Bug Brooches

Small enchanted brooches or tie pins. The pin looks outwardly like ordinary jewellery, but it has special abilities to record the conversation of the wearer and nearby conversation partners.

Creation and Appearance

The pins vary in design, but goblin metalwork is best suited as a base for the enchantments, especially gold though silver is nearly as effective. They are usually subtle designs that would look at home on a coat lapel, jacket or tie. They are not there to draw attention.

Use

Once charmed, the owner only needs to place the pin in a suitable location (usually pinned to clothing on the neck, chest or shoulder) and give the pin brooch a double squeeze to begin recording voices around it. To pause a recording, one squeeze, two to restart.

When the wearer is alone and wishes to review the recording they tap the brooch thrice with their wand.

Limitations

The pins have different capacities for recording based on the size, metal and the skill of the person who incanted the enchantments in the first instance. They are susceptible to damage from blows, and may struggle to record clearly in very busy, noisy places.

The enchantment will fail if not renewed every year, or more often if used with regularity.

The pins are particularly expensive, and a very limited and monitored supply is held for senior officials at the Ministry of Magic. Cheaper imitations fail easily or may be unreliable.

Once a recording is made, the recording can only be stored on the brooch. Further artefacts are required to copy a recording.

Recordings on the brooch can be tampered with, so brooches must not be left unsecured.

Legality

Recording a conversation in secret with one of these is not a criminal offence and is not prohibited. As long as the recording is for personal use. You don’t need to obtain consent or let the other person know.

Things change if the recordings are shared without the consent of the participants or sold to third parties or released in public without the consent of the participants. It could be considered a criminal offence worthy of wizengamot hearing.

Journalists who record conversations in secret with the intent to publish make sure to either obtain consent or argue that the recordings are in the public’s interest.

In wizengamot court, a recording may be relied on in evidence if the majority of sitting wizengamot members gives permission. Before it is heard in court, the recording should be reviewed by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to consider its admissibility and examine it should it be false. If the recording is of a child, it is unlikely to be accepted.

At Absit Omen

In August 2009, Wolfgang Storm used one of these to record the conversation of Ignan Storm and Johann Storm. It was attached to Wolfgang's coat. He hoped to gain information about the Tetrawizard Tournament. [1]

In December 2011, Evangeline Kuester used one to record her conversation with William Shufflebottom at Azkaban as part of the Glass Houses plot. [2] She later shares that she has done this with Elixa Mordent and Harper Graves [3].