Dumbledore and Socks, Magical Contracts, and Bertie Botts Beans

[finwitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 109991

> dcgmck:
> Dumbledore, explaining the rules for the selection of champions: 
> 
> "Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she 
> is obliged to see the tournament through to the end.  The placing of 
> your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract.  
> There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion."  
> (GoF U.S. pbk 256)
> 
> The wording is such that the name, not the placer of the name, is the 
> one bound by the magical contract.

Finwitch:

Right - and Dumbledore cannot do anything about it. And although 
Madame Maxime and Prof. Karkaroff object most strongly, they're 
silenced at the request for another solution...

Also, a magical contracts, well, in *any* tale of magic I've read, a 
contract best be kept at all costs. The one who is brave enough to 
face and honour a *seemingly* lethal contract - (like um - permit the 
other to hit you in the head with a hammer or something...) - is the 
one who survives. (because, for the honesty, the hit is gentle...).

The horrid consequences of breaking a magical pact (by ancient 
magic?) are enough that Dumbledore is unwilling to even *consider* 
any attempt to break a contract. It's yet another explanation of 
Voldemort's vanishing and loss of power. (And Harry was glad he had 
kept his promise to the fountain...)

I wonder about those who had died when Triwizard-competitions had 
been organised before, a long time ago (pre-Voldemort, I suppose). 
Was it an attempt of breaking the contract that killed them?

Oh, and the *only* time Albus Dumbledore breaks his word is when he 
doesn't expel Harry&Ron (when they broke the rules, thus revealing 
the Chamber of Secrets, killing the Basilisk and saving Ginny's 
life...)

Dumbledore seeing himself holding a pair of thick socks in the mirror 
of Erised... I think it's more that a pair of socks would be one to 
him as a person, acknowledging him as a human being, one with as much 
tendency to have cold feet in a stony castle... a token of love. 
Besides, by using books, you might get a paper cut; using socks your 
feet are protected...

Finwitch