If you want to figure out the James’ Rock thing yourself, you should probably stop reading now.
I read this in ch58
Luckily—well, not luckily, luck had nothing to do with it—conscientiously, Harry had practiced Transfiguration for an extra hour every day, to the point where he was ahead of even Hermione in that one class; he’d practiced partial Transfiguration to the point where his thoughts had begun taking the true universe for granted, so that it required only slightly more effort to keep its timeless quantum nature in mind, even as he kept a firm mental separation between the concept of Form and the concept of substance.
And the problem with that art having become so routine...
...was that Harry could think about other things while he was doing it.
and (putting my contrarian nature to good use) thought, the other reason he was good at it was, he concentrated on maintaining his transfigured ring stone all the time. Then I realized that’s all thanks to Dumbledore and I started to wonder if it was intentional. In search of clues I reread ch17, specifically the part where Harry got the rock, and then went on to read the Lily’s potion book part because it seemed related. That’s when I realized I fell for some deliberate obfuscation, as I came away with the impression that Lily was asking questions and mysteriously receiving answers in her potion book. Realizing it was not the case, most of the rest was seen in a flash.
Just as Dumbledore challenged Lily with strange potion-related questions in order to get her to do extra research, possibly directing her to books and topics where she learned something extra about stuff, thus becoming exceptional at potions (which is canon fact), so too did he present Harry with a challenge, expecting him to find the obvious solution of maintained transfiguration in order to follow the advice of a wise old wizard.
Why would he do that? In Ch28 McGonagall seems to think this feat of Dumbledore impressive:
He had used Transfiguration in combat and he was still alive.
Now, how would you do this? Why, by having the ability to concentrate on transfiguration while paying attention to something else (such as the back and forth of a duel). Sounds familiar? To do this, being able to concentrate on transfiguration without conscious attention is indispensable. Dumbledore simply started building up his pet hero early, since, you understand,
Transfiguration must be learned and practiced at a young age in order to maximize your adult ability.
(McGonagall, Ch15)
I mention all this now because Ch67 gave me the impression it will come to light soon. Could be wrong about that.
If there is a training effect in increasing magical strength, and or improving concentration, keeping the rock transfigured works that way too, without being Transfiguration specific.
Quirrel’s armies help too—would normal classroom activity exhaust magic that much?
Harry could try a controlled experiment over the Easter holiday if he thinks about it.
With McGonagall’s permission, ask his classmates to keep a loop of cord transfigured into an unobtrusive platinum toe ring (or more than one) over the holiday when they’re not otherwise allowed to use magic. Then compare deltas in transfiguration scores on the next test between those who did & didn’t attempt it.
Is Harry getting letters back from his parents? He doesn’t yet seem to be thinking about measuring magical strength, but a tool to compare would permit some kind of scale—if it could use embodied magic in magic items as markers. That could argue for faster access to later year charms.
Similarly of pre-electronic tech that may be useful, that his parents may remember.
(Slide rules, Curta calcs, Microfiche & hand held readers, …)
In canon, the detection spells can’t even tell the difference between Dobby’s use of magic and Harry’s. Telling the difference between a kid’s magic and his parents’ would appear to be even harder. For the wizarding kids, if their use of magic can’t be told apart from their parents, there would be no way to sanction them. At that point the detection spells are only effective for muggle-borns. I’m not aware of any in-canon detection of children living with magical parents. (This would also let the wizarding families train their kids even when not at school, as a convenient way to bolster their status).
You do have to bear in mind that Dumbledore is quite crazy (in a purposeful sort of way). It wouldn’t surprise me if he simply found a rock that James Potter had kicked around for a while, and on that basis claimed it was “James’s Favorite Rock”. Then the rock became a way to force Harry to improve his Transfiguration skills in a huge way.
Also, as rdb notes below, that kind of concentration simply must have bleed over into other types of magic.
Good, I’m probably no crazier then them, than. Did they also guess Quirrellmort’s endgame plans before the hiatus? (Well, in retrospect, it was guessable way before that.)
If you want to figure out the James’ Rock thing yourself, you should probably stop reading now.
I read this in ch58
and (putting my contrarian nature to good use) thought, the other reason he was good at it was, he concentrated on maintaining his transfigured ring stone all the time. Then I realized that’s all thanks to Dumbledore and I started to wonder if it was intentional. In search of clues I reread ch17, specifically the part where Harry got the rock, and then went on to read the Lily’s potion book part because it seemed related. That’s when I realized I fell for some deliberate obfuscation, as I came away with the impression that Lily was asking questions and mysteriously receiving answers in her potion book. Realizing it was not the case, most of the rest was seen in a flash.
Just as Dumbledore challenged Lily with strange potion-related questions in order to get her to do extra research, possibly directing her to books and topics where she learned something extra about stuff, thus becoming exceptional at potions (which is canon fact), so too did he present Harry with a challenge, expecting him to find the obvious solution of maintained transfiguration in order to follow the advice of a wise old wizard.
Why would he do that? In Ch28 McGonagall seems to think this feat of Dumbledore impressive:
Now, how would you do this? Why, by having the ability to concentrate on transfiguration while paying attention to something else (such as the back and forth of a duel). Sounds familiar? To do this, being able to concentrate on transfiguration without conscious attention is indispensable. Dumbledore simply started building up his pet hero early, since, you understand,
(McGonagall, Ch15)
I mention all this now because Ch67 gave me the impression it will come to light soon. Could be wrong about that.
If there is a training effect in increasing magical strength, and or improving concentration, keeping the rock transfigured works that way too, without being Transfiguration specific. Quirrel’s armies help too—would normal classroom activity exhaust magic that much?
Harry could try a controlled experiment over the Easter holiday if he thinks about it. With McGonagall’s permission, ask his classmates to keep a loop of cord transfigured into an unobtrusive platinum toe ring (or more than one) over the holiday when they’re not otherwise allowed to use magic. Then compare deltas in transfiguration scores on the next test between those who did & didn’t attempt it.
Is Harry getting letters back from his parents? He doesn’t yet seem to be thinking about measuring magical strength, but a tool to compare would permit some kind of scale—if it could use embodied magic in magic items as markers. That could argue for faster access to later year charms. Similarly of pre-electronic tech that may be useful, that his parents may remember. (Slide rules, Curta calcs, Microfiche & hand held readers, …)
The toe ring test probably wouldn’t fly, the Ministry detects underage magic outside of the vicinity of Hogwarts and responds harshly.
In canon, the detection spells can’t even tell the difference between Dobby’s use of magic and Harry’s. Telling the difference between a kid’s magic and his parents’ would appear to be even harder. For the wizarding kids, if their use of magic can’t be told apart from their parents, there would be no way to sanction them. At that point the detection spells are only effective for muggle-borns. I’m not aware of any in-canon detection of children living with magical parents. (This would also let the wizarding families train their kids even when not at school, as a convenient way to bolster their status).
I’m pretty sure that I read somewhere that Wizarding families themselves are expected to keep an eye on their children when at home.
Plausible, but that can’t be the only reason for the rock; too big a deal was made of it at the time.
You do have to bear in mind that Dumbledore is quite crazy (in a purposeful sort of way). It wouldn’t surprise me if he simply found a rock that James Potter had kicked around for a while, and on that basis claimed it was “James’s Favorite Rock”. Then the rock became a way to force Harry to improve his Transfiguration skills in a huge way.
Also, as rdb notes below, that kind of concentration simply must have bleed over into other types of magic.
Yes, several people I know in-person had the same take-away from the rock transfiguration exercise when it was first introduced.
Good, I’m probably no crazier then them, than. Did they also guess Quirrellmort’s endgame plans before the hiatus? (Well, in retrospect, it was guessable way before that.)