Of Hxs and parasites

[Barry Arrowsmith]

catlady:
 >
 > I really, really, really *like* Possession Theory (that there is one
 > Dark Lord, either a memory+soul piece of Salazar or a parasite that
 > came into the school on Salazar, which lurks in the Chamber of  
Secrets
 > and seduces one exceptionally talented student every 50 to 150 years
 > into being its host, so the host can use the parasite's strong magic
 > powers but gradually has its mind/personality/self/soul eaten by the
 > parasite) but I don't think it's true.
 >

Um.
Well, one *could* get into a chicken and egg situation - what was it
that caused ole Sally to go bad? Or was he merely a self-starter?
The suggestion that evil can be considered, for the sake of argument,
as a force/entity independent of personality was made to simplify the
presentation of the thesis and was intended to have roughly the same
impact as a Greek chorus - it helps things along but is not necessarily
literally true (though it is tempting to stretch it further than the  
simile
strictly warrants). Frankly, I found the metaphysics of a disembodied
bit of Salazar's mind swanning round the Chamber difficult to describe
in simple terms - a bit like having a magnetic field without the magnet.
But, once formulated, such an entity (combined with the roughly
coincidental(?) dates of Grindelwald) does become extremely seductive.
And I love being seduced. Usually. Sometimes. By a Nigella Lawson
lookalike (she can cook too!).

As for past Dark Lords;  it's neat and tidy if it's the same force  
for evil struggling for dominance time and again. Adds to the  
continuity.
Besides,  there's a possible hint from DD "....destroy the Dark Lord for
good...". If Voldy is as difficult to dispose of (as has been  
described throughout the series) then how did they get rid of any  
predecessors
'for good'? But if it's been aspects of the same entity down the  
ages....


 > Possession theory suggests that the wizarding culture wouldn't keep
 > producing Dark Lords on its own, despite good discussion in past  
years
 > of the cultural traits (e.g. great admiration for power regardless of
 > what is done with that power) that produce Dark Lords. I think *human
 > nature* keeps producing Dark Lords on its own, and I'm always a bit
 > surprised that Kneasy, of all people, supports a theory which offers
 > to let human nature off the hook.
 >

Let human nature off the hook? Me? Never!
ESE!Sirius, Puppetmaster!DD, ESE!Fudge, ESE!Bagman, Harry to
replace Voldy as the next threat to public health - it's fair to say  
that my morbid cynicism (and mordant wishful thinking) has distressed  
many
a fluffy. Hopefully, anyway.

But. Sally was one of the most  powerful wizards *of all time*. This
gives him lots of scope for getting up to  all sorts of mischief that  
lesser
wizards are incapable of. The implication is that DD was not in his  
league,
otherwise why would he need Harry to knock off the Voldy construct?
Infected!Harry will result in Sally destroying Sally, evil defeating  
evil;
trite - but acceptably so IMO.

 > I *like* the idea that Salazar was already evil when the
 > others invited him to help found the school, them thinking that he  
was
 > less dangerous inside their team than outside it, but that  
contradicts
 > the Sorting Hat's statement that Godric and Salazar were best friends
 > before they quarrelled and the current conventional wisdom that
 > Salazar's image is the victim of the winning side's propaganda.
snip
 > For me, Salazar, already evil and not at all Godric's bet
 > friend, murdered him and the other three were displeased but covered
 > it up because they didn't want to expel Salazar.

Mm, I lean the other way. His search for immortality changed him,
became an obsession and ends started justifying the means.
Betcha.
Bet he killed at least one, perhaps two, of the other Founders, too. Or
am I the only one to find it odd that the books are totally silent   
as to
what became of them - a fair amount about their beginnings, nothing
about their ends.
That's why he's been after their relics/totems; his Hxs were emplaced
at the the time, 'cos they aren't strictly Voldy's Hxs, so much as  
Sally's Hxs.
He's the one who's planning the big return tour. Voldy is yet another
means to an end.

ewe2:
 >
 > And the diary story is also odd. Why imprint a memory and then a
 > soul-piece? It seems clumsy not to do both at once or just one and  
the
 > intentions clash. One is to be picked up by an innocent and then
 > devour them, the other is to hide and be retrieved when desired,  
which
 > suggests Tom has a way of knowing where they are. In that sense the
 > diary could be a breadcrumb on a more important trail. And we know  
who
 > lives in gingerbread houses....

Very true. My jaundiced eye has lighted on that before now.
In CoS it reads as if he made the Diary when he was still a teenager,
with the sole intention of "leading another in my footsteps". No hint of
a Hosscrutch - which presumably should become evident when the
Diary was accessed - and would be a damned sight more up-to-date
with maleficent properties than the merely nasty, spiteful, teenage Tom.

Kneasy