[HPforGrownups] re: Harry'sStrongPoints/ Magical protection and Lily's touch

[Richelle Votaw]

No: HPFGUIDX 45031

> GulPlum wrote:
>
> << in fact the only thing at which he has proven to be unnaturally
> adept is at summoning a Patronus, >>

To which Catlady responded:

> And flying a broom and catching a Snitch. And Parselmouth, but that
> is a minus. Btw, I sometimes wonder if Harry got his flying and
> Seeking ability from Voldemort the same as his Parselmouth: wouldn't
> it make him crazy to find out that his proudest accomplishment came
> from his worst enemy?

To which I now add:

Well, we do have McGonagall's word that James was a Quidditch player.  "Your
father would have been proud," she said.  "He was an excellent Quidditch
player himself."   We also have Lupin's comment referring to Snape.  "He
especially disliked James.  Jealous, I think, of James's talent on the
Quidditch field."  While it is never completely verified, it is strongly
implied that Harry inherited his flying abilities from James.

Now, back to Harry's strong points.  Has he failed at anything that he's
really tried?  The Patronus of course was extremely advanced, and he managed
that.  There's the accio charm, which you can argue was assisted by
Moody/Crouch in the first task, but there's still the graveyard scene when
Harry accioed the cup.  It seems to me that every time Harry really and
truly sets his mind to learn something, he succeeds.  I can't think of a
single time when he just flat out couldn't conquer something.

Kara writes:

> My opinion on the gleam in his eye was because Harry had been touched
> by Voldemort, and survived. He had survived without his mother's
> protection. I'm quite annoyed, because my friend has my copy of GoF to
> read, so I can't look up the quote to be sure.. but if I remember
> correctly, Harry had just told Dumbledore that Voldemort can now touch
> him, and that is when Dumbledore gets the triumphant gleam. Because
> Harry has proven to be able to go up against Voldemort, without the
> protection, without help, and lived. And that's certainly something to
> be triumphant about. But, I know this one has been debated
> endlessly... so this has probably already been brought up.

Yes, it's been brought up, but who cares, the really good topics must keep
coming up. :)  The exact quote from GoF is:

When Harry told of Wormtail piercing his arm with the dagger, however,
Sirius let out a vehment exclamation and Dumbledore stood up so quickly that
Harry started.  Dumbledore walked around the desk and told Harry to stretch
out his arm.  Harry showed them both the place where his robes were torn and
the cut beneath them.  "He said my blood would make him stronger than if
he'd used someone else's," Harry told Dumbledore.  "He said the protection
my--my mother left in me--he'd have it too.  And he was right--he could
touch me without hurting himself, he touched my face."  For a fleeting
instant, Harry thought he saw a gleam of something like triumph in
Dumbledore's eyes.

This, of course, could mean a number of things.  I'm in a talkative mood, so
I'll ramble on about my favorites.

1) This is the one I hate most of all, and really don't believe, but I'll
get it out of the way.  If Dumbledore is really a bad guy in a very good
disguise, the triumphant gleam would mean, aha, Voldemort will triumph.
Pathetic, that one, if you ask me, since Harry just got away again!
However, I thought I'd throw it in and disregard it before someone else
brings it up. :)

2) The fact that Dumbledore stands up so *quickly* as to startle Harry when
he's just about to be referred to as old and tired, is interesting.  Then
walks around the desk and asks to see Harry's arm.  Which implies that the
location of the taking of blood is important.  The only connection I can
find is that this is Harry's right arm, cut in the crook of the arm, or
elbow.  It was Harry's right arm, at the elbow, broken by the Bludger (and
deboned by Lockhart) in CoS.  What that means, I don't know.  But I see no
other reason for Dumbledore to jump up to see where the cut occured, so it's
got to be important somehow.  But how?

3) Now, back to the point Kara was making, that Dumbledore's triumphant
gleam occurs at the exact time that Harry has just explained that Voldemort
was able to and did touch him.  Yet Harry is safe and sound in Dumbledore's
office.  He lived.  Again.  So there may be perhaps another protection over
him besides the one his mother left.  Which brings up the theory of some
sort of experimental work James and Lily (and Harry) may have been involved
in.  Something to do with the Sorcerer's Stone and the Elixir of Life.
Harry could've been fed Elixir of Life or some chemical compound involving
it.  Now stop right there--Elixir of Life is certainly not going to hurt
anyone, so it's not really experimenting on Harry.  The experiment would be
that no one would know if it would really protect him or not.  And you can't
try to kill him and see in case it didn't work.  It could in fact, have been
part of what saved him from Voldemort the first time.  Lily's protection
could've kept Voldemort from *literally* touching him.  As we saw in SS/PS,
while Quirrellmort could not literally touch Harry, he was trying to get to
his wand to do something that way.  Which implies that the literal touching
and lack of "getting at" Harry are two separate things.  In the graveyard,
yes, Voldemort can *touch* Harry.  But can he "touch" him with a spell
strong enough to kill?  He crucio's, of course, but that wasn't enough to
kill him.  I still think there's something else protecting Harry from
Voldemort.  Or death in general, perhaps, though that still needs
developing. :)

Richelle

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"May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out."
---- Lady Galadriel, The Fellowship of the Ring
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