To Slay a Unicorn

[terri_testing]

`“… but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Atticus Finch

“Crime… befouling the castle… suggested sentence… ”
“I want to see some punishment!”  Argus Filch

“… it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn,”  Firenze

Let’s take a look at Harry’s first detention and the lessons that it taught him, shall we?

Comments

[vermouth1991]

Remember that eventually the entire herd (apparently) fought Voldemort and his Death Eaters when they invaded the school grounds (but not the forest).

This is only one tiny part of your essay, but I thought they really only attacked until after the DEs went into the Forest to camp and wait for Harry to surrender himself, i.e. violating the sanctity of the Forest?

correction

[terri_testing]

You're right, they did. They showed up to join the second wave of fighting, led by Neville, after Harry was believed dead. But they didn't attack in the forest, they didn't say anything to indicate they were punishing the DEs for trespass (rather than just fighting them), and they held their fire until Voldemort attacked Neville (set the Sorting Hat on fire

Re: correction

[hwyla]

I would also say that IF it was about the DEs entering the forest, then surely they would have shot them through with arrows during that hour while the DEs were still in the forest - all from the cover of the trees. Certainly when Voldy awoke, wouldn't he have been surrounded by dead followers?

[oryx_leucoryx]

So what kind of curse/magical consequence is thee for someone who merely kills a unicorn but doesn't consume its blood?

[sunnyskywalker]

Or for that matter, for someone who injures it badly enough that it will very probably die, but doesn't actually stick around to see whether his attack really was fatal or not?

[oryx_leucoryx]

I am beginning to think that by directly or indirectly causing the death of those unicorns Albus set in motion, via Laws of Dark Magic, some of the major difficulties he had in the late books. The first that comes to mind is that he may have sealed his fate not to live to see Voldemort's final defeat. And I doubt he was aware of such issue, as his actions in OOTP and HBP seem to suggest he was originally planning to tackle the Horcruxes on his own.

[sunnyskywalker]

It does seem like it should activate at least a partial curse on him. Maybe killing = cursed life (i.e. losing one's luck?), and going further and drinking the blood = half life, whatever that means. Harry's amazing luck might have concealed this for a time, when his goals coincided with Dumbledore's, but eventually, things just started going wrong for Dumbledore. After decades of being able to climb out of any hole he dug himself into, more or less.

[sunnyskywalker]

Ack, so much to think about here! Like the very neat parallel between a Dumbledore who can set an innocent child up to die, but not actually bring himself to tell the kid to do so, and a Dumbledore who could, um, injure an innocent unicorn For The Greater GoodTM, or perhaps arrange for it to be injured somehow, but not actually strike a clean killing blow himself. (Well, maybe he hoped for a magical technicality to save him from any kind of blowback...)

And very good catch about Firenze's knowledge and its likely source. That sounded as fishy as a whole pot of cioppino when I reread PS/SS recently, but I hadn't gotten as far as a theory on why Dumbledore would have passed him that information, or compared that description of the Stone's effects to the other and caught the discrepancy. It's pretty hard to misunderstand "this would keep Quirrell's body alive for him to continue using" as "this would instantly reconstitute his original body with all its powers" unless one is being awfully vague. To put it mildly

Uncomfortable things

[terri_testing]

If it's worth risking your life, it's worth taking time to explain and maybe confess to a few uncomfortable things, yes?

Word!

And DD's handing over the cloak anonymously, dodgy indeed.

[tatgoat]

I'm not sure the cloak could be traced by itself, what if Dumbledore returned it full of tracing spells???

tracing spells

[terri_testing]

Gapes.

Oh, goodness, I had never thought of that.

Yes, the Doylist explanation for the discrepancy between what we learn about the cloak in DH and how it seemed to be in earlier books (specifically, that Barty Crouch Jr. sees through it with Moody's eye; that Albus seems to see through it could be ret-conned by his bearing the brother Deathstick) is that Jo messed up.

But you've just provided a Watsonian explanation--Dumbles used the Deathstick to MESS it up.

Good job!

Good stuff as always! Pt. 1

[librasmile]

And as always, I have questions, lol

Re: Good stuff as always! Pt. 2 (Conclusion)

[librasmile]

CONCLUSION: I've thought for a while now that, within my own head canon view of the Potter universe, this war was operating on a whole other (paranormal) level than what Harry, the Order of the Phoenix or even the Death Eaters could see. Ironically, of those groups, I think the Death Eaters were actually closest to what in fact was really going on because they had no inhibitions about breaking taboos. See I don't think Dark Magic was banned because of some vague notion about darkness (I mean if there's Dark Magic then what the hell is BLACK magic in this universe?). I think it was banned because practicing it always risks opening the door to other realms that no human, wizard or Muggle, could ever traverse safely. In addition, it has the potential to let something supernatural (that even wizards can't fight) IN. So it's banned. And horcruxes are Dark Magic. And not just because they require a murder in order to be created

Re: Good stuff as always! Pt. 1

[oryx_leucoryx]

We discussed some of these points in the past. One thing to remember is that Dumbledore was acting on some false assumptions. When he saw Tom wearing the ring with the stone with the symbol of the Hallows he probably thought Tom got interested in the Hallows Quest (and that may have been an extra push to get off his butt and finish things with Gellert before Tom figured out where to go to find the Elder Wand). Then Tom actually went to the continent, but a bit too late, and when he returned 10 years later he wanted to meet Albus. Obviously Tom finally traced the wand to its current Master... (except he didn't, he came to Hogwarts to hide the diadem and maybe to get Gryffindor's sword if he could manage it

Re: Good stuff as always! Pt. 1

[ioanna_ioannina]

And if so, maybe the Order was found not for fighting Voldemort, but to protect Dumbledore, the owner of the Elder wand?

Horcruxes

[tatgoat]

Incredibly well thought essay the only thing I strongly disagree is that Dumbledore bellieved Harry the only Horcrux. He gathered the memories years, even decades, before Harry's birth, for how much longer would have lived Morfin Gaunt or Hokey???

Re: Horcruxes

[terri_testing]

Hey, thanks for your comment

Re: Horcruxes

[tatgoat]

I'll study them:) (and reply more) but then when do you suppose he gathered Hokey and Morfin's memories if not near the crimes??? Hokey at the very least was very old even before Azkaban...

Re: Horcruxes

[terri_testing]

Oh, yes, Albus had his eye on Tom. And was both gathering and hoarding to himself information about him. But that doesn't mean he understood Tom to have been gathering objects of ancient vertu to make Horcruxes of them.