Harry's bit of Voldy

[finwitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 123288



>From Dungrollin

> 
> 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.

Finwitch:

About that -- Pettigrew used Voldemort's wand to kill Cedric Diggory,
on Voldemort's orders. So the rat IS able to do serious bit of
powerful dark magic (at least if he's using Voldemort's wand). If it
was the rat, rather than Voldemort in person who tortured poor Bertha
Jorkins, your theory holds. Maybe Voldemort was even posessing
Pettigrew at that time and using his powers rather than Harry's.

And the fact that Voldemort lost it - all powers except for the
ability to possess... Perhaps because Lily's love prevented that power
from entering into Harry - after all, Harry's great love for Sirius
was what kept Voldemort from possessing him. 

As for the fact that *both* Voldemort & Harry speak Parseltongue...
I'd say Voldemort *regained* the ability by possessing snakes. (He
even *favoured* snakes, did he not?) 

Then again, it *is* possible that Dumbledore erred, and Harry was born
with Parseltongue and Voldemort got to keep that ability as well. No
one will ever know, I think.

Of course, after using Harry's blood for the resurrection potion--
Voldemort got the copy of his own powers, added with those Harry was
born with.

Finwitch