Paintings and memories

[Federica Bianchi]

No: HPFGUIDX 83555


This is my first post, so please forgive me if I'm rehashing old news. Anyway, here is my thought for the day. I was reading some old post to get the feel of the land, as you might say. IA while ago there was some discussion regarding the possibility of a portrait of Serius (pre-Azkaban), James or Lily being around somewhere. The speculation was that a portrait painted a long time ago would be of no use to HP because they couldn't help him. Someone (sorry, can't remember who it was) then said that maybe magic paintings could be a bit like Dorian Gray's portrait and they would age together with their subject while s/he is still alive and stop aging after his/er death. This way theh painting would "remember" all the subject's experiences, as well as its own (as we see with Nigellus).

I didn't see any reply to this idea (or maybe I just missed it) so I thought I'd jump in. I think it's possible that whatever it is that makes a painting "alive" has a contact with the "original". I think paintee (is this a word, by the way?) and painting maintain a mental magical contact and that's what makes painting and photos different. I arrived to this conclusion after re-reading the whole series for the umpteenth time. 

Here's why. In the COS Tom asks Harry how a small baby could destroy (well, almost) the greatest wizard in the world, and HP says it was his mother's protection. HP later destroyed TMR memory in the diary, right? Nobody knows about his protection, LV couldn't have known this form any other source. He didn't know about the protection in PS/SS, his past self discovers the truth in COS and from that moment on he spends all his time trying to get HP's protection for himself (LV tells HP in the graveyard scene). When did LV get to know about it? If the bits of yourself you leave around (memories in diary, animated paintings etc) retain a mental connection with you, it would explain this beautifully. Diary!Tom acquired some information that he immediately passed on to future!Tom (well, LV actually). Portraits might work the same way and it might even be a two-way process.

I hope I expressed my thoughts in an a comprehensible manner, as English is not my first language. Anyway, if this makes it past the post police (I always visualize the elves as harassed policemen trying to dodge posts pelting them right and left), please, let me know what you think.

Ciao, Romulus Lupin (Remus smarter brother, who know better than to play with werewolves as a kid and avoided the curse)



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