TBAY: Thestral and Dark Magic

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 78463

The talk and the alcohol are flowing freely at the Royal George.  The
warm, convivial atmosphere of the pub, combined with George's calming
presence (and generous pouring), have defused the slight tension left
over from the conversation on the beach, and now everyone is 
chatting in a friendly manner.  Marina is contemplating the menu, 
trying to decide if she wants the fish and chips or the spicy 
chicken wings, when she notices Abigail coming over to her table.  
Abigail is wearing a nifty little black dress, whose bohemian 
elegance is only slightly marred by a thick coating of dog hair.

Marina cheerfully invites the new arrival to sit down, thinking she's
here to join the latest Prank discussion, but Abigail has something 
else on her mind.  After a few brief inquiries, she pulls out a 
pamphlet which Marina recognizes from her own earlier work on the 
USS SAD DENIAL.

> Abigail considers this for a few minutes.  "I like it."  She says
finally.
>
> "You do? Oh, wonderful!"  Marina enthuses.  "Can I interest you in 
one of
> our STUFFED BEARs?"
>
> "Not hardly."  Abigail says, accepting another drink from George 
and
> picking some more dog hair off her clothes.  "I like the idea that
Harry
> will travel to the underworld to retrieve Sirius.  After all, by 
the end of OOP
> he's already attempted several desperate measures to contact him.  
He
> tries to go beyond the veil himself, he tries to use the mirror to
contact
> Sirius, and he tries to find out if Sirius could become a ghost.  
His behavior
> when he speaks to Luna notwithstanding, it's clear that Harry 
hasn't
> accepted the fact or the finality of Sirius' death.  Where we 
disagree is in
> whether Harry will succeed."

<snip>
> Abigail smiles.  "Oh, I'm quite certain that it is possible to 
return Sirius
> from the dead in the manner which you've described, using the
Thestrals,
> and I believe that Harry will attempt to do so.  It's just that I
firmly believe
> that any such attempt will fall under the category of Dark Magic."
>

"Dark Magic?"  Marina frowns and reflexively clutches her STUFFED 
BEAR, spilling a few drops of Scotch on top of its plush head.

> With a flick of a wand, Abigail produces a scroll of parchment so
faded
> and covered with dust that it is barely legible.  Marina can almost
make
> out a message number - 35276.
>
> "I wrote this ever so long ago."  Abigail says wistfully.  "During 
a discussion
> on Harry and Voldemort's wands.  Listen to this:
>
> >>Voldemort, representing and embodying evil, is all about the 
defeat
> of death.  The name "Voldemort" with which he had been associated 
with

> since he was a child, means "the death of death", his followers are
the
> eaters of death, even his symbol is the Morsmordre - death of death
again.
> By his own admission, his final goal in the bad old days was to
achieve
> immortality, and he worked very hard to protect himself against 
death so
> that, having been hit by the Avada Kedavra curse, he still managed 
to
> survive in some basic, bodyless form.
>
> Taking these ambitions away from Voldemort's other ambitions 
(namely,
> ruling the world, killing muggles and muggle-born wizards, and 
general

> murder and mayhem) they don't seem so terrible.  After all, what 
could be
> better than conquering death? ...  It's Hagrid who answers this
question at
> the very beginning of the series when he says of Voldemort "Some 
say he
> died... Don't know if he had enough human left in him to die."
>
> In other words, in Potterverse, evil isn't represented by death and
good
> by life, but almost the other way around. ... The pheonix, then,
represents
> not immortality but resurrection - life *through* death, not 
without it, just
> as Harry's life is saved through the death of his mother. To be a 
dark wizard,
> then, is to dispute the natural order of things - that everything 
must change
> and die - and attempt to change it.>>

"Oh, is that all?"  Marina smiles with relief.  "I totally agree with
you on that."

"You do?"  Abigail looks surprised.  "But then how do you reconcile 
this with bringing Sirius back from the dead."

"I don't have to reconcile anything!" Marina says.  "You see, under 
my theory, Sirius isn't dead to begin with.  That's why it's so 
important that Sirius went through the Veil *physically*, and that 
he wasn't mortally hurt when he fell.  Sirius is a living person 
trapped in the realm of the dead -- the exact opposite of a ghost, 
which is a dead person trapped in the realm of the living.  Being 
here doesn't make Nearly Headless Nick or Professor Binns alive, and 
being there doesn't make Sirius dead.  Bringing him back wouldn't 
dispute the natural order of things; it would restore it, by 
restoring Sirius to his proper place in the universe.  It would be 
like helping a ghost pass on to the other side

"In fact, this was part of my original thestral theory.  You should 
be able to find it in the pamphlet.  I believe that Sirius' return 
willinvolve some sort of soul-for-a-soul swap: Sirius will come back 
to this world, while Nick will pass beyond the Veil.  After all, in 
his conversation with Harry, Nick seemed to be regretting his 
cowardice in not passing on at the time of his death."

Feeling much cheered by her own theorizing, Marina raises her hand to
wave toward the bar.

"Hey, George!  Come over here and take my order, will you?  I need 
some food to go with all this booze."

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com