[HPforGrownups] TBAY: Stunning!Harry

[LD]

No: HPFGUIDX 39181

The sound of John Williams' beautiful score is coming from one of those
shiny Dolby 5.1 DVD Home Cinema systems that everyone wishes they could
afford, and subsequently only appear in dreams or made-up scenarios like
this. LD is sitting in front of it, remote control in hand, watching
random scenes of the Philosopher's Stone DVD frame-by-frame.

"Aha!" he exclaims, taking a sip of his drink, "So that's the Grey
Lady..."

Just then (as if by magic) an owl shoots through the open window and
slams into the wall opposite, before dropping to the floor in front of
LD's feet with a thud. Chuckling to himself, LD carefully picks up the
stunned bird and loosens the parchment from its foot. After casually
tossing the bird back out of the window, (and ignoring its screeches at
it falls to the ground), LD takes a seat and reads the letter from
Caroline.

***[Message .....]***
>"check out message 38542; drop by and visit
>Stoned! Harry sometime"
*********************

Scratching his head, LD picks up a dusty old tome from the floor.
Blowing on its surface the words 'Yahoo Groups Archive' are revealed in
gold lettering. LD opens the book, and turns to message number 38542...

***[Message 38542]***
*
* So. The alchemists believed that Mercury + Sulphur = Philosopher's 
* stone. 
* JKR's planted *lots* of symbols around Harry that relate to these two 
* elements. 
* Things associated, alchemically, with sulphur: stag, phoenix, color 
* red, lion
* With mercury: color green, serpent, unicorn
* 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
*********************

"OH MY GOD! I LOVE IT!" LD shrieks at the top of his voice, dancing
excitedly into the air, "MUCH better than my half-assed Professor!Draco
'theory' I can't stop thinking of! Sign me up!"

LD flings open a drawer and searches for his water wings, before
remembering that he should probably read through the rest of the message
first. Picking up the book again, he scans to the bottom, before
reading...

***[Message 38542]***
*
* Dumbledore only says "Your mother died to save you." And this is in 
* answer to the question "Why couldn't Quirrell touch me?", (SS p. 299) 
* not `how did I survive?' 
*
*********************

LD slaps his head loudly, and realises how lame he's been all this time.
Overlooking that one fact has closed his mind to countless other
theories... how does the whole speech go again?

***[SS - p299]***
*
* "Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot
understand, it is love. He didn't realize
* that love as powerful as your mother's for you leaves its own mark.
Not a scare, no visible sign... To have been
* loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will
give us some protection forever. It is in your
* very skin. Quirrell, full of hatred, greed and ambition, sharing his
soul with Voldemort, could not touch you for
* this reason. It was agony to touch a person marked by something so
good."
*
*****************

"Argh, how could I have been so stupid?" he asks whilst banging his head
against a wall, "It was never there at all. All this time, Dumbledore
was just explaining about Quirrell! And to think I thought it was all
about Voldemort!".

LD slams the archive shut, grabs his water wings from the drawer, and
storms out of the room in search of Theory Bay. As he wanders the
streets towards the harbour, he remembers that Lily's wand has been
described as a nice wand for charm work. Could that aptitude for charms
have been helpful in the complex rituals that could have gone into
making Stoned!Potter? After all, James' wand was suposedly great for
transfiguration, and he managed to become an animagus. And if Harry is a
living Philosophers Stone, and therefore immortal, why is Dumbledore so
worried that he almost died at the end of Book 1? Or is this immortality
a dormant factor, lying deep within him that needs to be unlocked
through a series of complex (and hopefully gruesome) rituals?

With those thoughts and questions all racing around his head like a
group of small rodents on a treadmill, LD leaps into the water and
paddles his way towards the mass of ships and boats, supported by his
purple armbands. Now... how to find out which one has Stoned!Harry on
it?

-LD