Harry's bit of Voldy

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 123249


I've been trying to write a particular post for ages, 
and it's just getting longer and longer, and I'm getting 
more and more questions popping up that I can't 
satisfactorily resolve on my own. So I thought I'd ask 
for your opinions on a part of it.

It's about what really happened at GH (again, again).  
When DD and Harry are talking at the end of CoS, after 
they've got rid of the Weasleys and Lockhart, and before 
Lucius Malfoy interrupts, DD says (I'll quote it again, 
for those without their books to hand)

Chapter 18: Dobby's Reward, p245 UK:

"You can speak Parseltongue, Harry," said Dumbeldore 
calmly, "because Lord Voldemort – who is the last 
remaining descendent [ancestor in my copy] of Salazar 
Slytherin – can speak Parseltongue. Unless I'm much 
mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you 
the night he gave you that scar.  Not something he 
intended to do, I'm sure..."
"Voldemort put a bit of himself in *me*?" Harry said, thunderstruck. 
"It certainly seems so."

Now, what's bothering me is that use of the word 'transferred'. That 
implies taking from one place and putting in another. But at the 
beginning of GoF, Voldemort can speak Parseltongue too. So he 
retained that ability, while giving it to Harry at the same time. 
Strictly speaking it should have read "copied", shouldn't it?

It then occurred to me that perhaps a wizard's magical power isn't 
necessarily split up into discrete specialised portions – this
bit for using the unforgivables, that bit for summoning charms, the 
other bit for catching up on the gossip from the weekend with 
Nagini... and so on. Perhaps it is the overall nature of the magic 
specific to one person that determines for which magical skills 
they will have an aptitude – including those which they may 
not need to learn at all (parseltongue, flying à la Harry, 
metamorphmagic) – and diminishing their aptitude for others 
(apparition, the animagus transformation, flying à la Hermione, 
etc).  With hard work you can get better at certain things, but if 
you don't have the aptitude, you'll never be as good as 
a 'natural'.  

This is (unless I've made a profound misunderstanding) analogous to 
the way the brain works – it's fairly obvious from day-to-day
life that some people have an aptitude for learning certain things, 
while others don't have a hope in hell (me and population genetics 
equations, for example). So perhaps what happened was that a bit of 
generalised Voldy-flavoured power got transferred to Harry (so Voldy 
lost some and Harry gained some) and because the general nature of 
Voldy's magic differs to the general nature of Harry's pre-GH magic, 
a part of Harry's post-GH magic now includes the power to talk to 
snakes. 

Argh... There was a reason why this didn't seem to be a satisfactory 
explanation... and I can't remember why, now... Ah yes, I remember: 
If this were the case, DD should have said "Unless I'm much 
mistaken, he transferred some of his own *power* to you the night he 
gave you that scar..." rather than "powers". "Powers" in the plural 
suggests that magical powers are indeed split up into discrete 
specialised portions, whereas "power" in the singular implies my 
meaning. So I don't think that works.

The other possibility I was thinking of was (I think) suggested by 
Carol, although I can't remember whether she suggested it recently, 
or whether I've been spending too long in the archives - or, indeed, 
whether it was suggested by someone else entirely.

It went something along the lines of: Voldemort didn't transfer 
*some* of his powers to Harry, he transferred *all* of his powers to 
Harry. Now, whenever Voldy does magic, he has to access his powers 
*through* Harry, which is why Harry's scar hurts. 

Much as I like this idea, it doesn't seem (to me) to be a 
satisfactory explanation either.  Harry's scar wasn't hurting while 
Voldy tortured Bertha Jorkins, for example, it only got around to 
hurting when he murdered Frank Bryce.  I suppose you could make the 
excuse that Voldy was in Albania with Bertha, but in England with 
Frank, though I'd bear in mind Snape's words that although "Time and 
space matter in magic, Potter [...] The usual rules do not seem to 
apply with you..."  (OotP, chapter 24: Occlumency, p469, UK)

But I could very easily be wrong – if this has been gone into in 
detail, could somebody please point me to a post number? It's 
interesting me very much, at the moment. And other thoughts, 
speculation or full-blown theories would be very, very welcome.

Ta,

Dungrollin
Recovering from a rather painful accident with a cactus while trying 
to fix the recalcitrant central heating.