Very Large Values of Two

[Tammy Rizzo]

No: HPFGUIDX 96433

You know the saying, "Two plus two equals five, for very large values of two", right?  
Well, here's a bit of math I've done, putting some ideas together from others on the 
list, and seeing what comes up.  I'm really sorry I don't know who first put forth these 
ideas -- they've been percolating in my mind for a few days now, and I haven't been 
able to find the original posts to actually quote them.

Anyway -- The First Two:

Someone postulated that Lily's sacrifice was a form of pact -- "Kill me instead" being 
quite literal:  if LV 'agrees' and kills Lily, he then CAN'T kill Harry, or he'd be breaking 
the pact.  Which is what happened, whether or not that was HOW or WHY it 
happened that way -- after he had killed Lily, for some reason he couldn't kill Harry.  
This is, obviously, a very LARGE value of two, here -- it's basically the crux of the 
whole book.  Yup, pretty big two.

The Second Two:

Someone else reminded the list that LV despises the 'ancient magic'.  Whoever it 
was, thank you -- that's the second two.  :)  LV seems to ALWAYS underestimate the 
'ancient magic', when he doesn't ignore it completely.  He despises it, but why?  He 
obviously KNOWS about it, in great detail, or he couldn't have managed the 
resurrection spell.  He just seems to *always* leave it out of his calculations.  For a 
criminal genius, forgetting to consider the one thing you KNOW FROM 
EXPERIENCE can block you is a rather huge flaw, and makes a pretty big two, too.

The Math:

Pacts require obedience to the conditions agreed upon, or the pact is broken, right? 
You break a pact, you suffer some consequences.  Magical pacts, especially, would 
be dangerous to break, I'm assuming.  Lily offered her life in exchange for her son's   
life, and LV killed her before trying to kill Harry, in effect accepting her offer, right?  
He sealed the pact with her death.  (Whoever it was that postulated this basically 
said all this before -- I'm just putting it this way to show the math.)  When LV then 
attempted to kill Harry, the pact punished LV for breaking it, by rebounding the killing 
curse upon him.  Ooops.  He probably figured that, being as he was Big Bad Lord 
Voldythingy, the Meanest Rasserfrasser West of the Pecos, rules no longer applied 
to HIM.  He is above the law . . . ANY law!  Except that magical pacts don't recognize 
Great Dark Lords as being any better than just-widowed witches or just-orphaned 
infants -- his acting upon Lily's offer as if he had agreed to it sealed the pact, and the 
pact was in force, so there, nyah nyah.  Thumb your nose at a magical pact if you so 
desire, but you WILL regret it.  "But that can't happen to ME, I'm Lord Voldemort!  I 
Am Immortal!  I Am Invincible!"  Yeah, right.  The 'ancient magic' doesn't work that 
way -- it REQUIRES you to honor your pacts.  Or Else.

The Five:

LV despises the 'ancient magic' of magical pacts because he can't buck its rules -- it 
punishes pact-breakers without regard to their power or station, and he just can't 
stand the fact that there's a FORCE out there that is greater than he is, and that 
doesn't care about him one way or the other.  He can't bully it, he can't threaten it, he 
can't work around it, he can't do anything but either abide by it or ignore it and hope it 
doesn't rear up and bite him in the butt again.  When he had to use it to regain his 
body, he *had* to give Wormtail his reward, or suffer the consequences of breaking 
another pact.  It probably irks him no end that he had to give something back to what 
he presumably feels is his slave, Wormtail.  But what would have gone wrong if he 
had reneged on THAT one?  His whole new body was at stake, this time.

Anyway, I hope this makes sense to someone out there -- it makes sense to me, but 
then, I'm not normal.  %-)

Then again . . . who here *is*??

***
Tammy
ms-tamany at rcn.com