Tents
Appearance: Various. Some wizarding tents resemble small
Muggle ones, while others blatantly advertise their enchantment. At the Quidditch
World Cup campsite, Harry saw hundreds of tents, most of which were meant
to avert suspicion, weather vanes or chimneys aside. There were a few that
stood out, though; one with its own front garden and fountain, a very tall
one with turrets, one made of striped silk, and of course the shamrock- or
Krum poster-covered ones.
Inside, the ordinary tents aren't anything close to ordinary. For example, the tents Mr. Weasley borrowed from Perkins each looked like two-person tents Muggles would use, but inside they were like traditional apartments, with a kitchen, bathroom, and bunk bedroom. The odd assortment of chairs in the main room of the slightly larger men's tent had crocheted covers and a smell of cats permeated the place. The insides of the spectacular-looking tents would have been at least as spectacular-possibly one or two of those had twelve bedrooms and an en-suite Jacuzzi [GOF7].
Function: Providing shelter for traveling witches and
wizards.
How to Use: Theoretically, magical folk using ordinary-looking tents would want to keep avoiding Muggle suspicion by hammering the tent stakes into the ground to erect the tents. However, there were probably a fair few at the World Cup who used less time-consuming methods. When Hermione Apparated the trio to the moor outside the where the Quidditch World Cup had been held, she quickly set up the tent by saying "Erecto" [DH14].
Notes: Many of the tents at the 1994 World Cup were destroyed when former Death Eaters went on a Muggle-levitating rampage. The Ministry of Magic had to provide compensation for people who'd lost property [GOF10]. Luckily for Harry, Ron, and Hermione, though, Perkins's tent was saved; he decided that he didn't want it back afterwards since his lumbago's so bad [DH14]. However, they had to abandon it when the Snatchers took them to Malfoy Manor; before their break-in at Gringotts, though, Bill lent them his [DH26].
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