The Death Chamber

[Richard]

No: HPFGUIDX 81813

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Iggy McSnurd" 
<coyoteschild at p...> wrote:
> 
> 
> > Geoff:
> > I think, in return, that you missed my point. Lucius attempted to
> > attack Harry /because/ Dobby was there. If he had not been there,
> > then LM would not have launched the attack.
> >
> > Since Dobby spends a lot of his time defending Harry (admittedly 
in
> > rather questionable ways), he would not have stood back in the
> > situation which did arise.

Richard here:

Geoff has it off-center, here.  Lucius didn't attack Harry BECAUSE 
Dobby was there, but because Harry caused him, Lucius, to FREE 
Dobby ... which required that Dobby be there, but had Harry NOT 
instigated this event, I don't believe Lucius would have attacked 
Harry in any DIRECT way.

> Iggy:
> 
> You might also say that Dobby WAS the protection afforded by the 
spell Harry
> has around him.
> 
> Dobby wouldn't have come to him had he not heard of what was 
planned at
> Hogwart's during the coming year... plans that would probably have 
killed or
> otherwise threatened Harry to some extreme degree.
> 
> Harry would not have been as on the alert as he was had Dobby not 
visited
> him.  This helped to give him some warning before things started to 
happen.
> 
> Indirectly, through the plans LM had, Harry was in danger from LM 
already...
> since we KNOW that Riddle would have gone after Harry and tried to 
kill him
> regardless.
> 
> Granted, LM wouldn't have attacked Harry had Harry not freed Dobby, 
but if
> Dobby weren't free, he wouldn't have been able to help protect 
Harry later.
> 
> Dobby, almost as much as anyone else at Hogwarts, acts as 
a "Guardian Angel"
> for Harry... so having the events in PoA work as they did set up 
the form
> Harry's protection would come to him at later times...  (Had Dobby 
not been
> at Hogwarts, he wouldn't have heard of the GillyWeed, he wouldn't 
have known
> about the Room of Requirement... etc...)
> 
> It has also been the point of discussion a number of times in 
the... four?
> six?... days I've been on the list that JKR goes to some extreme 
lengths at
> times to set things up for future books.  I think Dobby's 
importance in
> Harry's protection hasn't been fully played out yet...
> 
> 
> We have already seen that Harry's protection works in odd and 
mysterious
> ways... Dobby is just one of the odder ones.

Richard here yet again:

This is all related to the point I was driving at.  What precisely is 
the protection afforded Harry against any lethal attack launched by 
anyone other than Voldemort?  The prophecy requires that none can 
kill (or vanquish, or whatever verb seems to you to fit best the 
exact wording of the prophecy) either but the other.

If Voldemort survives, the prophecy implies that he will be 
undefeatable, while there is no indication of any assurance of long 
life or such for Harry should he defeat Voldemort.  But, no hostile 
power, force, being or such can intervene 'ere the defeat of one at 
the hands of the other.

I'm sure that Dobby figures in the "fate" that keeps Harry alive up 
to that climactic confrontation, but not all of it by any stretch.  
This leads me to speculate ... Suppose Dobby had, once he found 
himself free from the Malfoys, delightedly skipped out of sight in 
glee while the event and cause sank into Lucius' consciousness.  If 
this had happened, Dobby would NOT have been their to intervene, and 
we are left to wonder what would have protected Harry so that he can 
reach his final encounter with Voldemort?  Would an AK curse (a la 
movie) work on him if not "tendered" by Voldemort?  Would Lucius have 
found himself suffering the same kinds of burns at Harry's hands upon 
lunging and trying to strangle or otherwise harm Harry (a la the 
original text)?  Can even Voldemort himself harm Harry by means of 
anything other than his own hands?  Or is the prophecy not that 
literal on the point of death by the other's hands?

As I've said before, this is speculative, but it is FUN speculation, 
and derived, more or less, directly from canon.  I look forward to 
some clarification by JKR ... but suspect that we may not have any 
more clarification than with regard to how literal the "by the 
other's hand" part.


Richard, the incurably analytical