GOF Chapter 32: Flesh, Blood, and Bone

[oryx_leucoryx]

The correct order is bone, flesh, and blood.

The boys find themselves in a graveyard, between a church and the hill on which the Riddle house stands. It was the absence of mountains that proved to Harry that they were no longer in the Hogwarts area. In contrast, in DH, seeing a Voldievision of flying above mountains will serve as proof that Tom is 'abroad'. Magically changing geography?

Is this an undisclosed addend to the task? Fight monsters from behind gravestones? If this were a videogame it would have made sense.

A short robed figure approaches carrying a bundled baby.

'Kill the spare' is Tom's creepiest line in canon. Much better than his more dramatic expositional speeches. Also better than dramatic narrative lines like 'for a second that contained eternity'.

As the short figure binds Harry to Tom Riddle (Sr)'s tombstone Harry recognizes the man as Wormtail. I'd like to comment that while in POA Peter was mostly referred to by his real name, from GOF on he is always Wormtail, regardless of whether he is being addressed, referred to by another character or by the narrative voice, and regardless of whether the mention is in the present day or in a memory or letter from the past - until the moment of his self-strangulation in DH, when he is again Peter Pettigrew. I suppose the message is that by deciding to go back to Voldemort he gave up on his humanity, became totally rat, until his redemption by death. The effect is spoiled by the contrived logic of his death scene - since Voldemort commanded the DEs to keep Harry alive until he could kill Harry himself, how is not strangling Harry to death a sign of disloyalty?

Peter binds Harry with conjured ropes but silences him with a black rag he brought with him. Because silencing spells will only be invented next year. And quickly introduced into the standard curriculum and spread among the adults.

Peter is dragging a huge cauldron. Can't he do a first year levitation spell? Or perhaps using magic on the cauldron would undo the ceremony? But lighting a fire magically was still OK?

Babymort looks exactly like Tom's soul in King's Cross and speaks with Tom's 'high, cold' voice. (Did Tom always have that voice? Since infancy?) What components went into the creation of this being? I never gave it much thought (despite Rowling's claim that this, as well as the procedure to make a Horcrux were so disgusting to her editor that she decided to leave them out), but after reading some of swythyv's speculations I'm wondering if perhaps Babymort was the outcome of Tom possessing a baby in a manner similar to his possession of Quirrell. Any baby? Bertha Jorkins' baby? In the latter case, who was the father? Jodel suggested he may have been her boss, Ludo Bagman? Was that why he wanted her out of the way in Albania before she started showing? For more speculations (some rather unorthodox) see Why, Bertha?. Including the discussion in the comments.

BTW we see Peter performing the following spells: AK on Cedric, Lumos, binding Harry with magical ropes, lighting a fire under the cauldron. (This will be significant 2 chapters from now.)

The ceremony to create Tom's new body is based on three-threes: Three body-elements, from three people, each with a different relationship to Tom, each of which was in a different state of volition.

While none of the spells the kids learn at school resembles this ceremony, I can see how other forms of magic may be at least somewhat related. The Unbreakable Vow has 3 clauses, each reinforced with a different pattern of magical bond, and it involved 3 people. We don't know how a Fidelius Charm is cast, but for it to be able to accommodate all the variations we see in canon the casting should include something more complicated than a couple of standard words - there has to be more to the syntax. In fact, we know the spell involves people in 3 roles (though the same person may hold more than one role): the caster, the Secret Keeper and the person or owner of the property being protected.

Tom's body required father, servant and enemy. He was defeated by an enemy (Albus) a servant (Severus) and Harry, who through this ceremony came to share his blood and thus became a blood relative.

The steam rising from the cauldron blocks Harry's vision, sparing us the description of a naked full-sized Voldemort.

As we will learn in DH, the blood shared by Harry and Tom created a bond between them that enabled Harry's return to life after being AKed. In fact, Harry became almost unkillable as long as Tom lived in his current body. So while before DH we thought Peter here was breaking the life-debt he supposedly owes Harry, in fact he was (inadvertently) doing Harry a great favor. And making his later heroics a bit of a sham.

Comments

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

The effect is spoiled by the contrived logic of his death scene -

I barely remember that scene. I just knew that it was very very weak.

Because silencing spells will only be invented next year.

Ha ha ha!!!

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

I also forgot about Peter's death scene. Probably because like half of the cast died in DH. It got kind of hard to keep track of after a while.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Hmm. Remus is with Harry, maybe others too, on some mission. Which just happens to be on a full moon. Of course he can't be bothered with a potion, he was counting on them completing the mission before the moon rose. Timing doesn't work as he expected, oops, sorry! Remus nearly eats Harry, but Peter shows up and slays Remus. And Harry has to decide whether saving his life while killing Remus counters Peter's responsibility for getting Harry's parents killed. Yes, much more interesting than canon.

[dracasadiablo.livejournal.com]

Is this an undisclosed addend to the task? Fight monsters from behind gravestones? If this were a videogame it would have made sense.

Very true. Most of the books (especially the last ones) look dangerously close to video-games novelizations.
One dimensional characters, "quest" items, a bunch of mini games and mini bosses...

Because silencing spells will only be invented next year. And quickly introduced into the standard curriculum and spread among the adults.
It sad how often thing like this happen in the books.

And now I can't stop thinking about speculations from the "Why, Bertha?." essay. It's a shame JKR never did anything with it.

While none of the spells the kids learn at school resembles this ceremony, I can see how other forms of magic may be at least somewhat related. The Unbreakable Vow has 3 clauses, each reinforced with a different pattern of magical bond, and it involved 3 people. We don't know how a Fidelius Charm is cast, but for it to be able to accommodate all the variations we see in canon the casting should include something more complicated than a couple of standard words - there has to be more to the syntax. In fact, we know the spell involves people in 3 roles (though the same person may hold more than one role): the caster, the Secret Keeper and the person or owner of the property being protected.

Tom's body required father, servant and enemy. He was defeated by an enemy (Albus) a servant (Severus) and Harry, who through this ceremony came to share his blood and thus became a blood relative.

Very interesting. I haven't considered that before but it makes a lot of sense.

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

/the spell involves people in 3 roles (though the same person may hold more than one role): the caster, the Secret Keeper and the person or owner of the property being protected. /

Ouch. Thanks for reminding me that in DH now you can be your own secret keeper. That makes James Potter even dumber for trusting Peter. And if you can be your own secret keeper, why didn't Sirius suggest that than the Potter's would be safe instead of the switch to Peter. "Listen James I've got a great idea. you just be your own secret keeper, than you won't have to worry about the baddies coming after me. They can kill me (Gryfs don't fear death) Ha, Ha, Ha, Your secret will be unbreakable!"

[oryx_leucoryx]

That makes James Potter even dumber for trusting Peter. And if you can be your own secret keeper, why didn't Sirius suggest that than the Potter's would be safe instead of the switch to Peter.

Unless they didn't know it was possible. It was Albus who suggested the protection. Back in 1980, did they know how to cast it themselves or did Dumbles have to teach them? If he wanted to be the Secret Keeper, would he tell them they could be their own Secret Keepers?

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

The frustrating thing with JKR is she obviously gives no thought to how her world works.

I don't think the inconsistency about Hermione's middle name really matters because her middle name is not important to the plot. But how Harry's parents died is one of the biggest plot points of the story. It's not hard to come up with explanations with why Bill can be his own Secret Keeper and the Potters didn't. The annoying thing is that she didn't bother.

On one of the commentaries to Stargate SGI the writer comments on how they sometimes would struggle when they wanted to do something different to come up with reasons why the were not doing it the way they did before.


With Rowlings its like she thinks of something new and gives no thought to how it fits with what came before.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/The effect is spoiled by the contrived logic of his death scene - since Voldemort commanded the DEs to keep Harry alive until he could kill Harry himself, how is not strangling Harry to death a sign of disloyalty?/

Peter's death was just pointless, underwhelming, and disappointing all around. It made no sense - since, as you said, Voldemort ordered the Death Eaters to *not* kill Harry - and it completely made a mockery of the so-called life debt that fans had been waiting to see ever since PoA. And it was so quick and sudden that it instantly became forgettable, especially since it took place during the Malfoy Manor chapter, where Harry and Co. were more interested in getting away and spared no thought for Peter after he died. It's like JKR totally forgot about the life debt that she had written in PoA and focused instead on getting rid of Peter as quickly as possible.

/So while before DH we thought Peter here was breaking the life-debt he supposedly owes Harry, in fact he was (inadvertently) doing Harry a great favor./

But nobody in DH acknowledges this, so as of now, it's just fan speculation. We don't get any evidence that Peter knew that this ceremony would end up saving Harry's life, especially since in the first chapter of GoF, he protested against using Harry's blood. As far as anybody in the books knows, it was just a coincidence that Peter's action ended up helping Harry, so again, what was the point of the life debt? Was it really just a sham?

[oryx_leucoryx]

The only person in canon who is aware of how Peter's action helped Harry was Albus (see infamous gleam of something like triumph) and we only get the explanation at King's Cross. Moreover, we see in chapter 1 of GOF how Peter was offering to use the blood of some other wizard. So we have no reason to think Peter deliberately agreed to the ceremony because he believed Harry would receive protection from it nor do we see evidence that Peter was under magical compulsion or obligation to save Harry. Which raises the question what was Albus thinking when he gave Harry the speech about the deep magical connection between wizards when one of them saves the other. Makes one wonder if Albus was just saying whatever came to his mind to get Harry to not feel guilty over saving Peter.

[sunnyskywalker]

Everything went downhill after Cedric's death, didn't it? That was a chilling and effective moment, written without a ton of purple prose (no suddenness and completeness of death here!), and made you think Voldemort was going to be really scary.

It bothers me that this ritual could have helped explain some of the otherwise baffling earlier plot points, but doesn't. We know Polyjuice potion takes several weeks to brew, and Felix Felicis takes months. So it would make sense that this even more complicated body-transforming potion would take longer - say, the length of a school year. We also know that one of the ingredients for Polyjuice must be picked by the light of the full moon, and that astronomy in general is important enough to keep on the curriculum (suggesting that this sort of timing requirement isn't unusual). So maybe the ceremony had to be at a specific time (full moon, summer solstice, when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars, whatever). So that could explain why "Moody" didn't just hand Harry a portkey on the first day of school. Why bother until they need him? He's not going anywhere, and trying to keep him captive for ten months would be pointlessly difficult.

And then if you stretch a bit, it could even explain why Harry had to be in the Tournament. Voldemort needs the blood of an enemy, and Harry certainly counts. But what if there were some weird magical reason he had to be a "worthy" enemy? That Harry killing Quirrelmort didn't count as any kind of test of worthiness because it was mostly Harry's mom (again), and Harry hadn't ever done much against the real, adult Voldemort on his own? The Goblet of Fire picks out Champions, and Harry technically proved himself in the tasks. I'm not sure I buy this, but it's better than nothing.

[oryx_leucoryx]

It bothers me that this ritual could have helped explain some of the otherwise baffling earlier plot points, but doesn't.

All it would have taken is to add a sentence or two to Tom's expositional speech in the next chapter. Frustrating! (He does explain why he wanted Harry - he already knows he can't cast a spell on him nor can he touch him, and indeed after the ceremony he can do both. But he never stopped to think one step further - he could have found plenty of ways to kill Harry without doing either of those. Especially as Tom knows he could curse Harry's broom. So why not levitate something heavy and drop on Harry?)

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

...who through this ceremony came to share his blood and thus became a blood relative.

I don't understand how the blood wards could still be effective after this ceremony.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Notice that a month+ from now, the moment Harry was in danger, Albus arranged to take him *away* from 4PD. Perhaps they weren't. Maybe Albus added something or other when he came to visit in HBP. Those may have been completely different wards. As long as Tom believed in the wards, all was fine.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

If that's the case, though, then we need to fanwank why Harry still needed to stay at 4PD for several weeks each summer after the ceremony.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

"What components went into the creation of this being? I never gave it much thought (despite Rowling's claim that this, as well as the procedure to make a Horcrux were so disgusting to her editor that she decided to leave them out), but after reading some of swythyv's speculations I'm wondering if perhaps Babymort was the outcome of Tom possessing a baby in a manner similar to his possession of Quirrell. Any baby? Bertha Jorkins' baby? In the latter case, who was the father? Jodel suggested he may have been her boss, Ludo Bagman? Was that why he wanted her out of the way in Albania before she started showing?"

This is sort of a disgusting idea, and I'm sort of ashamed of myself for thinking of it, but... Do we know how long Bertha, Pettigrew and Voldemort were in Albania? Is it possible that Pettigrew raped Bertha specifically in order to get a baby for Voldemort to possess? That would certainly be pretty disgusting.

[oryx_leucoryx]

We don't have a good timeline for Bertha, but we know Peter escaped from Hogwarts on June 6th, and we meet Babymort for the first time in August 23rd or so. If Babymort was conceived after Peter met Bertha the only way for it to work is if the baby's development was somehow magically enhanced. (I can't see Peter disappearing from Hogwarts sometime in the fall of POA to go seek Bertha at home or work for this purpose. Even when he feared Crookshanks and Sirius he didn't go further than Hagrid's hut.)