Indestructible - Masterpost

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Having looked at the list of topics and ideas I still want to get to in my Indestructible series, and seen its length, I figured a masterpost of links to the parts in order might be nice to have. I'll add to this as pieces get posted.

Background stuff to read that might be useful, since I draw on the ideas implicitly in some essays, are terri's metas - especially Greater Love, her analysis of the Unbreakable Vow scene over at snapedom, and her writings on Albus - terri and swythyv's writings about the Birdbath of Doom and Merlin's test, and perhaps jodel's essays at redhen.

In-progress pieces are listed with tentative titles and numerals - the final breakdown will be determined as the posts are written.

Last updated: September 14, 2015.

Indestructible

Introduction and Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Intermezzo

Part V - The Wheels of Heaven

Food For Thought (some references that keep occuring to me as I work on all this - not an essay)

Part VI - Dark Marks and Dark Arts

Poll (closed)

Part VII - Miscellaneous Cards I (Flight, Immortality, Love)

Notes for Indestructible - chapters of interest and a patronus tidbit

An Addendum on Flight

Intermezzo II - Etymological Excursus

Eating Death? - a brief note on yew trees and deer

Part VIII - Miscellaneous Cards II (Occlumency, Purity, Tower and Cave) [in progress]

Part IX - Considering Severus Snape [in progress]

Part X - Wolfsbane: Severus' Boggart [in progress]

Part XI - Faithful Servant: Severus and Voldemort [in progress]

Part XII - my two readings of Severus' arc [in progress]

Indestructible - Part III

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Albus was a man who in certain ways passed the greater part of his own moral struggle and burdens onto Severus Snape, among others. He used the man, ruthlessly, as a mirror and a tool to shield himself from himself, from the full weight of the consequences of his own actions and errors.

His handling of one Tom Riddle, and refusal to be direct about addressing the problem because it would reveal his own complicity in creating it; his conduct as headmaster of Hogwarts and handling of the abuse Severus, among others, received there; the vilification of a quarter of the student population and adulation of another quarter that he encouraged, feeding into the war machine two streams of child victims, to be used by Tom and himself; his refusal to fully acknowledge and own up to the real errors of his that led to his sister’s death and what he needed to do in response, and his shunting-off of the echo of that work onto Severus Snape; his handling of the prophecy matter and the lives of his subordinates, which led in part to the deaths for which he held only Severus Snape (the only truly repentant one) fully responsible; his handling of the child delivered into his care, Harry, and the curse that marked him…

In so many ways the greatest difficulties of Severus’ life were created or driven in large part by Albus Dumbledore, and yet in response Albus offloaded all of the moral work and heavy lifting onto him. Betraying him, repeatedly.

Ultimately unto death, if we are to go with the straightforward reading of canon. (Hey! No body, no portrait - Severus lives! If you like to so believe.)

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 23

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Hermione: Alright, we’ll be fine, just do exactly as I say.

( Read Chapter 23 )

Indestructible - Part IV

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Part IV - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Our first – and only overt – glimpse of an alchemist in canon came in the person of Nicholas Flamel, who flickered before our eyes together with his wife Perenelle in the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. They gave Albus the stone that was meant as bait to entrap Voldemort and his slave Quirrell, that Harry in trying to preserve from him nearly unwittingly gave to him, and that Albus says he's destroyed with the Flamels’ consent.

This Stone we saw openly: hard, crystalline, blood-red. Its fruits – gold, the elixir of life, the cure-all panacea – we did not directly see and had to infer, though one of them – the promise of life – was desperately desired and sought at any cost by Voldemort. That is, by the hollow husk of the boy Tom Riddle, nurtured in error and inflicted on everyone by Albus Dumbledore.

During that quest, in his childlike attempts to understand and solve the mystery and save people, the boy Harry Potter saw, in the forest at night, Voldemort, through his slave, keeping himself alive – in a terrible half-life – by feeding on the silver blood of a murdered unicorn. This was our first image of what Voldemort was capable of and willing to do in pursuing his particular brand of evil.

Keep this image in mind.

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