Survival of AK / Occam's Razor, etc.

[carolynwhite2]

No: HPFGUIDX 114452


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tonks" <tonks_op at y...> wrote:
> 
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "carolynwhite2" wrote:
> (snip) JKR had said that in her mind's eye, she saw baby 
> > Harry flinching away as the spell was cast, so the scar is, in 
> fact, diagonal.'
> > 
> > You could read this as a description of instinctive, wand-less 
> magic on Harry's part, defending himself as he was attacked; much 
as years later, he didn't know how he ended up on the school roof 
when escaping from Dudley's gang.

> 
> Tonks here:
> 
> If I understand this, you are saying that Harry did wandless magic 
> as a baby and that plus Lily's sacrafice saved him. If that is true 
> than there is more to Harry than we think. Would this say that 
Harry can not die either, for some reason? I don't think the author 
is going there. Harry is totally Human and capable of death like all 
> the rest of us. I do think that perhaps there is something of the 
> ancient magic in him as an *accident*/condition of his birth, which 
> gives him powers the Dark Lord knows not.
> 

Carolyn:
Well, for a start, if you go back to that post/thread, it is a little 
doubtful exactly what JKR said to this illustrator. 

OTH, there doesn't seem to be much doubt that most wizards and 
witches can do wandless magic from a very early age, including those 
that are muggle-born. As Hagrid says to Harry in PS/SS: 'Not a 
wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?' 
Doing wand-less magic even seems to be a sure indicator that they 
will go to Hogwarts (eg Neville).

Certainly Harry seems to have been born with a huge amount of magical 
ability. I don't think it is stretching it too far to suggest that he 
might instinctively have shielded himself from an aggressive spell, 
even as a baby. But this isn't an indicator that he cannot ultimately 
die, but more probably connected to a series of miscalculations on 
Voldemort's part. Voldie not only didn't realise the effect of Lily 
dying for Harry, but also was apparently unaware that his own wand 
contained Fawkes' tail feather.

I think that the result of trying to use a wand with such a core 
against such a target, newly charged-up with all that sacrificial 
love, created a type of priori incantatum effect, shooting his own 
spell back at him. Something that DD undoubtedly had anticipated and 
orchestrated from the start.

You might want to take a look at post 40044, for some clever 
speculation on exactly how worried Voldy is about Harry's innate 
power, and what he thinks it might take to kill the kid.

Carolyn
Wondering if Voldie will have realised that there is a problem with 
his wand by book 6. Maybe he will donate it to the HBP, in the idle 
hope that another force for good (we assume) might be able to battle 
it out with Harry, and save him the trouble.