This is very similar to a solution I published earlier, except that when I first proposed it, I had forgotten that Harry hadn’t got his wand at that point in time (but why hasn’t he been disarmed now?).
The one plausible power Harry has is transfiguration, seeing as there are no dementors nearby, it seems unlikely that the patronus 2 can be used as an offensive weapon against anything apart from dementors.
Harry should transfigure some exotic matter with density far in excess of normal matter, and use it to slice through all the death eaters and Voldiemort. Since it has been established that you can transfigure against tension, he doesn’t even need to move his hand to wield this weapon: the power of transfiguration can move it around in a circle.
I’m guessing this exotic matter will be silver in colour:
Beneath the moonlight glints a tiny fragment of silver, a fraction of a line…
(black robes, falling)
…blood spills out in litres, and someone screams a word.
As for what type of exotic matter, tau particles, top and bottom quarks are all extremely unstable. This might not matter, because if transfigured into parts of particles, perhaps they would be stable, in the same way that free neutrons are not stable but nuclei are, although a google search seemed to indicate that muonic atoms are stable iff they are electron degenerate. But for that matter, I don’t even know if stability applies to objects that are being transfigured.
A second concern is the hypothosis that strange matter is more stable than normal matter, and thus a stranglet would consume the earth.
I don’t know if this hypothosis was around in 1992, or whether Harry would have heard of it. If this does occur to him, then it might block the use of strange quarks. But I presume charm quarks are ok.
I think transfigureation is silent, and does not involve wand movements, rather the wand has to be kept stationary and in contact with the object, so it will not warn the death eaters and give them a chance to strike.
The material to be transfigured could be part of the wand, or an outer layer of Harry’s skin.
What are the other possibilities?
Someone else suggested that partial transfigureation could be used as a cutting weapon. I imagine it would be stopped by sheilds, but I suppose its possible.
Transfigured normal matter, including carbon nanotubes, would not be able to penetrate sheilds (in fact, carbon nanotubes have low sheer strength, so they would make very poor cutting implements).
What else is silver? The patronus can be willed to take the form of a sphere, so presumably it could be willed to take the form of a blade. But something powered by life should not be able to kill, even if it could penetrate sheilds. The dark patronus? Fulled by the desire to stop the death of those you love by killing those you hate?
Unicorn’s blood? Hermoine the alicorn princess’s blood? Doesn’t seem like an effective weapon.
Could an extremely thin steel wire penetrate matter by partially transfigureing its way through, and penetrate shields by going underground, and coming up through the feet? Can sheilds defend against attacks from below, or do they cut off at the ground?
EDIT: The exotic matter weapon will be very small so perhaps no death eater will see it. To buy time to think, or for the transfigureation to work, Harry might need to start giving Voldie useful information, such as the patronus, which he can truthfully point out poses no threat to Voldie, because Voldie can’t cast patronus v.1. Awaking Hermione, or causing a resonance cascade with Voldie could cause a distraction. Possibly Harry could come back from one hour in the future to help the battle, although we now have a situation where Harry survives, but only if he survives, and I’m not sure about how causial loops are supposed to work. For that matter, future surviving Harry could have brought the cavalry back in time with him, if this wasn’t explicitly forbidden.
The patronus can be willed to take the form of a sphere
It can? I don’t remember that. But if true, can it be willed to take the form of a sphere around Harry, thereby providing a perfect anti-Killing Curse shield?
The patronus is willed to take the form of a sphere when Harry leads the Aurors to rescue Draco. And, yes, it might protect from AKs and from Voldie, but the Death Eaters have been instructed to attack Harry with a wide variety of curses.
He is. But assuming that he is super-prepared, beyond the abilities and equipment we’ve seen or been given reason to postulate, results in an unsolvable puzzle. Someone as intelligent, experienced, prepared and resourceful as Voldemort could theoretically have a counter for anything we can come up with.
We know or can reasonably assume that he obtained a gun specifically as a solution to the problem of not being able to injure or kill Harry with magic. We don’t have any reason to believe that he has prepared further, backup solutions to that specific problem.
There’s one thing for which it’s genuinely impossible for V to have a counter: the realization that killing Harry is not in his interests. Speaking in Parseltongue, bound by the Vow, Harry is uniquely prepared to make that case—assuming it’s true.
Well, that’s the sticking point. Parseltongue and the Vow prove that Harry is honest. They don’t prove that he’s right, and Voldemort can simply choose to dismiss any of Harry’s arguments as insufficient (which isn’t that hard, given that the risk of keeping him alive is the end of the world, and any risk incurred by killing him is probably going to be less bad).
This is very similar to a solution I published earlier, except that when I first proposed it, I had forgotten that Harry hadn’t got his wand at that point in time (but why hasn’t he been disarmed now?).
The one plausible power Harry has is transfiguration, seeing as there are no dementors nearby, it seems unlikely that the patronus 2 can be used as an offensive weapon against anything apart from dementors.
Harry should transfigure some exotic matter with density far in excess of normal matter, and use it to slice through all the death eaters and Voldiemort. Since it has been established that you can transfigure against tension, he doesn’t even need to move his hand to wield this weapon: the power of transfiguration can move it around in a circle.
I’m guessing this exotic matter will be silver in colour:
As for what type of exotic matter, tau particles, top and bottom quarks are all extremely unstable. This might not matter, because if transfigured into parts of particles, perhaps they would be stable, in the same way that free neutrons are not stable but nuclei are, although a google search seemed to indicate that muonic atoms are stable iff they are electron degenerate. But for that matter, I don’t even know if stability applies to objects that are being transfigured.
A second concern is the hypothosis that strange matter is more stable than normal matter, and thus a stranglet would consume the earth. I don’t know if this hypothosis was around in 1992, or whether Harry would have heard of it. If this does occur to him, then it might block the use of strange quarks. But I presume charm quarks are ok.
I think transfigureation is silent, and does not involve wand movements, rather the wand has to be kept stationary and in contact with the object, so it will not warn the death eaters and give them a chance to strike. The material to be transfigured could be part of the wand, or an outer layer of Harry’s skin.
What are the other possibilities?
Someone else suggested that partial transfigureation could be used as a cutting weapon. I imagine it would be stopped by sheilds, but I suppose its possible.
Transfigured normal matter, including carbon nanotubes, would not be able to penetrate sheilds (in fact, carbon nanotubes have low sheer strength, so they would make very poor cutting implements).
What else is silver? The patronus can be willed to take the form of a sphere, so presumably it could be willed to take the form of a blade. But something powered by life should not be able to kill, even if it could penetrate sheilds. The dark patronus? Fulled by the desire to stop the death of those you love by killing those you hate?
Unicorn’s blood? Hermoine the alicorn princess’s blood? Doesn’t seem like an effective weapon.
Could an extremely thin steel wire penetrate matter by partially transfigureing its way through, and penetrate shields by going underground, and coming up through the feet? Can sheilds defend against attacks from below, or do they cut off at the ground?
EDIT: The exotic matter weapon will be very small so perhaps no death eater will see it. To buy time to think, or for the transfigureation to work, Harry might need to start giving Voldie useful information, such as the patronus, which he can truthfully point out poses no threat to Voldie, because Voldie can’t cast patronus v.1. Awaking Hermione, or causing a resonance cascade with Voldie could cause a distraction. Possibly Harry could come back from one hour in the future to help the battle, although we now have a situation where Harry survives, but only if he survives, and I’m not sure about how causial loops are supposed to work. For that matter, future surviving Harry could have brought the cavalry back in time with him, if this wasn’t explicitly forbidden.
EDIT 2: Magnetic monoples might be the best shot, although this would be thin enough to be invisible, not silver. http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/48630634d2591
Weapon: 37 ants.
It can? I don’t remember that. But if true, can it be willed to take the form of a sphere around Harry, thereby providing a perfect anti-Killing Curse shield?
The patronus is willed to take the form of a sphere when Harry leads the Aurors to rescue Draco. And, yes, it might protect from AKs and from Voldie, but the Death Eaters have been instructed to attack Harry with a wide variety of curses.
Not going to stop Fiendfyre, or any of a hundred other things Voldy can do to kill him.
No, the resonance effect will take care of that.
Voldemort’s only viable means of killing him immediately and directly is the gun.
That is very unlikely.
Why?
He’s a competent antagonist.
He is. But assuming that he is super-prepared, beyond the abilities and equipment we’ve seen or been given reason to postulate, results in an unsolvable puzzle. Someone as intelligent, experienced, prepared and resourceful as Voldemort could theoretically have a counter for anything we can come up with.
We know or can reasonably assume that he obtained a gun specifically as a solution to the problem of not being able to injure or kill Harry with magic. We don’t have any reason to believe that he has prepared further, backup solutions to that specific problem.
There’s one thing for which it’s genuinely impossible for V to have a counter: the realization that killing Harry is not in his interests. Speaking in Parseltongue, bound by the Vow, Harry is uniquely prepared to make that case—assuming it’s true.
Well, that’s the sticking point. Parseltongue and the Vow prove that Harry is honest. They don’t prove that he’s right, and Voldemort can simply choose to dismiss any of Harry’s arguments as insufficient (which isn’t that hard, given that the risk of keeping him alive is the end of the world, and any risk incurred by killing him is probably going to be less bad).
http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/lsp/harry_potter_and_the_methods_of_rationality/c22c
Or having a Death Eater do it for him.