[HPforGrownups] Boggarts 'n' such

[Andrew MacIan]

No: HPFGUIDX 32998

Greetings from Andrew!

Ah!  The feeling of confusion that heralds a potential
breakthrough.  As Asimov said, "Instead of 'Eureka!',
most scientific advances have been heralded by 'That's
odd...'"

This will be a lengthy post; a glass of Guinness or
port might be appropriate accompaniment.

No whiteboards will be harmed by the author in this
exercise.....

--- blenberry <blenberry at altavista.com> wrote:
> Yikes, I'm getting all confused about this boggart
> theory.  It seems 
> odd that Harry would be affected *more* by a
> dementor that he *knows* 
> is fake (the boggart) than by one he believes is
> real (Malfoy and 
> friends).  Is the difference just that the boggart
> is magical? if so, 
> does that mean boggarts take on the powers of the
> thing they appear 
> to be?  Which brings us back to the earlier question
> of why Lupin is 
> not affected by the boggart in the shape of the
> moon.   
> 

Well-posed.  Let's see if we can agree on what
possible cases exist from the above:

Case 1:  The dementor is real, and Harry is aware that
it is.  The dementor has magical abilities.

Case 2:  The dementor is actually a boggart, and Harry
is convinced by the boggart's magical abilities.

Case 3:  The dementor is Malfoy and henchmen, and
Harry reacts to the perceived threat, even though he
doesn't 'feel' magic.

Case 4:  Lupin, a magical creature, faces a boggart, a
magical creature.  The boggart knows that Lupin's
greatest fear is the Moon, so it assume the form of
the Moon.

Do we agree?

If so, then in cases 1, 2 and 4, we must determine
what the actual effect of the magic is upon the
target; we'll ignore case 3 for the moment.

Case 1 is stark reality.  Harry sees a dementor and,
depending on where we are in the flow of the novel, he
is either defenseless or can (to some greater or
lesser degree) defend himself.

Case 2, after Harry has been exposed to the first
incident of Case 1, the perception takes over Harry's
current reality and he believes the boggart's
deception, which is its power.

Case 4 can be considered a special case, in that we
have both two magical creature pitting their strengths
against each other as well as the fact that Lupin
*knows* the boggart's power.  Thus, Lupin can discount
the Moon that he 'sees' as he *knows* the boggart's
power is to lie.

OK so far?  We've indicated what the effects of magic
qua magic have been.

Now, Case 3 is the one of most interest to me, as it
presents the greatest possible 'cook' to this problem.
In this case, Harry has been through instances of both
Case 1 and Case 2.  He physically sees the dementor
but fails to feel the 'psychic vampire' effect. 
However, his reason prevails, so he launches the known
counter, the Patroclus spell.  The *physical* effect
is to unmask Malfoy and henchmen for the liars they
are, by *physically* knocking them over.  By so doing,
Harry gains some understanding of both how strong the
Patroclus manifestation can be, as well as how his
perceptions of both the magical and physical worlds
interact.

In sum, we have two meta-cases, one where the mage
must handle both the magical and physical worlds using
magic, and one where two magical creatures determine
who's magic is best/strongest.

Whew!  Time for a drink, and to change the CD.

> I'm leaning towards the theory that boggarts do take
> on properties 
> and abilities of what they resemble;  thus, their
> effect on Harry 
> (and the classroom lights) as a dementor.  However,
> Lupin's 
> experience and knowledge allow him to counteract the
> moon-boggart's 
> effects on himself.

And in this, as we arrive at the same conclusion, so

{fanfare}

QED.

Kewl!  This is why I do math for a living, and write
and play chess for fun.

A glass of wine with you, sir or madam.  Thanks for
the workout!

Cheers,

Drieux

...who really, *really* likes a three-pipe problem....

=====
ICQ # 76184391

'Each game of chess means there's one less
      Variation left to be played;
 Each day got through means one or two less
      Mistakes remain to be made.'
      --'Chess' by Sir Tim Rice

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