[HPforGrownups]TBAY: Harry giving up powers? BIGGER AND BANGIER

[Laura Huntley]

No: HPFGUIDX 38547

In response to Caroline's Stoned theory and all her marvelous information about mercury, sulfur, etc in the role of alchemy:

Oh, yes, yes, YES!! I love it.  Perfect.  Why didn't I think of it?

*is quite cross with herself*

Cindy said:
>It also goes a ways toward explaining why Dumbledore is so secretive >about Harry's past.  [...] Answer me this, though.  Where did Stoned 
>Harry's potential for eternal life come from?  Is it embodied in his scar?  
>Does it have something to do with parseltongue, do you think?  Is it r
>related to the analysis of alchemy you mentioned (which I don't 
>remember so you might have to repeat)?

And Caroline said:
>In art, the alchemists showed the creation of the philosopher's stone 
>as a stag & unicorn coming together in a forest.
>So, I figure James + Lily = living Philosopher's stone
<snip>
>(Bonus tidbit: Another word for the Philosopher's stone is cinnabar: 
>this means dragon's blood in Persian.  Remind anyone of a certain 
>chocolate frog card??)

*nearly fall out of her chair in excitement* Meep!  Dumbledore, discovering the (12) uses of dragon's blood!  What if there's really a 13th use, in which Dumbledore discovered a procedure to create a living philosopher's stone!! Perhaps Trelawney's first prediction was that a Dark Lord with the power of immortality would rise, and a Light Lord with the same power would be needed to defeat him?? So *viola*! Dumbledore helps *create* baby Harry (perhaps magically altering him during Lily's pregnancy or arranging some kind of ritual at his conception --  I don't know) to fight the coming Dark Lord.  Perhaps this is why he first started looking into alchemy and dragon's blood to begin with.

Oooo...what if Dumbledore created TOM RIDDLE with the potential for immortality because of the prediction about a Dark Lord Trelawney or whomever made (thinking that *Tom* would be the Light Lord), and then was forced to create Harry to fulfill the prophecy and undo the damage he had caused.  You know -- a younger Dumbledore, not yet the all-wise, benevolent leader we know today -- but a headstrong man with a buckload of power.  He had good *intentions* in creating Riddle -- he wanted to stop this "Dark Lord" from taking over.  But he tinkered with the balance of the universe in doing so, and was therefore punished and obligated to perform the terrible magic that made Tom once more -- in order to prevent the fruits of his stupidity and vanity from taking over the world.

It was the evil he could inherently see in his creation, young Tom -- even before Tom actually realized it himself, that made him wary of Tom when all the other Hogwarts teachers loved him -- he was suspicious of the hatred he sensed in the boy he made to be a *savior* (wow, that sounds really Star Wars).  It's why he goes to so much trouble to help those directly harmed by Tom (Hagrid) and forgive those who let themselves be led into evil by Tom (Snape).  It's why he takes such an interest in James and Lily, because he sees in them the potential that he saw in Riddle's parents to create a Living Stone (geez..sort of sounds like a Living Horus..falcon..phoenix..nah.).  My guess is that you need the right people and then you need all sort of potions, charms, and the like (some of which use dragon's blood).  A very complicated, difficult procedure, anyway.  Probably with lots of sacrifice on the parts of all involved.

And don't get me wrong.  I'm not trying to propose an Evil!Dumbledore here.  What I'm proposing is a Dumbledore who made a grave mistake when he was younger and is now desperately trying to make up for it.  It's *why* he's the amazingly kind, beneficent person we know today.  He's had more of his share of the kind of wrong-doing that turns one into an older, wiser person.

Anyway.  Do you like it? *grins enthusiastically*  I've got all my can(n)ons at the ready -- fire at your own risk. ^_~

laura


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