“Voldemort?” Harry whispered. It should have been funny, but it wasn’t. The name burned with a cold feeling, ruthlessness, diamond clarity, a hammer of pure titanium descending upon an anvil of yielding flesh. A chill swept over Harry even as he pronounced the word, and he resolved then and there to use safer terms like You-Know-Who.
I was thinking about that bit earlier today—is it just me, or is it about as wildly out of character as anything we’ve seen yet in this fic? Harry doesn’t seem like the type to believe that words have inherent power.
The reason for this event is that he has an image of Voldemort associated with the listed qualities sitting in his mind, and thinking “Voldemort” elicited a response.
In canon, Voldemort put a (magical) Taboo on the word “Voldemort” so that saying it summoned minions of his to your location. VoldeMoR seems a bit more creative than that, don’t you think?
That this is possible means that anybody who doesn’t want to be found this way should always use the same language as everybody else. If you call Voldie ‘Voldemort’ (or ‘Tom Riddle’ or even ‘Voldie’) when everybody else is calling him ‘You-Know-Who’ (or ‘He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’ or even ‘The Dark Lord’), then you’re holding the Idiot Ball. (And it doesn’t have to be the caster’s name; you shouldn’t use any unusual words, or you can be tracked by them.) Not that canon!Dumbledore was holding the Idiot Ball in books 1–6, because this was not possible then; Rowling hadn’t thought of it yet. But MoR!Dumbledore seems to be, unless MoR!Taboo works differently.
A good way to balance the Taboo spell might be this: It only works if the speaker knows about the Taboo (although this contradicts canon). Then you can get a nice dilemma: Do you tell people about the Taboo here at Hogwarts, where it’s safe so they can practice, but opening them up to the curse later; or do you keep silent, and hope that they aren’t surprised by that information later and disoriented thereafter.
Sure, but Harry has no clue that’s possible. What actual reason does he have to be afraid of the word? Not a reason we can come up with for why that fear is positive, but one internal to Harry’s mind.
I was thinking about that bit earlier today—is it just me, or is it about as wildly out of character as anything we’ve seen yet in this fic? Harry doesn’t seem like the type to believe that words have inherent power.
The reason for this event is that he has an image of Voldemort associated with the listed qualities sitting in his mind, and thinking “Voldemort” elicited a response.
Not for no reason, no.
In canon, Voldemort put a (magical) Taboo on the word “Voldemort” so that saying it summoned minions of his to your location. VoldeMoR seems a bit more creative than that, don’t you think?
That this is possible means that anybody who doesn’t want to be found this way should always use the same language as everybody else. If you call Voldie ‘Voldemort’ (or ‘Tom Riddle’ or even ‘Voldie’) when everybody else is calling him ‘You-Know-Who’ (or ‘He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’ or even ‘The Dark Lord’), then you’re holding the Idiot Ball. (And it doesn’t have to be the caster’s name; you shouldn’t use any unusual words, or you can be tracked by them.) Not that canon!Dumbledore was holding the Idiot Ball in books 1–6, because this was not possible then; Rowling hadn’t thought of it yet. But MoR!Dumbledore seems to be, unless MoR!Taboo works differently.
A good way to balance the Taboo spell might be this: It only works if the speaker knows about the Taboo (although this contradicts canon). Then you can get a nice dilemma: Do you tell people about the Taboo here at Hogwarts, where it’s safe so they can practice, but opening them up to the curse later; or do you keep silent, and hope that they aren’t surprised by that information later and disoriented thereafter.
Sure, but Harry has no clue that’s possible. What actual reason does he have to be afraid of the word? Not a reason we can come up with for why that fear is positive, but one internal to Harry’s mind.
...I was suggesting that Voldemort cast a “be afraid, be very afraid” jinx triggered by his name.