death to capslock

On Human Sacrfice and Dark Magic

2016-08-24T18:02:00Z

Posted by: annoni-no.livejournal.com

I've spent some time archive binging recently and got to thinking about what the new conclusions meant for old issues that weren't directly addressed. In particular, I was reminded of all the old complaints about Lily's sacrifice being held up as exceptional even though most parents would die for their children. And if sacrificial magic is as ancient, wild, and Dark as it is claimed, without needing any channeling incantations or rituals, there should be thousands, if not millions of people throughout the history of humanity clearly benefiting from such sacrifices. Yet canon says there aren't. Few people are even aware of the possibility that it could happen, let alone happen reliably. Why not?

Well. What is one of the most essential things we learn about the Dark Arts?

You have to mean them.

And that was just in reference to such highly domesticated spells as avada kedavra and cruciatus. (They have incantations! They give consistent results! And people want to call those Dark? Puh-lease.) I suspect that the further back you go, the more vital will and intent becomes to any manipulation of magic.

( So of course most parents would be WILLING to die for their children, but how many would WANT to? Would PLAN on it? )

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 35

2015-08-29T22:41:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

Might as well continue this sequence.

( Read Chapter 35 )

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 34

2015-08-29T22:34:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

Harry: S-so…this is it? I’m j-just supposed to go and die? No…it can’t be true. I must be dreaming. Somebody, please, tell me I’m dreaming!

( Read Chapter 34 )

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 33

2015-08-28T00:01:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

The moment we've all been waiting for--the story of SNAPE!

( Snape, Snape, Severus Snape... )

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Lessons in Immortality

2015-08-25T18:22:00Z

Posted by: sunnyskywalker

Condwiramurs, Terri, Sweettalkeress, and the rest of you are just too inspiring. I had plans for last night (okay, probably involving silly pictures of cats, but still), and instead all your brilliant commentary inspired me to write a short fic. Your punishment is to suffer the results. (Er, but only if you want to.)

Lessons in Immortality
Characters: Albus Dumbledore, Tom Riddle
Categories: Gen, PG
Word Count: 972
Summary: Albus is determined that his NEWT alchemy students not be lured onto any of the tempting, dark paths to immortality. Especially not Tom Riddle.

Fic this way

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 32

2015-08-25T10:57:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( Snape! *Sob* )

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Doubling his bets? Albus's silence about Severus's sacrifices

2015-08-08T07:40:00Z

Posted by: terri-testing.livejournal.com

Condwiramurs, you asked last week (before embarking on your series):
“Why not tell Severus the reason for giving him both of these otherwise insanely-conflicting and emotionally devastating orders?”

Here, finally are a couple of possible answers.

( Read more... )

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A question or two RE Greater Love and Severus' sacrifice

2015-07-30T21:05:00Z

Posted by: condwiramurs.livejournal.com

I've been doing a bit of a re-read-though of some meta here lately, and I find myself going back repeatedly to terri's excellent (but heartbreaking) piece "Greater Love." I've pretty much worked her theory there about doubled sacrifice and Dumbles' insistence on both Severus killing him and Severus being the one to break the news of the Harrycrux into my personal headcanon.

But I'm still left with one big nagging question - I posted it on the original piece the other day but thought I'd repost it here to open up some discussion. (Blame a nagging plotbunny for my entirely selfish motivation here.)

Why not tell Severus the reason for giving him both of these otherwise insanely-conflicting and emotionally devastating orders?

( Read more... )

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 10

2015-07-02T23:18:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

[Harry wakes up the next morning in a sleeping bag on the floor]

( Kreacher is back!! )

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 4

2015-06-26T17:58:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( Read Chapter 4 )

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Harry Potter Abridged! HBP Chapter 28

2015-06-18T16:45:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( Read Chapter 28 )

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Harry Potter Abridged! HBP Chapter 26

2015-06-16T18:11:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( It's the Birdbath of DOOM )

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Harry Potter Abridged! OotP Chapter 35

2015-03-10T21:26:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( See Neville be a badass and a nod to classic "My Immortal!" )

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Rejoining ‘Our’ Side: the Return of Severus Snape

2014-11-10T07:56:00Z

Posted by: terri-testing.livejournal.com

A Crazed, Quibbler-Worthy, Absolutely Unverifiable Manipulative!Dumbledore Theory

*
Definitions:

“rejoin, v.t.

To join together again; to reunite after separation.

return, v.t.

To come back; to come or go back, as to a former place, condition, etc…

To revert to a former owner…”

Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary, Second Edition, c 1979.

*

“Severus Snape was indeed a Death Eater. However, he rejoined our side before Lord Voldemort’s downfall and turned spy for us at great personal risk. He is now no more a Death Eater than I am.” Dumbledore in the Privy Ministry Hearing, Pensieve, GoF

“You have no idea of the remorse Professor Snape felt when he realized how Lord Voldemort had interpreted the Prophecy, Harry. I believe it to be the greatest regret of his life and the reason that he returned—” Dumbledore to Harry, HBP

"Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban.... When the time comes, we can protect him too.... Come over to the right side, Draco...." Dumbledore to Draco, HBP

“And what will you give me in return, Severus?” Dumbledore to Snape, DH

*
( Read more... )

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Rowling's weird relationship with bodily harm...

2014-01-31T22:49:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

Wiser people than I have commented on how the Harry Potter books fail to portray people who die as anything but heroic (if they're good) or irredeemable (if they're evil) for doing so. The thing is, it seems like that extends to all kinds of bodily harm. I'm preparing an abridging of the first chapter to feature Marietta right about now, and if you think about it, both she and Harry acquire some sort of indelible scars over the course of the very same book, but Harry's presented as a heroic martyr and Marietta as a despicable coward (which is the worst thing to be in the Potterverse, after all), and in doing so trivializes the idea of getting a scar entirely--if you're good it makes you a heroic martyr and if you're bad it's just something you deserve. Similarly, when Harry is subjected to the Cruciatus curse we get treated to descriptions of his struggling manfully against it, but when a character we don't like or care about gets tortured (see, for example, Harry's torturing the Death Eater in DH) they deserve it so it's okay. If you're good suffering builds character, if you're bad suffering is what you deserve. Neither case confronts realistically how devastating suffering grievous bodily harm, loss, or death can be.

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Greater Love, an Essay

2013-03-27T18:43:00Z

Posted by: terri-testing.livejournal.com

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends.”

So reads the epitaph on the grave Lily is visiting.

In a certain Mirror viewed by Severus, and perhaps also in his dreams. (EmmaD, “What I Wish”)

But the mirror lies, of course.

( ”Oh” )

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Dumble’s (Mis) Conceptions about Godric’s Hollow: James’s and Lily’s Roles

2012-12-20T09:31:00Z

Posted by: terri-testing.livejournal.com

To figure out what Albus believed saved Harry from Tom that night, we have to look closely at his actions. (Including his speech acts, while making sure not to assume he’s invariably speaking truthfully.)

So, what acts can we judge Twinkles on?

( First )

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Extraordinary

2012-11-02T22:25:00Z

Posted by: terri-testing.livejournal.com

I was in the middle of crafting an extremely ingenious and elaborate explanation of why, uniquely in the WW, Lily’s sacrificial death could possibly have powered a shield so extraordinarily strong as to have deflected the unblockable Avada Kedavra, when the question hit me: but did it?

Or did something else happen that night?

This meta is dedicated to Erastes’ Random Death Eaters, Chuck and Lance, who I think would appreciate my final supposition.

(If you never read the posts in “Deadly Hollow” sporking DH, why not? Do that first.)

( We inferred )

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Lily's Protection

2012-02-08T17:38:00Z

Posted by: danajsparks.livejournal.com

When Lily Potter died, the magic of her sacrifice gave her son protection against Lord Voldemort. When Voldemort tried to kill Harry with an Avada Kedavra, a spell for which there is no known magical shield, Lily's protection caused the spell to rebound and hit Voldemort instead. More than ten years later, when Prof. Quirrell, possessed by Voldemort, tried to touch Harry, Lily's protection caused his skin to burn. Clearly, then, Lily's protection was both powerful and enduring.

I have a couple questions, though, about Lily's protection....

1. If Lily's protection made it impossible for Quirrellmort to even touch Harry, then why didn't it prevent a fragment of Voldemort's soul from latching onto Harry?

2. Likewise, why didn't Lily's protection appear to have any effect upon the diary horcrux, even though Harry touched it and entered its pensieved memories?

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