Turning Items to Portkeys

[Grey Wolf <greywolf1@jazzfree.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52096

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Trond Michelsen <trondmm-hp4gu@
c...> wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 13, 2003 at 12:34:56AM -0000, Grey Wolf <greywolf1 at j...> wrote:
> 
> > However, Crouch!Moody learns that one of the little surprises for 
> > the TriWizard tournament is that the final cup *will* portkey the 
> > winner to the entrance (not a bad idea, after all, the winner 
> > should be the first to get to the cup, not the one that is waiting 
> > for him besides the entrance, not to mention the danger of the 
> > champion being waylaid in the way *back* by some of the delightful 
> > monsters). Thus, Crouch conceives the idea that, using the auror 
> > privileges of his disguise, he can get close enough to the cup to 
> > introduce the extra step. Since the 
> 
> Actually, I doubt Voldemort knew the cup was still a portkey into
> Hogwarts. Even if you're an arrogant Evil Overlord, you don't leave
> objects of instant escape lying around unprotected until you've
> actually killed your opponent.

Voldemort's interactions with Harry so far:

Just before the start of the book: Voldemort, at the peak of his 
powers. Harry, an innocent baby. Result: Voldemort hits an unexpected 
love shield and turns into a puff of smoke. Consequences: Voldemort 
spends the next ten years in Albania, moving from animal to animal (and 
we cannot rule out muggles, either), feeling powerless, consumed by 
hatred and probably a little of an idiot. Also, he's lost Voldemort War 
I.

PS: Voldemort, inhabiting a DADA teacher. Harry: an eleven year old boy 
that knows, at most, a couple of spells: levitate and maybe 
transfiguration of a match into a pin (i.e. low level, non-threatening 
magic). Result: Quirrellmort hits (unexpected?) love shield *again* and 
Voldemort turns into a puff of smoke. I say unexpected because Quirrell 
touches Harry in the Leaky Cauldron and his hands don't blister - 
Voldemort might have concluded from it that Harrys love protection was 
one-time only. Consequence: Voldemort looses his best chance at 
immortality, the philosepher's stone (which, apart from immortality 
would make him rich), and spends the next 3 years in Albania, feeling 
powerless, consumed etc. etc.

CoS: Voldemort, as Riddle's memory, the most intelligent Hogwart's 
student ever, controlling a mighty basilisk, king of the snakes. Harry, 
a twelve year old, not a particularly great student (i.e gets by, but 
it's not Hermione and her enciclopedic knowledge of charms). Result: 
Basilisk, dead. Riddle's diary, destroyed. Consequence: not many for 
Voldemort, but he's not in a position to go lower at the time. He has, 
however, lost a possible way of recorporating - Riddle's memory's body 
snatch plan. (Voldemort has probably heard of the CoS situation, most 
probably through Peter that was there all along. He might or might not 
have heard of the unexpected phoenix, but the fact that "Harry killed 
the basilisk and your diary" is probably the sort of thing Peter would 
reveal).

Now, let's go for my point. Why shouldn't Voldemort *fear* Harry 
Potter? So far, they have faced each other three times, and every 
single time, Harry has won, and the consequences for Voldemort have 
been horribly bad. Each time Harry has been traped into a corner and 
forced to fight, he has produced *unexpected* resources that turned the 
day. In the Graveyard, Voldemort thinks he controls all the variables, 
but he has believed that before. In that case, it is better to leave 
the escape route wide open - thus, if things get ugly, he allows Harry 
to flee and that's it. Otherwise, statistics show that chances are that 
Voldemort will loose his brand-new body and spend the next X years in 
Albania, etc, etc.

> > anti-aparition charm will be suspended in the case of this cup (by 
> > using methods undisclosed but that probably require being Dumbledore), 
> > Crouch can tamper enough with it to make it go to the Graveyard (but 
> > not enough to delete the original destination, the outside of the 
> > maze).
> 
> I have a small theory about that.
> 
> I think that the portkey spell can be visualised as a sort of very,
> very thin clingfilm (plastic wrap). When you've used the portkey, you
> remove this layer of film, and the object is back to its old self 
> again. Now, if you take an object that's already wrapped in a layer
> of portkey clingfilm, no problem, you just add another layer, and the
> object now has two destinations. 

There have been many good and detailed descriptions of how a portkey 
actually works in the list. My favourite one is the" temporal-load, 
discharge by touch" theory (this is why we need acronyms, btw - they 
give names to the theories). It states that a portkey is enchanted to 
"load" or pass to active state at a certain time, and after that moment 
anyone touching it will immediately be portkey'ed. Thus, the old shoe 
has activated at the time mentioned in the books (by then, everyone was 
holding it) and, on the other hand, the cup must have been activated 
since more or less the start of the last task, thus, the first one to 
grab it would be the one portkey'ed to the entrance.

> This means that Crouch didn't need to tamper with the portkey, he
> just made an ordinary object into a portkey, without knowing it
> already was one.
> 
> -- 
> Trond Michelsen

I have a problem with that. Crouch!Moody has all the information 
regarding the TriWizards Tournament. He knows about the different 
tasks, certainly, since he gives Neville the book on magical plants 
from the Mediterranean very early on. Why would anyone forget to 
mention him what is probably the biggest breach in Hogwart's security 
in the year? It seems very unlikely, IMO. And of course (going back to 
the previous point), if Crouch knows, Voldemort must know too.

The question is not whether he knew it was a portkey or not - as I said 
in the previous post, if Crouch could turn anything into a portkey and 
have it work from Hogwarts, he would've used Harry's toothbrush. As I 
noted in that same post, I believe -with good reasons, too- that Crouch 
could only use the Cup, since it had been tampered by Dumbledore to 
allow it to portkey within Hogwarts. And that Crouch could do nothing 
to unenchant the original destination without turning the cup into a 
normal object (thus, ruining the allowances Dumbledore had added). Not 
that Voldemort should mind having the cup around, as I've argued 
earlier.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf