Stopper in Death - Brew/Bottle/Stopper

[mz_annethrope]

No: HPFGUIDX 112032

Gregory Lynn wrote:
> <snip>
> What if Snape succeeded in developing a potion for immortality 
> based not in the Christian alchemy a la the stone, but in a more
> subtle, devious way?  <snip> 
> I picture Snape toiling away in his basement laboratory and finally
> discovering the secret to the potion that will keep you alive, but
> coming to understand that it will cost you your life to do it.  I 
> can see him taking this to Voldie and Voldie going ahead with it 
> and Snape being so shocked and revolted at the process that he 
> forswears his allegiance and dedicates himself to ridding the world 
> of the horror he helped create.


mz_annethrope:

This is exactly why I think DD trusts Snape. He would have taken a 
terrible risk in confessing he created/helped create a potion that 
conferred immortality on Voldemort; I bet it would be worth a life 
sentence in Azkaban. It makes better sense to me the notion that his 
owing something to James causes DD to trust him. It would keep him 
honest, at least to DD, though I'm not sure his commitment to DD's 
cause (aside from the anti-Voldemort part) would survive DD's death.

> Gregory:
> How can immortality cost you your life?  My only explanation is 
> that it would be like a unicorn blood thing, you live but you live 
> a half life, a cursed life, to such an extent that it would be a 
> non life.  Or perhaps an un-life such as a vampire type thing.


mz_annethrope:

In Eastern Christian anthropology immortality does cost you your 
life. According to this view, God gave death as a gift (not as a 
punishment) to humans after the Fall, for they otherwise would have 
gone on living forever in an unnatural state. Sin is thought of as 
having fragmented human nature. Because humans are soul and matter 
and related both to the material and spiritual realms, their own 
psychosomatic disintegration causes disintegration in the material 
world that they are part of and threatens the realm of the angels, 
which they are connected to, as well. So death puts a stop to it 
all, or at least an end to the damage a single human can suffer or 
inflict. At the Resurrection, all the elements of the body are 
reconstituted into the new, but original, unified state.

I don't think JKR is a Christian so I doubt this would be her exact 
take in HP, but who knows.... I do think that Voldemort's 
immortality is something unnatural and parasitic, created not by 
virtue (The Philosopher's Stone), but by vice. There's nothing 
symbiotic about about him; he subsists solely off other's lives or 
beings. He sips unicorn blood, killing the creature, and feeds on 
Ginny's soul--or at least Diary!Tom does--nearly killing her as 
well. Wormtail had better watch that silver hand of his! It's 
probably cursed as well.

Parasites aren't immortal. They kill their hosts and then they die. 
Sometimes they reproduce before they die. But Voldemort does not 
reproduce, and he goes on living in accursed state. Perhaps there is 
a bit of Christian anthropology woven into this story. He's just 
what you don't want to happen.

mz_annethrope