I’m not sure how my mind dug this up, but way back in Chapter 17, Harry visits Dumbledore’s office and is overloaded with bizarreness: Dumbledore sets fire to a chicken, he gives him his father’s rock, he gives him his mother’s potions textbook which contains a terrible secret… but one of these things is not like the others. Dumbledore gave Harry his father’s rock, with instructions that Harry satisfied by creating a magical ring and wearing it at all times.
Blur out all the hilarious details for a minute, and that scene is: Dumbledore made Harry create a magical ring and wear it at all times, and distracted him so well that he never thought about what the ring does. My hypothesis is that some aspect of magic is governed by an XP-like mechanic, and that sustained transfiguration (especially of large masses) is an unusually effective way of gaining magical power. Dumbledore wants Harry to exploit this, but he considers it a major secret, so he substituted a nonsensical explanation and prepared a collection of very flashy distractions to keep it from being questioned. He might’ve even left the real explanation in his pensieve, so that he wouldn’t have to lie. Read in this light, the scene makes a whole lot more sense. It explains Harry’s anomalous magical power. It explains Dumbledore’s anomalous magical power.
It is also the only way Dumbledore could truly mark someone as an equal.
The potions textbook is not a hilarious detail. I’m almost done catching up on all of the MoR discussion on LW, and it seems consensus among people who have thought about it is that gur cbgvbaf grkgobbx fubjf Qhzoyrqber vagresrevat obgu va Yvyl’f eryngvbafuvc jvgu Fancr naq va Yvyl’f perngvba bs gur cbgvba fur tvirf Crghavn.
“Today, children,” began the calm professional voice of the Transfiguration Professor, just as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened that week, “we shall learn how much effort it takes to sustain a Transfiguration, and why, at your age, you should not even try.”
“Um,” Harry said. “Actually I was thinking that once I know how, I could Transfigure the rock into a ring and wear it on my finger. If you could teach me how to sustain a Transfiguration—”
“It is good that you asked me first,” Professor McGonagall said, her face growing a bit stern. “If you lost control of the Transfiguration the reversal would cut off your finger and probably rip your hand in half. And at your age, even a ring is too large a target for you to sustain indefinitely without it being a serious drain on your magic. But I can have a ring forged for you with a setting for a jewel, a small jewel, in contact with your skin, and you can practice sustaining a safe subject, like a marshmallow. When you have kept it up successfully, even in your sleep, for a full month, I will allow you to Transfigure, ah, your father’s rock...” Professor McGonagall’s voice trailed off.
So, if it is a training method, it’s one McGonagall knows about and in fact specifically suggested.
I’m not sure how my mind dug this up, but way back in Chapter 17, Harry visits Dumbledore’s office and is overloaded with bizarreness: Dumbledore sets fire to a chicken, he gives him his father’s rock, he gives him his mother’s potions textbook which contains a terrible secret… but one of these things is not like the others. Dumbledore gave Harry his father’s rock, with instructions that Harry satisfied by creating a magical ring and wearing it at all times.
Blur out all the hilarious details for a minute, and that scene is: Dumbledore made Harry create a magical ring and wear it at all times, and distracted him so well that he never thought about what the ring does. My hypothesis is that some aspect of magic is governed by an XP-like mechanic, and that sustained transfiguration (especially of large masses) is an unusually effective way of gaining magical power. Dumbledore wants Harry to exploit this, but he considers it a major secret, so he substituted a nonsensical explanation and prepared a collection of very flashy distractions to keep it from being questioned. He might’ve even left the real explanation in his pensieve, so that he wouldn’t have to lie. Read in this light, the scene makes a whole lot more sense. It explains Harry’s anomalous magical power. It explains Dumbledore’s anomalous magical power.
It is also the only way Dumbledore could truly mark someone as an equal.
The potions textbook is not a hilarious detail. I’m almost done catching up on all of the MoR discussion on LW, and it seems consensus among people who have thought about it is that gur cbgvbaf grkgobbx fubjf Qhzoyrqber vagresrevat obgu va Yvyl’f eryngvbafuvc jvgu Fancr naq va Yvyl’f perngvba bs gur cbgvba fur tvirf Crghavn.
What anomalous magical power?
So, if it is a training method, it’s one McGonagall knows about and in fact specifically suggested.