Well, there’s some precedent; Harry previously thinks
“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.
“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.
ETA2: To explain a little more completely: my idea is that the Remembrall lit up because Harry’s ‘dark side’ had forgotten (almost?) everything. Under Dementation it remembered at least that one bit of information. (Also, maybe, explaining how Harry remembered that scene when the neural patterns shouldn’t have even still existed; I would feel more confidence in this part if it didn’t include a description of how Voldemort appeared from outside.)
I would feel more confidence in this part if it didn’t include a description of how Voldemort appeared from outside.
Perhaps this was an experience of Riddle’s copy, in the moments it was being made, before running on the baby’s underdeveloped brain disrupted its functioning.
Magically, a mind can continue working even without sufficient brain power behind it, as when McGonagall turns into a cat (or even more so when Rita Skeeter turns into a beetle).
I know Voldemort is Tom Riddle. The scene as written (as Harry remembers it) seems to me to mean that the “strange word” was something baby Harry actually heard. Of course it might have been spoken “directly into his mind” via Legilemency or via Voldemort’s consciousness or horcrux being installed in Harry’s mind.
Either way, why would Harry think of it as a “strange word”? Why not just have him think that he heard the word “riddle”? It makes more sense that he heard a word he cannot recognize, namely “horcrux”, and so labels it strange.
See also: first few sentences of Chapter 1. If that is the same scene, it’s far more likely the word Horcrux was screamed by Voldemort (casting the Horcrux spell) than the world Riddle.
Chapters 43 and 45 don’t seem to me to imply that baby-Harry actually heard the “strange word”, only that for whatever reason Harry found himself thinking it. It was strange because he had (so far as he knew) no particular reason to be thinking that word.
I don’t have any very convincing theory for why he had that word in his brain at that point, though. Evidently he interprets it as a message from his subconscious that he should think of Dementors as a riddle, or something like that, but probably something more is meant to be going on.
Well, there’s some precedent; Harry previously thinks
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.
What does that have to do with Voldemort saying “riddle” to a baby, or with Harry thinking “riddle” was a strange word?
I’m clearly missing your point here...
I don’t think Voldemort said his own name, no.
ETA: You do know Voldemort is Tom Riddle, right?
ETA2: To explain a little more completely: my idea is that the Remembrall lit up because Harry’s ‘dark side’ had forgotten (almost?) everything. Under Dementation it remembered at least that one bit of information. (Also, maybe, explaining how Harry remembered that scene when the neural patterns shouldn’t have even still existed; I would feel more confidence in this part if it didn’t include a description of how Voldemort appeared from outside.)
Perhaps this was an experience of Riddle’s copy, in the moments it was being made, before running on the baby’s underdeveloped brain disrupted its functioning.
Magically, a mind can continue working even without sufficient brain power behind it, as when McGonagall turns into a cat (or even more so when Rita Skeeter turns into a beetle).
I know Voldemort is Tom Riddle. The scene as written (as Harry remembers it) seems to me to mean that the “strange word” was something baby Harry actually heard. Of course it might have been spoken “directly into his mind” via Legilemency or via Voldemort’s consciousness or horcrux being installed in Harry’s mind.
Either way, why would Harry think of it as a “strange word”? Why not just have him think that he heard the word “riddle”? It makes more sense that he heard a word he cannot recognize, namely “horcrux”, and so labels it strange.
See also: first few sentences of Chapter 1. If that is the same scene, it’s far more likely the word Horcrux was screamed by Voldemort (casting the Horcrux spell) than the world Riddle.
Chapters 43 and 45 don’t seem to me to imply that baby-Harry actually heard the “strange word”, only that for whatever reason Harry found himself thinking it. It was strange because he had (so far as he knew) no particular reason to be thinking that word.
I don’t have any very convincing theory for why he had that word in his brain at that point, though. Evidently he interprets it as a message from his subconscious that he should think of Dementors as a riddle, or something like that, but probably something more is meant to be going on.