Horcrux Hunting - Time, Skill, Knowledge, and Harry

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 141554

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "quick_silver71"
<quick_silver71 at y...> wrote:
>
> 
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at y...> wrote:
> 
> > On the Horcruxes in general, the whole process of tracking them
> > down seems too complex and time consuming using normal methods. 
> > Somehow there has to be a shortcut, either the Horcruxes don't 
> > have the significants that we currently believe, or Snape will 
> > find out how to destroy them and help Harry do so, or Voldemort 
> > will get paranoid and move the Horcruxes all to one location and 
> > that will simplify Harry hunt. 

> quick_silver71:
> 
> I both agree and disagree. I think that the Horcrux is a huge task
> to hung around the neck of Harry and I wonder how he's going to do 
> it yet I don't think that there's going to be a major short-cut or 
> that the Horcruxs will be unimportant.
> 
> I think that Harry finishing the task of destorying the Horcrux is 
> a hugely important character development phase. The Harry that I 
> saw in Half-Blood Prince showed signs of being able to complete this 
> task...the appearance of cunning, guile, his general combat skills, 
> his use of hard hitting spells, his willingness to actually notice 
> the world around him, etc.  ...edited...
> 
> ...edited...
> 
> While the Hunt seems daunting at first it may actually require less
> time and effort  .... ... I think that the summer before 7th year 
> ... is gonig to be spent on the locket (maybe a trip to Number 12 
> and a vist to Mundungus in Azkaban).  

bboyminn:

Time is the critical aspect here. As I've said before, if the next
book was able to cover a five year span then Harry might have a
chance, but it all has to happen in one year along with all the other
'stuff' that we know must happen in the next book (Godrics Hollow,
Bill's Wedding, other...). It's easy to say that Harry will go to 12
Grimmauld Place and visit Mundungus in Azkaban, but how would he even
know to do that? We have all made the connection between the Locket
THROWN AWAY at Grimmauld Place and the Horcrux Locket, but what could
possibly occur in the books for Harry to make that connection? Then,
if and when the connection is made, how will he find a Locket that's
been thrown away? Time... time.. time... even if Harry can do all
this, how much time will it take? How much time to realize it, and how
must time to track it down, how much time to retrieve it, how much
time to destroy it? Then that is only one of many, how much time to
determine, decide, find, overcome, capture, and destroy the Founder's
Horcrux? A lot I think.

> quick_silver71:
>
> That leaves only three to deal with and Harry seems to be working 
> on the premise that one is being kept right beside Voldemort (the 
> Snake). The "Founder Object" is probably the most difficult to find 
> and the one where I believe Snape will help with.  ...edited...
> 
> Although finding the Cup is difficult I believe that a certain Death
> Eater (Bellatrix) may know where it is ...edited...
> 
> Quick_Silver 

bboyminn:

While the known Horcruxes seem a near impossible task, the 'Founder's
Horcrux' really is an impossible task. We don't know if it's Ravenclaw
or Gryffindor, we don't know what it is, we don't know where it is,
and we don't know anything about the many protections guarding it.
Even if we did know 'what' and 'where', I don't see Harry with the
skill to overcome the protections and destroy it. Look at the deep
skill and intuition Dumbledore applied to find the fake!Locket. All of
it was a complete mystery to Harry. How can Harry possibly gain that
degree of skill and insight in just one book? It took Dumbledore 150
years. 

Further, Dumbledore was able to guess the probability of the cave
being significant to Voldemort by using a deep insight into
Voldemort's history and nature. Harry doesn't have that. Dumbledore
was Harry's source of information and he is gone. I doubt that Harry
even knows where to begin to find out more deep insight into
Voldemort's history. Even then any conclusions he reaches are just
guesses that have to be investigated. That all takes time, and time is
something we don't have. To Harry's view, he has a lifetime to resolve
this, but we as readers know that it must and will be resolved in less
than a year, and to acquire all this rare and unfathomable knowledge
in that amount of time seems impossible to me. 

Somehow some 'shortcuts' have to enter the picture. Somehow some new
mysterious source of knowledge has to come into the picture; whether
it be Snape or other. Even once he know 'what' and 'where' the
Horcruxes are, we are then faced with Harry's lack of skill in dealing
with them; overcoming the protections and destroying them.

It's a difficult task with 5 to 10 years to accomplish it, and that
assumes using a team of researchers, but to accomplish it in less than
a year using conventional means seems next to impossible. So, I
conclude that there is a 'shortcut', that is, some aspect of the story
that we don't realize yet. Maybe Snape's new position as Voldemort's
favorite will make him privy to information that will help Harry.
Maybe in the final battle the Horcruxes won't be as relevant as we
seem to think they are now. Maybe some new source of information will
be found. Maybe a new character will be introduced that will raise
Harry's skill in curse breaking (hint: Bill). Maybe Voldemort will get
paranoid and bring the Horcruxes all together in one location. Or,
maybe none of the above, but I just don't see Harry accomplishing the
task at hand using standard methods and his current skill level. Even
with a substantially increased skill level, he still falls far short
of the mark.

I do agree with your basic assessment of Harry progress in the next
books; about his growth as a person and as a wizard, but I just don't
see that alone as enough to solve the obvious problems.

I predict the next book will either be the most stunning achievement
of all time, or the greatest disappointment; whatever it is, I supect
it will be at the extremes of the scale, nothing in between.

Steve/bboyminn