Categories > Books > Harry Potter > Elementary Calculations
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Elementary Calculations
(#) Wolfric 2008-05-05
Good chapter. How would Harry know anything but selfish behavior toward the Dursleys, its certainly what they taught him. He may have empathy towards others but the Dursleys? They are lucky if he doesn't act against them directly. I like the story. Thanks for writing. W.Elementary Calculations
(#) torgrim 2008-05-05
Hey,
realy liked your description of the wards. to be honest most of the time that kinda stuff can be tedious to read but you kept me interested. For your a/n at the end i agree, if it was a mothers love that saved harry then why was he the first to survive? i cant believe that since the spells creation no one died trying to save another, creating the same effect... great chapter, i like your harry!Elementary Calculations
(#) banner 2008-05-05
That was perfectly IC. I think cutting that connection was a completely rational decision, selfish but not evil. The Dursleys were simply leaching from him - why not ditch the parasites? By the way, it's spelled Dumbledore. This story is good and getting better.Elementary Calculations
(#) codewarriorace_ 2008-05-05
Good description on wards. I'm happy to see that Harry is looking out for himself. It never made sense to me that he would care for the Dursleys at all.Elementary Calculations
(#) Alorkin 2008-05-05
A wonderful chapter. Harry's meditative explorations into the magic surrounding him, bring forth a dedication nnot seenn in cannon.
Blood sacrifice wards created by both Lily and James, is not new, but here you have also brought out my own arguments with canon. Dumbledore emotes on about Lily's sacrifice, yet says exactly nothing about James'. He placed himself in Voldemort's path to Protect those he loved. He died for Harry every bit as much as Lily did.
The energy trap represented by the wards around Privet drive gains it's power from Harry's magic? There is a very new twist.
Your explanation of the feedback creating a stronger protection makes perfect sense, energywise, to me...as does your reasoning on why it failed. Petunia&Co. have no love at all. Not for themselves and certainly none for Harry. In electronics terms, this is called a 'short to ground'. The energy ends up wasted. Too bad. If the Dursley's had taken better care of Harry than they did, they would have been protected from a friggin' atom bomb.
Since I despise Dumbledore's character anyway, I'd strongly suspect he knew ahead of time, both of the antipathy between Petunia and Lily, and the most likely way she'd treat Harry. My assertion has always been that he placed Harry there in order to train him to be a mindless and mallable sacrifice for Dumbledore's 'greater good'.
Knowing of the power drain, Harry has removed the link from his magic to the wards around #4. While his decision may be, in part, emotionally motivated, I don't see it as particularly ruthless...simply efficient. Instead, it's a matter of cost -v- benefit.
Harry is carefully following the scientific method: Carefully removing one aspect from the experiment and observing the result.
Alorkin
Author's response
The way that I see it, the wards around the Dursley's don't directly gain power from Harry. They gain power from the protection that Lily and James set up around harry. Those wards were suppose to be self sustaining but they took a beating when they were hit by the AK, then were further strained by Dumbledore attaching them to the Dursley property. The wards are being drained dry so they link to the closest source of energy. Also, that is the only place where it was just ripped away as opposed to collapsing from lack of energy. The other areas with empty space will have the 'ghost echo' of the lattice that can be filled in, this area is going to be wide open. That will pose a problem when Voldemort shows up. There isn't an actual connection between the two right now, but this area will already have an imprint of Voldemort's magic making it predisposed to creating a connection between the two at his resurrection.Elementary Calculations
(#) Cateagle 2008-05-05
I'll applaud your description of the wards and how they were supposed to work. Given that they're not working, I can't blame Harry for cutting the connection, he certainly doesn't owe them anything and a stronger him, there, will be more protection than those failing wards, anyway. I'll agree with Alorkin that this is more an efficieny question than one of ruthlessness. I do wonder, though, if Dumbles has a monitor on the wards? If he does, it might not notice when Harry severed the connection, but it most certainly will when the wards on 4 Privet Drive fall. This could provoke an early encounter/confrontation with the manipulative old bearded one.
I do like the systematic approach Harry's taking to exploring his magic, it's a most logical and scientific one and I suspect he's going to find a few things that a lot of folks would wish he wouldn't.Author's response
I plan to have the wards last about three years before they completely fall. There will be an early confrontation though. It will have nothing to do with the wards however. You'll just have to wait and see. As for the efficiency versus ruthlessness, like I said in my FFN profile, Harry will be dealing with using what he knows with ruthless efficiency. So I guess the question becomes rather moot.Elementary Calculations
(#) lycus 2008-05-05
That was a good chapter, and the way that harry saw things was perfect. he doesn't owe the dursleys anything. and I don't agree with the whole blood protection thing either, I mean there had to be hundreds of mothers that did the same thing to protect their children from attack. just like I can't believe that molly weasley would forget the platform number after all those years.Author's response
I quite agree. Five childen already in Hogwarts plus going there herself and she just happens to forget where the platform is. Very conveniently calling out where everyone can hear her.Elementary Calculations
(#) Cateagle 2008-05-05
If you're fighting for survival, ruthless efficiency is necessary and anything less is an unaffordable luxury; I rather suspect this Harry will understand it and Dumbles likely never will (it seems to be part and parcel of his mindset/worldview). I suspect he's going to get a weapon against Tom, but not the tool, especially the pliant tool, he wanted.Elementary Calculations
(#) GryffindorDragon 2008-05-06
Nice chapter. I like what you do with the blood wards. But what puzzles me is they seem to be set on Harry's magical core. Do they protect his core or do they protect him? For a parallel, notice how wards on a property work. They aren't set up on the center of the property, are they? but on the perimeter, aren't they? Harry then should notice the blood protection, not around his core, but around the perimeter of his aura, or something like that, shouldn't he?
I'm also curious about the mixing of the AK energy (or perhaps a piece of Voldie?) into Harry's core. Why would Harry want all that 'hate and ill will' mixing in? Why would he allow something he acknowledges as 'not a good thing' to continue? Is that making Harry dark or, as you put it, 'non-Gryffindor'? I would think Harry would want to eliminate anything alien. And if he can cut off Dumbledore's ties, something intentionally crafted by a master, why can't he cut off the accidental remainder, which has not been intentionally crafted to be tied to Harry's core?Author's response
Let me explain a bit here. The wards aren't set to his inner most core. They aren't suppose to attatch to his core at all. When he moved from the center where he was in the third chapter to the edge of his perceptions, that is what you are calling his aura. The fact that the shield is drawing power from his magic is an accident. I'm not sure if you can see the Author response part of the review but if you can look at the last Alorkin post. I already stated that there would be no horcuxes, so no that is not a piece of voldies soul. It is an imprint of his magic though. Harry is leaving it there because that ill will and hate is being cleansed as it mixes with his magic. Dumbledore's attatchment is not connected to harry, it is connected to the shield which is failing slowly. It doesn't matter how strong a bridge might be if the ground it's anchored in is crumbling away.
And that left over power has nothing to do with harry's personality. It only affects his own power slightly, maybe making it a little harder to heal someone, and easier to hurt them.
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