Potter's home destruction + AK theory

grey_wolf_c greywolf1 at jazzfree.com
Thu Feb 28 16:18:39 UTC 2002


No: HPFGUIDX 35862

abigailnus  wrote:
I think we can assume, despite the vaguaries of language, that however 
great the destruction was it wasn't complete,  or it's doubtful that a 
15-month-old baby would have survived it completely unscathed as he is 
when being delivered to the Durselys.  Also, since I doubt that Hagrid 
Voldemort died and the house collapsed, the ruins would have had to 
provide some shelter from the elements.  We don't know exactly where 
Godric's Hollow is supposed to be apart from the fact that Hagrid flew 
over Bristol to get from there to Surrey, but wherever it is it would 
have been very cold in the middle of the night at the end of October - 
a baby might freeze to death if left outside in that kind of cold for 
too long.
______________________________________________________________________

Dicentra countered:
Of course, if the failed AK produced a forceful enough explosion, the
house would have blown out away from Harry in all directions. I
imagine seeing Harry sitting in his crib, ruins scattered around him
like the walls of a crater. That could explain how the house could go
down without hurting him. 

As for the cold, babies, especially wizard babies, can stand up to the 
cold rather well.  Didn't a two-year-old in Canada survive being frozen 
nearly solid this winter?
______________________________________________________________________


I feel I'm starting to repeat myself (with this one, I'll have used the 
same argument three times in less than a day in three different post/
topics), but we've also got to consider the wizards innate 
capabilities: if a boy thrown out of a third floor window can bounce 
harmlessly down the street (Longbottom), a baby wizard can surely 
survive for half an hour in the cold, which is what would've taken 
anyone to arrive, after such an explosion.

Of course, the problem is not surviving AFTER the explosion (which I 
agree with Dicentra that it must have been strong enpough to blow AWAY 
the bits and pieces of the Potter's house), but sirviving TO the 
explotion (even if Harry was half a room away, which I can't quite 
imagine), that sort of force should have rattled him, at the very 
least. Then again, maybe all the Potters had permanent shielding spells 
on them as protection, which would be a further reason for Voldie's 
indiscriminate use of the AK.


> --Dicentra, who wonders if Voldemort's body was found next to Lily's,
> and if not, how did folks know he had been defeated?

Read my post number 32751 to know what my views are on that particular 
question, but to sum them up: Voldie's body WAS found besides Lily's, 
and the "thing" that fleed from Voldie's body was what his soul had 
turned into, which wasn't a soul anymore, which is why he was the 
second person to survive an AK spell (ever seen the ironic situation 
that he is "the man who didn't die"?).


The lupinesque Gray Wolf theorized (that, I think, would be me):
Thus, my on theory (a variation of the original) right now says that 
"unforgivable curses are those spells that cannot be countered by any 
magical mean". No amount of wand-weaving will stop any of the three 
from reaching it's destiny (phisical means are still useful, like 
getting behind a gravestone, as are psiquical means, like the one seen 
in the Imperious). Harry has never told us if he's learnt shield magic 
(protective magic), but I assume some must exists, since all wizards 
have innate shielding capabilities (à la bouncing Longbottom), and it 
seems only natural that when they started developing magical 
capabilities in antiquity they started by strengthening their own 
innate powers.

To which Amy "lupinesque" Z said:
> Harry does start to learn shield charms for the third task, actually 
> (chapter 31--it's the one Hermione breaks through with a Jelly-Legs 
> Jinx), and I think you hit the nail on the head:  they're ineffective 
> against AK.  Otherwise, wouldn't Moody say "there's no blocking it, 
> except if you put up a very strong Shield Charm and the wizard trying 
> to kill you isn't too powerful?"
> 
> Amy Z

Thanks for the back-up canon! This means that my thory on the 
clasification of unforgivable curses might actully be correct. I do 
have an objection: I don't mind being called "lupinesque", since I love 
wolves to distraction (being wonderful, albeit misunderstood, animals), 
but I do, normally, answer to _GREY_ Wolf. Gray Wolf is s.o. else (who, 
strangely enough, does have that name in pseudo-RL: one of the books 
I've read, although I hate his guts).

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf






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