Right, that’s not yet obvious. At least not to me!
We do know that Quirrellmort is consistently surprised by the extent to which Harry thinks like a nice person instead of a Dark Lord. So the “alien power” could be Harry’s having more of a mind of his own than Quirrellmort expects of a Horcrux.
The “alien power” could equally be that Harry can cast a 2.0 Patronus, and in general has access to certain kinds of feelings and thoughts (and their associated magics?) that Quirrelmort doesn’t.
Or I suppose it could be that Dad’s rock is in fact the Philosopher’s Stone.
I would be surprised if Harry’s knowledge of Muggle science, as such, was his edge over Voldemort. This Voldemort Horcruxed a spacecraft.
And I would be surprised if Harry’s “rationality” in the general sense was his edge. Quirrellmort seems plenty clear-thinking.
On the other hand, you’re right that Harry is much more of an experimentalist than Quirrellmort seems to be. Voldemort in this fic seems to be brilliantly efficient rather than brilliantly creative.
So perhaps Harry can defeat Voldemort through the power of experimentation. Not so much Science as The Scientific Method.
On the other hand, you’re right that Harry is much more of an experimentalist than Quirrellmort seems to be. Voldemort in this fic seems to be brilliantly efficient rather than brilliantly creative.
On the other hand, this Voldemort Horcruxed a spacecraft.
Horcruxing a spacecraft doesn’t strike me as brilliantly creative; it seems like an obvious thing to do if you’re familiar enough with muggle society to have heard about space exploration. Before reading HP:MoR, I had definitely considered what I would do if I ever had to hide one or more magical artifacts where nobody would find them, and the obvious choices were things like
Space, if you can manage it.
An undisclosed portion of a deep-sea trench, a few meters into the mud.
The concrete in a major public works project, like a large dam.
The bottom of a major public outhouse of epic proportions and smelliness.
I think that canon Voldemort was just holding the idiot ball on this one.
Far better to settle for obscurity. Horcrux a non-precious stone and dump it in a random desert. Anything that you yourself couldn’t guess at (specifically) if your clone was your enemy.
Why a stone? Wouldn’t a grain of sand work? You can cover air, sea, desert, and with magic even space. I wonder if you could horcrux a molecule...
I’m not sure what the size constraints are. All else being equal smaller does seem better. I’m also not sure what difference horcruxing something makes to the physical objects. They become near impossible to destroy, right? You might end up with the most seriously baddass helium molecule out there.
I’m also not sure what difference horcruxing something makes to the physical objects. They become near impossible to destroy, right?
MoR seems to imply that, but I’m not so sure about canon. From what I can tell, canon says that the horcrux itself (i.e., the attached piece of soul, not the “host” object) cannot be destroyed except by damage to the host that cannot be repaired magically. This would suggest that you can damage the horcruxed objects with even mundane methods, and they simply remain horcruxed as long as they could be repaired by magic.
The objects are not simply immutable (Ginny could write in the journal). On the other hand, the locket refused to open itself until the end—although that may have been a property of the (presumably magical) locket before being horcruxed.
Physical indestructibility would have potential, though. You could make a space-elevator out of ordinary string. (Though perhaps simpler protective magic would suffice for that.) Or stabilize stuff like unstable molecules, particles and micro-blackholes.
There’s nothing explicit saying you can’t do that in either canon or MoR, but as far as we know one needs to intentionally split one’s soul (the only given way is killing someone), and also perform some (unspecified) terrible ritual. It also seems to require a wizard of some ability. Seems like a hard thing to compel.
Horcruxing a spacecraft doesn’t strike me as brilliantly creative; it seems like an obvious thing to do if you’re familiar enough with muggle society to have heard about space exploration.
Creative enough to make himself unkillable. It’ll do. There is no need to get too creative in these things. Find a powerful or exploitable magic. Exploit it. A lot. Don’t mess around being clever.
Mind you in my books the fact that neither Harry nor Voldemort have ‘won’ already pretty much granted each of them an honorary idiot ball. Given their resources (magic!) and intellect they really should have.
The thought occurs: you know what would be really great? If Voldemort keeps abreast of cutting-edge physics journals and invented partial Transfiguration first, and just never told anyone about it.
Even if he didn’t, the fact remains that Quirrell knows Harry was able to cut through the wall of Azkaban somehow. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he figured it out purely through deduction.
I think that Harry’s “alien power” is still unclear for the same reason that readers resisted identifying MoR!Quirrell as Voldemort. The author has so much fun writing Quirrellmort-the-clever that he has great difficulty writing Quirrellmort-the-flawed.
The only flaw in Quirrellmort that the author’s actually shown is Quirrellmort’s nonbelief in goodness. The backstory suggests that Voldemort had serious problems beyond mere cynicism. But there’s a big difference between “the story asserts” and “the story demonstrates”.
(I’m using “flawed” here in the sense of “make choices that work out badly”, not “make choices that would make us readers uncomfortable.” That is, “flawed” as relevant to “power”, not “flawed” as relevant to “approval”.)
Although it’s possible that Quirrellmort is deliberately meant to be much more clearheaded than Voldemort.
This doesn’t account for “the power the dark lord knows not” does it, though?
Right, that’s not yet obvious. At least not to me!
We do know that Quirrellmort is consistently surprised by the extent to which Harry thinks like a nice person instead of a Dark Lord. So the “alien power” could be Harry’s having more of a mind of his own than Quirrellmort expects of a Horcrux.
The “alien power” could equally be that Harry can cast a 2.0 Patronus, and in general has access to certain kinds of feelings and thoughts (and their associated magics?) that Quirrelmort doesn’t.
Or I suppose it could be that Dad’s rock is in fact the Philosopher’s Stone.
… The Power the Dark Lord knows not is Science. I thought that was obvious.
I would be surprised if Harry’s knowledge of Muggle science, as such, was his edge over Voldemort. This Voldemort Horcruxed a spacecraft.
And I would be surprised if Harry’s “rationality” in the general sense was his edge. Quirrellmort seems plenty clear-thinking.
On the other hand, you’re right that Harry is much more of an experimentalist than Quirrellmort seems to be. Voldemort in this fic seems to be brilliantly efficient rather than brilliantly creative.
So perhaps Harry can defeat Voldemort through the power of experimentation. Not so much Science as The Scientific Method.
On the other hand, this Voldemort Horcruxed a spacecraft.
Horcruxing a spacecraft doesn’t strike me as brilliantly creative; it seems like an obvious thing to do if you’re familiar enough with muggle society to have heard about space exploration. Before reading HP:MoR, I had definitely considered what I would do if I ever had to hide one or more magical artifacts where nobody would find them, and the obvious choices were things like
Space, if you can manage it.
An undisclosed portion of a deep-sea trench, a few meters into the mud.
The concrete in a major public works project, like a large dam.
The bottom of a major public outhouse of epic proportions and smelliness.
I think that canon Voldemort was just holding the idiot ball on this one.
I like most of the ideas but this one strikes me as only a small step up from horcruxing the most famous artifacts:
That sounds like the plot for a Nicholas Cage movie or a Matthew Reilly book.
Far better to settle for obscurity. Horcrux a non-precious stone and dump it in a random desert. Anything that you yourself couldn’t guess at (specifically) if your clone was your enemy.
Why a stone? Wouldn’t a grain of sand work? You can cover air, sea, desert, and with magic even space. I wonder if you could horcrux a molecule...
I’m not sure what the size constraints are. All else being equal smaller does seem better. I’m also not sure what difference horcruxing something makes to the physical objects. They become near impossible to destroy, right? You might end up with the most seriously baddass helium molecule out there.
MoR seems to imply that, but I’m not so sure about canon. From what I can tell, canon says that the horcrux itself (i.e., the attached piece of soul, not the “host” object) cannot be destroyed except by damage to the host that cannot be repaired magically. This would suggest that you can damage the horcruxed objects with even mundane methods, and they simply remain horcruxed as long as they could be repaired by magic.
The objects are not simply immutable (Ginny could write in the journal). On the other hand, the locket refused to open itself until the end—although that may have been a property of the (presumably magical) locket before being horcruxed.
Physical indestructibility would have potential, though. You could make a space-elevator out of ordinary string. (Though perhaps simpler protective magic would suffice for that.) Or stabilize stuff like unstable molecules, particles and micro-blackholes.
I guess that’s one use to make of your soul!
“Associated Contractors for Magic Enterprises: We put soul in our public works!”
Nah, you’d do it with someone else’s soul. There are plenty of random enemies with souls you can literally tear apart and use as building materials.
I would seem to be left with a bunch of enemies that I can never fully kill.
Perhaps use willing servants (who get the benefit of a horcrux). Use the POW/enemies as targets for the servants to split their souls on.
There’s nothing explicit saying you can’t do that in either canon or MoR, but as far as we know one needs to intentionally split one’s soul (the only given way is killing someone), and also perform some (unspecified) terrible ritual. It also seems to require a wizard of some ability. Seems like a hard thing to compel.
Creative enough to make himself unkillable. It’ll do. There is no need to get too creative in these things. Find a powerful or exploitable magic. Exploit it. A lot. Don’t mess around being clever.
Mind you in my books the fact that neither Harry nor Voldemort have ‘won’ already pretty much granted each of them an honorary idiot ball. Given their resources (magic!) and intellect they really should have.
Horcruxing a spacecraft isn’t nearly the same thing as being able to do magics thought impossible by figuring out the general principles of magic.
The thought occurs: you know what would be really great? If Voldemort keeps abreast of cutting-edge physics journals and invented partial Transfiguration first, and just never told anyone about it.
Even if he didn’t, the fact remains that Quirrell knows Harry was able to cut through the wall of Azkaban somehow. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he figured it out purely through deduction.
I think that Harry’s “alien power” is still unclear for the same reason that readers resisted identifying MoR!Quirrell as Voldemort. The author has so much fun writing Quirrellmort-the-clever that he has great difficulty writing Quirrellmort-the-flawed.
The only flaw in Quirrellmort that the author’s actually shown is Quirrellmort’s nonbelief in goodness. The backstory suggests that Voldemort had serious problems beyond mere cynicism. But there’s a big difference between “the story asserts” and “the story demonstrates”.
(I’m using “flawed” here in the sense of “make choices that work out badly”, not “make choices that would make us readers uncomfortable.” That is, “flawed” as relevant to “power”, not “flawed” as relevant to “approval”.)
Although it’s possible that Quirrellmort is deliberately meant to be much more clearheaded than Voldemort.