universe, but we shouldn't expect them to necessarily work the same way. They only work as well as the author understands them. That's the reason we don't do real-science questions, because the world of HP is not the real world, and JKR is not a physicist, so it's unrealistic to expect the Invisibility Cloak to strictly adhere to the rules of quantum electodynamics... – KutuluMike Apr 03 '15 at 17:26
  • The idea of infrared, OTOH, makes sense, because there are potentially creatures (Nagini?) that could sense body heat, thus the reason I edited that back in. – KutuluMike Apr 03 '15 at 17:27
  • Wouldn't technology like Sonar or Lidar or infrared detection (outside of natural ie snakes) not work at Hogwarts anyway? – Monty129 Apr 04 '15 at 11:03
  • @Monty129 Harry can always try to rob HSBC, London branch. – user931 Apr 04 '15 at 12:30
  • Isn't the marauders map able to detect those under the cloak? I'm not sure. – AJL May 15 '15 at 23:34

2 Answers2

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Actually, it's not elaborated as to what spectrum of light the Invisibility Cloak masks you from. We can guess that at least most of the visible spectrum is covered, but speculations into infrared are just that, speculations. I could be wrong, but I think that sound was specifically noted as not being masked in the books.

There is no evidence that the Invisibility Cloak protects the wearer from other forces including spells and physical force, as seen by Draco successfully stunning and assaulting Harry while under the cloak. Presumably, fire would similarly affect you.

FuzzyBoots
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  • Given that Snape seems to "know" when Harry's sneaking around near him I assume something must be escaping, I always assumed it was sound (e.g. his breathing, footsteps, etc.) – KutuluMike Apr 03 '15 at 14:51
  • Maybe The Nose Knows? – FuzzyBoots Apr 03 '15 at 14:52
  • There's some speculation at http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/7467/could-cats-see-through-the-invisibility-cloak?rq=1, but nothing that I feel specifically speaks to this. – FuzzyBoots Apr 03 '15 at 15:08
  • Wouldn't the fact that the cloak is a magical artifact make it nigh on impossible to use a system such as sonar to detect a user due to magic screwing around with technology? I'm sure they mentioned something about this when discussing Hogwarts being hidden from the view of non-magic folk. – maguirenumber6 Apr 03 '15 at 16:03
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I don't remember exactly where this was mentioned (it's probably in the first book) but there is a monologue of Harry telling himself that the cloak might make him invisible, but it doesn't stop him being solid, so he has to be careful not to bump into anyone while lurking around the corridors at night. Also it is hinted that Mrs. Norris seems to know when Harry is around under the cloak

Moreover, in the third book while playing tricks on Malfoy and his gang in Hogsmead, the cloak gets caught up in something and exposes his head; the cloak couldn't hide Harry's presence there when part of it was physically removed

In the 6th book Malfoy can attack him when under the cloak and can also feel his presence, although he cannot see him

Most importantly, in the 4th book Moody's eye can clearly see through the cloak, which means the cloak is not effective against all kinds of magic. It's possible that Moody's eye can detect a broader eletromagnetic spectrum, and as pointed out in the other answer, the cloak is only transparent to the visible part

user13267
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