"Huh. Cool. What're you going to do with it?"

"It's a pretty passive ability, what would I do with it?"

"I mean, I'm not a Slytherin, but - spike drinks with it and reassure people you haven't by drinking from it yourself? Lie about stuff really effectively? Infiltrate a secret organization? Isn't that the stuff people learn Occlumency for?"

"No, I just learned it because all the things it protects against really freak me out."

"Ah, okay. Well, congratulations."

"Thanks!"

"Good Christmas present?"

"Yes, I appreciate it."

"I'm glad. And I wouldn't have thought of getting you a drop of Veritiserum, either."

"That's true."

"I would probably have gotten you something you like less than that."

"Yes, yes, you are a very efficient gift-giver."

He beams at her.

And she giggles and goes back to her own table.

There is a snowy Quidditch match. It drags on six hours; Gryffindor wins. Michael takes advantage of all that time and the limited radius of the only heating spell he knows to befriend the Ravenclaw sixth-year he likes; they make plans for a Hogsmeade date, have a fight and cancel it, have another fight and decide it's back on, and hex each other and get detention together for it. 

Minor reads about the Hogwarts wards.

The lightning ward extends in a net over the grounds and should have no effect on the interior at all, merely causing lightning from above to redirect back into the clouds.

So that probably isn't it. He compares the Hogwarts set to the Ministry set, where synthetic electricity doesn't seem to work either: do they have the lighting ward?

Theirs is different; it's folded into the general hiding from the outside world charms, which Hogwarts has separately instead.

What else could possibly be disrupting lightning, if it's not the ward that deflects it?

"Maybe it's doing something to the materials and not the electricity itself."

"Maybe -" Hogwarts wards that would affect copper and zinc's behavior?

Hogwarts has wards against flooding, earthquakes, swarming doxies, out of control fire, explosive accidental magic, Magyar cavalry, obscure Egyptian curses, dire bears, Muggles, and attack by sea!

Yes, of course it does. Some of which can't be replicated today, or he'd try making a place with each of those and checking whether a voltaic pile worked there.

Anyway, it definitely doesn't have a ward specifically against voltaic piles or their component parts.

Is it still known how the anti-lightning ward works?