DRIBBLE SHADOWS addendum -- FAQ Poll Spoiler

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 129098

> Neri:
> All this is well and good, but as far as I understand, the only
> piece of canon linking Harry's protection to dragon blood is the
> expression "ancient magic", which is mentioned once regarding the
> protection of dragons. So "ancient magic" is your only substantial
> cannon connection with dragons. <snipping> So IMO if you want to
> link dragon blood to these specific protections, then you have
> some basis in canon, but if you want to link dragon blood to other
> protections, then you are stretching canon thinner and thinner. 

Jen: *hangs head for a brief moment* "Guilty as charged Sir Neri. 
There's a fine line between cobbling together canon support and 
indulging in flights of fancy." 

Besides, I don't want to chalk up every heroic deed on Harry's part 
to a dragon ointment, so I'll stop meandering down that path for the 
moment. ;)

You mentioned that the only canon support is the link between 
dragons and the 'ancient magic' that imbues their hides, and I must 
protest that point! SSSusan already addressed this most succintly in 
#129079 and Potioncat elaborated some new canon in #129093, but I 
wanted to follow-up on this from the original DRIBBLE:

1) Harry's eyes are the most important bit of canon for the original 
DRIBBLE in my view. First, here's what Sirius tells Harry in GOF: "I 
was going to suggest the a Conjunctivitis Curse, as a dragon's eyes 
are its weakest point." (chap. 23, p. 406 US) This comment bears a 
striking resemblance to JKR's oft-quoted comment regarding Harry's 
eyes: "She's....outraged that an Italian dust jacket shows Harry 
minus his glasses. 'Don't they understand that they are the clue to 
his vulnerability?'

2) There is some canon that Harry's eyes were weakened to the point 
of needing glasses for reasons other than genetics. For one, Harry 
has the exact same "green, almond-shaped eyes" as Lily and yet he 
has to wear glasses and she doesn't. Also, the only scene where 
James is wearing glasses is in the Mirror of Erised, which we're led 
to believe is *Harry's* projected representation of a father, not a 
factual representation. It makes sense Harry would desire to see a 
father who looks much like himself, someone he immediately 
identifies with. But there's no mention of James wearing glasses in 
the Pensieve scene, even though there's a long description of his 
physical features. A dragon-blood potion or ointment could have 
weakened Harry's eyesight while providing protection.

3) Then of course there's the piece Susan mentioned about the 12 
uses for dragon blood which have yet to be explored in canon. Maybe 
it was just a fun factoid to flesh out the DD character, but I'd 
like to see it play a more significant role.

> Neri:
> Oh, I could add an item or three to this list. <snipped list of
> options> All these options have considerably more canon than dragon
> blood, and I haven't even used any meta-thinking yet.

Jen, Well, *considerably more* canon support is in the eye of the 
beholder ;), but just for the record, I've never quibbled at all 
with Harry being primarily protected by the blood sacrifice/ancient 
magic which seems to be the core of the series. And of course 
there's no arguing Harry's training (and the help of many people 
along the way) has been the basis for his success, along with an 
extraordinary amount of luck. After all, JKR attributes at least 
part of her own success to luck, why not make her protagonist the 
same?

Neri:
> I'm also sure that DD's clever ideas and Hogwarts' protections also
> factor in this, but I still don't see any reason to assume they
> come in the form of an "ancient magic" ointment, especially one
> that is applied by Snape. The very little we know about ancient
> magic is that it requires things like Love, Sacrifice and blood
> relation. Now, Snape claims he can brew Glory and stopper Death
> (although he somehow never gets to actually demonstrating these
> abilities) but I suspect that Love and Sacrifice are a bit out of
> his range, and he's not(canonically) Harry's relative.  

Jen: No, I don't suppose Snape could be accused of making love 
sacrifices for anyone, at least not up to this point. But I don't 
view the dragon ointment itself as a form of 'ancient magic'. 
Perhaps dragon hides are imbued with a protection attributed to 
ancient magic, but if anyone is making a sacrifice here it would be 
the dragon, not Snape! To me Snape's role has less to do with Harry 
and more to do with his loyalty to Dumbledore. The ointment is 
simply one of the uses of dragon blood which Dumbledore, Snape and 
Hagrid concoct to their (and Harry's) advantage in the fight against 
Voldemort.