TBAY: Stunning!Harry

[cmf_usc]

No: HPFGUIDX 39159

Caroline unrolls the parchment delivered by Marina's owl.   "If Harry 
has a shield, I think he should send it back to the manufacturers 
with an angry letter and make them fix it so that it 
works against Cruciatus. Otherwise the thing becomes pretty darn 
useless."

Oh, this is Not Good.  Caroline must Do Something, if she wants to be 
kept in icy cool drinks and suntan lotion.  She squares her 
shoulders, ready to make Capt. Cindy proud.

"Harry!" she shouts.  Stoned!Harry wanders over dazedly.

"Harry, we all know that, well, you've been known to do some pretty 
amazing things for a kid your age."

Harry nods his agreement, admittedly looking a bit confused.

"I mean," she adds, "blocking Avada Kedarva—speaking Parseltongue—
astonishing aerial acrobatics—you don't see too many other young 
wizards doing these things, do you?"

"But all of these things—well, you just sort of *did* them, didn't 
you?  Spur of the moment?  You didn't *know* AK was coming—you didn't 
*try* to talk to those snakes—you didn't really *think* before you 
jumped on that broom the first time, did you?"

"And that spell Malfoy threw at you in second year, that you somehow 
blocked.  You didn't know it was coming, because he attacked early, 
right?"

Harry nods slowly.

"So what I'm saying, Harry, is that your talents are *instinctive*.  
Probably a result of all that extra magical energy you've got going 
on, what with being Stoned and all."

"Think about it.  When do you have the most trouble with magic?  When 
someone *tells* you that something's going to be difficult!  Like 
summoning charms.  Like patronus.  Like when they look you straight 
in the eye and say "crucio!"  Your instinctive talents don't help you 
then.  Because your conscious mind is working, trying to take care of 
everything itself."

Harry nods slowly, then speaks a remarkably coherent sentence.  "So 
my shield... that's like my unconscious magical instincts trying to 
protect me?"

Caroline beams.  "Exactly!  Like when you apparated to that roof.  
Like when you regrew your hair so you wouldn't be laughed at.  Like 
when you banished that cushion without hardly trying."

"Whoa, dude," Harry says thoughtfully.  "That means, like, I do 
better when I *don't* study.  Man, is Hermione going to be ticked."

"Yes," Caroline agrees, "I think one day it really *will* bother her 
that you do better than she does at some things while putting in a 
lot less work.  But that's a conversation for another day."

Harry wanders off towards the bar, and Caroline settles down happily 
on her towel.  She flips through some more owl post, stopping on 
LD's.  "What I want to know is how did he get this strange shield in 
the first place? Was it the whole "mothers love" thing, or is it a 
special property of his mothers' emerald green eyes that JKR seems so 
keen on reminding us that Harry has?"

Caroline laughs to herself, remembering those long-ago days when she 
was fooled by the Ever So Lame Mother's Love.  She scribbles a quick 
invitation to LD—"check out message 38542; drop by and visit Stoned!
Harry sometime"---and a note to herself  "write post on magical eyes 
and the symbolism of the color green."

"Oh, thanks," Caroline smiles at Harry, accepting a frothy green 
margarita from him.  "I was *dying* for one of those."


*****

Caroline, who doesn't know how to make fish

*****

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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