Stunning Harry (WAS Coherence II)

[cmf_usc]

No: HPFGUIDX 39132

Caroline strolls along the deck of the Big Bang Destroyer, looking 
for Laura.  She spies her sunning happily, plugged into her Walkman.

"Laura!"

No response.

"LAURA!"  

Laura jumps, then relaxes when she recognizes Caroline.  Truth be 
told, everyone's a little on edge these days, after Cindy's... 
incident... with Elkins.

"Hey, Laura, still listening to CoS?  You know, that part you 
mentioned last week?"

Laura nods, unplugging the headphones from the Walkman.  At once, the 
deck is filled with the sounds of Jim Dale, reading Chapter 11, the 
Duelling Club: "Harry swung his wand high, but Malfoy had already 
started on `two': His spell hit Harry so hard, he felt
as though he had been hit over the head with a saucepan. He stumbled 
but everything still seemed to be working, and wasting no more time, 
Harry pointed his wand at Malfoy..."

"Oh, yeah," Laura says, stopping the tape, "and I wondered just what 
this spell might be, and why it didn't work..."

"Well," says Caroline confidentially, "you know what that Faith would 
say.  She'd say that it was authorial discretion, you know, that 
authors don't have to give complete details *all* the time."

"Yeah..." replies Laura, a bit despondently.

"But me," Caroline adds, "I always feel more at home in the company 
of hedgehogs.  And they think that this might be Significant.  After 
all, JKR's details are rarely extraneous, right?"

"Exactly!"

"Well, what about the stunning spell?  I imagine it might feel *a 
lot* like getting hit on the head with a saucepan."

"Maybe..." Laura says slowly.  "But Harry doesn't learn about it til 
fourth year!"

Caroline nods happily.  "Precisely my point.  JKR didn't use the name 
for it in CoS, just like she didn't mention the word Parseltongue in 
SS.  But our Harry can still have an unusual magical reaction without 
us knowing the name for it yet, right?"

Laura nods her head in silent agreement.

"And we agree that Draco may know more curses than the 12-year-old 
Harry, right?"

Laura nods again.

"And think about this.  Has anyone ever successfully stunned our 
Harry?  I mean, those DE's in the graveyard were kind of pitiful when 
they tried to do that."

"Hmm... interesting..."

"And another thing," adds Caroline, very excited now.  "Supposedly 
Harry blocked the AK curse when he was just a baby.  *I* think this 
maybe has something to do with his Stonedness.  You know, along with 
dormant immortality, Harry may have a dormant curse shield that works 
when he really needs it."

"But the typical schoolboy curses seem to work just fine!"  Laura 
exclaims.

"True, true," Caroline replies.  "But you know, they're kind of 
*weak*, aren't they?  I mean, why would his natural shield need to 
spring into action for those?  No, Harry can handle those on his own."

"That would help explain why Dumbledore lets him take so many 
risks..." Laura replies thoughtfully.  "And it might get Harry out of 
a jam one day..."

Caroline summons up an armchair and a couple of margaritas.  "Right.  
And, an unusual reaction to Stupefy might have made Snape curious 
during that dueling scene.  Curious enough to see what *other* powers 
Harry was hiding.  Curious enough to have Draco conjure up that 
snake."

Laura and Caroline sip their margaritas contemplatively, watching a 
young boy chase fish out among the waves.

*******************

For an explanation of the acronyms and theories in this post, visit
Hypothetic Alley at 
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eticalley.htm 

and Inish Alley at 
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