Slytherin's Snare (was:Mild TBAY, trying to answer JK's Edinburgh questions.

[saraquel_omphale]

No: HPFGUIDX 132164

Well Janeway, we certainly think alike!! I have been toying with 
snake ideas for ages, but have been unable to come up with anything 
that hangs together.  But you putting down all these references has 
spurred me on to think again, thanks for that.

>Janeway wrote:
>So maybe he <Salazar Slytherin> also provided some kind of time-
>persistent magical
>protection for his last surviving descendant in case his line was
>ever in danger of disappearing completely. 

(All my quotes come from the British editions)

No, I don't think Slytherin did that. I think that LV protected 
himself from the AK curse, although he is still unsure why he 
survived and remarks in the graveyard that "it appeared that one or 
more of my experiments had worked." If he had found something in the 
COS, he would have known that he was immune to the AK curse.

We also know that he last entered the COS when he was 16, COS 
p230 "I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I 
was still at school. <snip> I decided to leave behind a diary, 
preserving my sixteen-year-old self 
" He afterwards became Head Boy 
and must still have looked like Tom Riddle, not the snake like 
appearance of LV. So I think that the protection from the AK curse 
came about afterwards. 

>Janeway wrote:
>My guess is that the quest for immortality required LV to develop
>his natural affinity for snakes to some extreme degree. Snakes are
>associated with eternal life in Eastern cultures* 

Yes, I agree, the snake for some reason is associated with 
immortality. So, we both agree that the snake is central to the 
immortality bit of LV.

>Janeway wrote:
>We know that Slytherin wanted to "purge the school of all who
>were unworthy to study magic." (COS 151 US paper) Maybe he had
>similar plans for the entire WW --"cleansing" it of impure types and
>putting pure-bloods in charge

Now, this is where my thinking took off, the whole notion of blood.  
Tom Riddle hates his father's blood, so he does experiments to rid 
himself of his muggle blood, replacing it with snake blood, as in 
some sort of blood transfusion. 

>Janeway wrote:
>Yucky thought: what if the snake is literally growing inside of
>Harry and will eventually try to shed its Harry "skin"? Then
>Snake!Harry would emerge as something like LV. (This would explain
>something I've wondered about: Why does DD say "
suffering
>like this proves you are still a man!" (OOP p824 US hardcover). Why
>doesn't he just say it "proves you are a man/human." Does
>"still" imply that someday he may not be?)

I really liked this notion. Maybe this is what happened with the 
snake blood in LV, it gradually took over and transformed the muggle 
blood into snake blood. 

Snakes are cold blooded creatures.  I once heard that when tickling 
for trout (catching trout fish with your bare hands) that you first 
have to cool your hand to the temperature of the river, otherwise 
you burn the cold blooded fish.  When Quirrel/LV touches Harry in PS 
this is what happens: PS p213 "Quirrel let go of him. <snip> he 
looked around wildly to see where Quirrell had gone and saw him 
hunched in pain, looking at his fingers – they were blistering 
before his eyes." And again lower down the page Harry looks at 
Quirrell's hands and describes them, "they looked burnt, raw, red 
and shiny."  In GoF, when LV finally does touch Harry in the 
graveyard, his finger is cold.

So toying with the notion of cold blooded and warm blooded, warm or 
hot blooded is often used to describe people whose emotions run high 
and cold blooded used to describe people who seem to have no emotion 
or no empathy/compassion.  Now, to me, LV has always seemed a rather 
disappointing cut out character.  I think it's very relevant that it 
is Nagini's venom that keeps him alive.  Venom is only poisonous – 
it has no redeeming qualities and LVs limited emotional range in GoF 
reflects this.  Only after some of Harry's blood has been used to 
revive him, do we hear that LV has been happy, (Sorry can't find the 
exact reference) when the DEs escape from Azkaban.

The protection given to Harry by his muggle mother, Lily, also 
concerns blood.  Her muggle blood is running in his veins.  OotP p 
736 DD says "She gave you a lingering protection he never expected, 
a protection that flows in your veins to this day." LV now has some 
of this in his body.  Therefore Lily is in LV.  Although, LV can now 
touch Harry, he has also re-introduced some muggle blood into 
himself.

As to where this can take us, I'm not sure.  My brain hurts
. I need 
to take a break!

Saraquel