What do wizards do?

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 55041

Fred Waldrop wrote:
> As a side note, I can not understand why so many can not understand 
> that the Potterverse is the compleat creation of JKR. And if she 
> desides that a failed curse does not show up during a Priori 
> Incantatem, then all is still well, it just doesn't show up.
> Just a thought, and I am sure that some will say I am wrong.
> 
> Fred

That is not the point. Anything and everything in the HP world can be 
explained with the "because JKR said so". But for many in this list, 
including me, that is not nough, I enjoy the HP books so far because 
they are a coherent universe, which is to say that there are rules, 
that casuality operates within the parametres explained by science 
(yes, even in the time travel episode) and that there is a logical 
thread to the books (this in fact is different from real life - as Mark 
Twain put it, "The reason why truth is so much stranger than fiction is 
that there is no requirement for it to be consistent").

Many (going out in a limb, I think I'll say *all*) of the people in 
this list assume that there *is* a reason for things to happen the way 
they do in the Potterverse, and thus all their theories and opinions 
expresed are aimed at discovering or explaining what this reason *is*.

In short, it is not enough that JKR says so, it also has to make sense. 
And for good examples of that, look up in the archive any of the 
discussions on the number of students at Hogwarts (where it "seems" 
obvious that JKR was contradicting herself - although recent theories 
have managed to shorten the gaps) and the discussions on when exactly 
the books take place. Especially in the first case, "JKR said so" is 
not enough - and that is where FLINTs enter the picture.

On another line completely, I have to say that I have expressed before 
the theory that a failed AK will not show up in the PI effect due to 
the fact that there was no soul absorbed/anihilated/separated from the 
body to replicate as a shadow. This makes sense, since all the other 
AKs did have shadows possesed of their own intelligence, while this one 
could not - what should it show? a pale shadow? a wisp of smoke? given 
random shots in the dark, it's a good hpothesis as any other that it 
would show nothing, since there was nothing to be shown. I have, in 
fact, expanded this theory to say that unsuccessful spells, no matter 
of what kind, won't have PI shadows.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf