Flesh of Servant, Hand of Silver (mild TBAY ref) WAS: The Gleam? Not Again!

[ssk7882 <skelkins@attbi.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50569

Cindy got all excited about the Gleam again, and in what seemed to be 
an attempt to lure the MDDT out of retirement <g>, she quoted Eric 
Oppen, who once wrote:

> Could one of the side-effects of "flesh of the servant, 
> willingly(?) given" in the ritual to re-body-ize Voldemort 
> be to give _Wormtail_ some sort of power over Voldemort?

> Think about it...part of Wormtail is now a big component in 
> Voldemort's new body. We've already seen that the magical "law 
> of similarity" applies in the Wizard World, what with HP's and 
> V's wands being unable to fight each other because they each 
> contain a feather from the tail of the same phoenix. Might this 
> not apply even more strongly between V-mort and W-tail? 

You know, if I were Voldemort, I'd be a little worried about that, 
sure.  (In fact, if you buy into the MAGIC DISHWASHER theory, then 
Voldemort ought to be *really* worried about that!) 
Sympathetic magic does cut both ways, after all.

But if I were Voldemort, I'd be even more worried about that *hand.*

Because sympathetic magic *does* cut *both* ways.  After all.

See, people are always stressing about the damage that Wormtail's
"silver" hand might do to Lupin, but as I read it, the thing isn't 
really made out of silver at all.  It's just silver in *color.*  It's 
silvery.

In fact, it seems to me to be formed out of that Special Silvery 
wizarding Soul Stuff (tm).  You know, the stuff that's in 
Dumbledore's Pensieve?  The stuff that forms the sigil that 
Dumbledore shoots into the air to summon Hagrid in GoF?  The stuff 
that actually forms ones *patronus?*

Yeah.  That stuff.  

Now, I'm not altogether sure what that stuff is.  But I don't think 
that it's exactly *impersonal* stuff, if you know what I mean.  It 
seems to me that whenever we see the silvery stuff show up, it's 
always in relation to something rather spiritual, something deeply 
intrinsic to the wizard himself.

I don't think that having a right hand gifted to you by an evil dark 
wizard and formed from his very own Special Silvery Wizarding Soul 
Stuff (tm) is at all good news, spiritually speaking.  *Especially* 
when you willingly sacrificed your *own* right hand to bring said 
evil dark wizard back to power.  I'd say that you're looking at some 
seriously bad symbolical mojo when you are then granted such a thing 
as a reward, when *that* has become your right hand.  I don't 
think that silvery hand can possibly be good for the state of 
Wormtail's soul.

But I think that in the end, it just might prove even worse for 
Voldemort's health.


Elkins