That old Dark Magic

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 40578

Recent threads have inspired me to reread the graveyard chapters in 
GoF.  And that, in turn, got me thinking about that resurrection 
ritual that Wormtail did to bring back Voldemort.  I've wondered 
about it before, but don't think I ever brought it up on the list.

What the heck was that spell, anyhow?  Most of the discussions I've 
seen just call it "potion," meaning "the sort of thing Snape does," 
and leave it at that.  But... but... there's an awful lot of foolish 
wandwaving involved in the process, isn't there?  And ritual phrases 
spoken in English rather than Latin, forming full sentences rather 
than isolated words or phrases.  It's nothing like Hogwarts magic at 
all, is it?  We don't see Snape in the Potions lab going "Tail of 
newt, forcibly sliced off, you shall make people's hair turn green!"

Voldemort describes it as "an old piece of Dark Magic" (p. 569, UK 
paperback).  So is this part of the Dark Arts that get taught at 
Durmstrang but not Hogwarts?  If it's so old, why is it done in 
plain modern English while plain current magic is done in Latin?  
And when Wormtail says, "Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you 
shall renew your son," is he really addressing Riddle, Sr.'s bones 
in the expectation that they will hear him, or is he talking to 
Something Else?  This whole business with putting bone, flesh and 
blood into the cauldron seems very much like a sacrifice, but a 
sacrifice to what?

Maybe that's what Dark Magic in the Potterverse is about?  Getting 
power by sacrificing to or bargaining with some unpleasant 
supernatural forces -- as opposed to "ordinary" magic, where all 
power comes from within the wizard's own self.  Maybe that's where 
the much-theorised DE power boost come from.  So far, we haven't 
seen much of the supernatural in the Potterverse, aside from ghosts, 
but maybe that's going to change in future books?

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com