Harry's emotions his strength or his weakness? ( LONG)

[M.Clifford]

No: HPFGUIDX 141620

Valky:
> But there is another matter of Non Verbal spells, which I think OTOH
> *is* forshadowed as something Harry can use effectively. When he 
> gets the Stone out of the mirror, he is saying nothing, and yet he 
> makes it happen effortlessly. So on the matter of the Non-verbal 
> magic, I think Harry *is* going to apply himself to it, and I am 
> fairly certain he won't find it all that hard, I think it will come 
> to him a bit like apparating did.

Geoff:
I'm not sure I would agree with you that this is Harry performing non-
verbal or wandless magic.

Valky:
That's Okay Geoff, I agree with you. In my post I was referring to
that scene of Harry retrieving the stone as more of an _abstract_
foreshadowing of the powers Harry will possess when he confronts
Voldemort, not a literal one, but thanks for your analysis of the
scene. :D

Geoff:
Now it is probable that the Hat and the Mirror are accepted as being
trustworthy by a long history of reliability but it seems that the
Mirror, like the Hat, has the ability to think for itself as it
seemingly possesses the power to read a viewer's mind and determine
their deepest wishes. So, coupling this power with the fact that
Dumbledore has "programmed" how someone can get hold of the Stone, I
believe that when Harry was thinking about the need to get hold of the
Stone to keep it away from Quirrell, these two factors came into play

Valky:
Oooh! I hope you don't mind, I might use that as another model of
abstract foreshadowing too! <g> I think your analysis of Dumbledore's
stone plan gives us a very good insight into aspects of Dumbledore's
greater plan. Like for example, notice that what Arthur and Molly have
told Ginny about objects that think for themselves has a distinct
parrallel with what Dumbledore tells Harry about sentient horcruxes.

Paraphrasing- Arthur and Molly to Ginny:
Haven't we told you to never trust anything that can think for itself
if you can't see where
it keeps its brain.

Paraphrasing Dumbledore in HBP on Nagini:
It's very risky to confide part of your soul to something that can
think and move for itself.

Both speak of  trust and confidence in something that has obvious
sentient qualities, and both are saying there is great risk involved
in doing so. Then through the analyisis that Geoff gave (thanks!) we
can see to some degree with the mirror that Dumbledore has
successfully tapped into the sentient qualities of the mirror, to
protect the stone. And his plan works, the stone is kept by the mirror
and kept well, it cannot be *used*, Dumbledore need not be there to
protect it, DD was quite proud of this plan. 

Now to speculate on the abstract sense of this plan as it relates to
Dumbledore's greater plan-
It sems to say that Dumbledore has long known he was capable of
tapping into the protector of Voldemorts ultimate immortality. Hence
it foreshadows his ability to sense Voldemorts magic in the cave and
in the Gaunt property.

And it also foreshadows a possible view of Harry. It is Harry's
reflection in the Mirror and it is Harry that ultimately becomes the
protector of the immortality that Voldemort seeks. Yes it's a path
that leads to Horcrux Harry, but I don't view that as a bad thing at
this point, because rather than just having, yet again, 'oh yeah,
Horcrux Harry :-S' we also have, with it, a model of Dumbledores plan.  

With the mirror, Dumbledore's plan was to give the mirror the stone
with a simple and unmanipulable condition. It is never to be removed
by someone whose intention is to use it, IOW the stone is no longer a
means of immortality, its very nature works against it ever being used
that way again. But it *can* be found if the Hearts Desire of someone
is simply to find an object that they are in no way attached to, then
that person can have it. 

More specifically, the Mirror trial demonstrates, as I am sure
Dumbledore/JKR intended it to, that Harry himself, if he has no
interest in immortality or the riches that go with the prize, if his
hearts desire is to thwart evil, then he will see quite clearly his
advantage over Voldemort. Then he can use his own power and his own
courage, and the magnificent love that he possesses as a gift of
sacrifice to hold on to that advantage as tightly as he can until Evil
destroys itself trying to get it from him. 

I would love to try and extrpolate more specifics out of these
thoughts, but recalling the long conversation between Saraquel, Jen,
Cerridwen and myself recently, well... I know what I am in for if I do
:D The final confrontation is a hard nut to crack.

Valky