(Slight ref. TBAY): Harry Potter and, er, the Philosopher's Stone

[dicentra63]

No: HPFGUIDX 38725

Dicentra sits in a chaise lounge on the deck of the Big Bang, sorting
through clippings about Stoned!Harry.  She's listening to an old tape
she found while rummaging about--Mannheim Steamroller: Fresh Aire 7. 
She picks up the tape's case and begins to read the program notes. 
Track 5, called "The 7 Metals of Alchemy," catches her eye for obvious
reasons.

"One of [alchemy's] major goals was to seek perfection by union
between spiritual and material phenomena. The changing of metals was
simply an indicator," it reads.  "Western Alchemists sought a
substance called 'The Philosopher's Stone.' This was thought to be a
distillation, into physical form, [of] the stuff that linked the
physical and spiritual worlds together."

Dicentra looks out into the bay for Stoned!Harry.  He's sitting
cross-legged about 50 yards out, plucking <"((>< out of the water and
getting slapped in the face as they thrash about.  Not exactly the
epitome of such lofty goals as linking spiritual and physical worlds,
she thinks.

She picks out a clipping from the stack, number 38511, by Captain
Caroline.  It's the message that gave Stoned!Harry his first peek at
the world:

"I am one of the few (heck, maybe I'm the *only* one) who believes
that Harry's Big Bangy secret is that he is a living embodiment of the
philosopher's stone. ... Not that he's necessarily immortal, but that
he holds within his being the potential for eternal life if properly
activated."

Dicentra smiles at the parenthetical phrase about being the *only*
one, considering what has happened since then.  Nope, Captain, you're
certainly not the only one anymore. Then she picks out number 38654,
which is David's reply to the Captain: 

"I much prefer this [potential for eternal life] to the simplistic
'Harry is immortal' theory.  After all, the stone itself is not
immortal -- it merely is the means to immmortality for wizards (and
Muggles).  That does mean that I don't take a lot of the canon
evidence (Dumbledore unconcerned about Harry in danger, various
beheadings and the like) the way other list members do. 

Dicentra underlines the part about the beheadings and scribbles in the
margin:

"In an interview, JKR said she was not concerned that readers might
figure out the ending. She said that such readers would have learned
how to read her books--how to read the symbols and things.  The
persistence of beheadings as opposed to other forms of execution (AK
is the only other one) should not be ignored or under-analyzed any
more than the reader should fail to read the names of Remus Lupin or
Sirius Black as clues to their identity.  Whether Harry is to be
beheaded literally or figuratively is a different question, but in my
mind, head(s) are definitely going to roll."

Dicentra continues to read David's message:

"I also think that the parallel between Christ and Harry is an
entirely separate topic: there is no need to focus on immortality,
whether actual or latent, to draw that parallel. (And it's very
difficult to draw right: if you take one book chock full of symbols,
such as Harry Potter, and line the symbols up against those found in
another such book, like the Bible, you are bound to get some
correspondences, IMO, a bit more structure than that is required.)"

Dicentra scribbles in the other margin:

"I myself am not sure to what degree Harry will turn out to be a
Christ figure, if at all, but at the same time the Biblical
'correspondences' shouldn't be underplayed if they are numerous enough
and distinct enough.  Using the Bible as a Rosetta stone to understand
HP is not a random comparison: JKR is a believing Christian living in
a society where Biblical allegory and imagery forms an enormous part
of the literary history.  She is deliberately encoding the books with
symbols of her choosing for the purpose of making a richer and more
meaningful story.  She would lose her audience if she used symbols
with which we were not likely to be familiar.  If we were using the
Upanishads or the Popol Vuh to interpret the imagery, I think the
'correspondences' theory would hold more water, so to speak."

David lobs off an evaluation of the Stoned!Harry flotation device:

"So I think you TBAY-ers out there may have some sort of catamaran."

Dicentra looks around at the destroyer's deck and scratches her head.
 She continues reading David's post:

"Anyway, back to the topic. At one level, this is neat, because it
gives Voldemort a reason to be interested in Harry which does not
depend on some hackneyed 'first prophecy': he is after the immortality
which can be unlocked from Harry (this is what Laura said). It is then
an open question whether V was trying to AK Harry as a preliminary
towards using his body, or whether he tried some other
'stone-power-extracting' spell, which (because of Lily's love) went
wrong, leaving V damaged and Harry with Parseltongue and a V-sensitive
scar. The second option has the very intriguing feature of giving a
genuine role to Lily's love in saving Harry and damaging Voldemort,
while avoiding the issue of all those other presumed mothers who died
for their children."

Dicentra writes in the bottom margin:

"How about this--given that the yew tree, out of which Voldemort's
wand is made, is very literally a Death Eater, and that his minions
were called Death Eaters, it is possible that they had learned how to
feed off the deaths of their AK victims, thereby stealing their
victims' life-spans to add to their own.  If at some point Voldemort
learned of Stoned!Harry, he might have thought he could take Harry's
'stoneness' (possibly his immortality) if he AK'ed him too.  This
might also explain why he was in such a hurry to get to Harry and
wasn't terribly interested in Lily.  Unfortunately for V., you can't
AK a Stone and feed off the death, and rather unpleasant results await
you if you try."

She comes to the end of David's post:

"[T]here is no particular call for Harry to die at the end -- he just
has to accept that a normal lifespan for everybody is the best way.
... So, the bottom line is, not that Harry is an embodiment of the
physical stone, but that (possibly in conjunction with Voldemort) he
is a better symbol of the same thing that the stone is a symbol for."

She looks up.  "Now what fun is that?" she asks.  "No heads rolling
around?  No surprise ressurrection?  No final duel over a rickety
catwalk over a river of lava?  David might like more subtle
interpretations and stuff, but me, I'm staying aboard the Big Bang." 
She notes that Eloise says the same thing in message 38687, and then
asks permission to reboard the Big Bang.

"Girlfriend, I didn't even know you'd abandoned ship.  Get on over
here and tell me more about how Stoned!Harry gives up his life so
others might live."

--Dicentra, who doesn't think there's going to be any conjunctions
with Voldemort either