I think it depends on whoever the Map is tracking having their own "person," which in this case means body, I guess. Voldemort's way of possession and the fact that his head was protruding from the back of Quirrell's, while grotesque, may not have been enough to establish him on the Map, since he was still, for the most part, just manipulating Quirrell. He was still basically Wraithmort, but with enough strength to force an impression of his face out of the back of a skull that contained a mind he was sharing with someone else.

Wormtail, however, even as an animal, had his own person. I also like the idea that once it was given to Harry, and Wormtail no longer had easy access to it or knew where it was/who had it, he could no longer hide himself.

 

That doesn't make sense. Wormtail had easier access to the Map after it was given to Harry because he was in the same Dorm room. Wormtail had less access to the Map while the twins had it.

 

Well, he lived with the twins over summer, so he might have seen them trying to figure out how to use it, as was mentioned earlier. And the twins gave Harry the Map in secret, so unless Harry told Ron he had it in Wormtail's presence, there'd be no way for Wormtail to know it was in Harry's possession, and therefore no way for him to manipulate or fool it.

It can make sense, you're just thinking too narrowly. It's not necessarily true that it would have been easier to access the Map in Harry's dorm when Pettigrew lived in the same house as the Twins, who'd had it for longer at that point, for two summers before Harry ever touched it.

He might have had easier access to it when Harry had it, but we can't know for sure, so it's weird to say my statement makes no sense at all. It might be false, but that doesn't make it nonsensical unless you apply your own assumptions to it, as you clearly have.

 

Could it be Bertha Jorkin's death that was used to create the Horcrux within Nagini?

 

I'm pretty sure that's what was agreed upon, when I posed the question last week sometime.

 

Hmmm... yeah, I can't remember whether or not Wormtail ever sees Harry with the Map. I'd assumed so, but I can't remember accurately.


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Not about the fanfiction itself, but how long has FFnet had the "hide bio" to the right of the author name to hide the bullshit so many people have? I've never noticed it before.

 

I might be mistaken but I think it's always been there, or at least it's been there for as long as I've been using the site.

 

It's actually been there for a couple of years. I think that it was added a little while after I first stumbled on to the site and began reading from it. Then again I could be wrong since it's been so many years since then.

 

Is Harry able to survive the killing curse at the end of Deathly Hallows because it's Voldemort that kills him or does it have something to do with his willingness to sacrifice himself? Would anyone hitting him with Avada Kedavra had the same outcome?

 

From JKR's old site:

 

Could this be the "Power the Dark Lord knows not"?

 

Nah, I think this is it.

 

I've always thought it was a little weird that Harry was so adamant about Stan Shunpike not being a Death Eater. So far as I remember Harry had no actual, personal knowledge of Shunpike's alleged Death Eater association and just sort of assumed that Shunpike was just mouthing off (I want to say to impress a girl at a pub or something?). But to me it always seemed like a bit of a logical leap to just flat out assume that Stan was harmless (conductor of the Knight Bus, to me, seems like a perfectly good cover for a Death Eater) and that the Ministry arresting Shunpike was just some PR maneuver.

Aside from the fact that it becomes clear in Deathly Hallows that Stan is not a Death Eater (though he was under the imperius curse to fight for them over Little Whinging) was there anything in Half-Blood Prince that could bolster Harry's belief that Stan was innocent?

 

We know Legilimancy works by eye contact but the question is what kind of eye contact? Is Meeting of eyes necessery? or looking tough a binocular would work?

 

Eye contact isn't always needed for Legilimency, it just makes it easier.

Snape says "Time and space matter in magic, Potter. Eye contact is often essential to Legilimency."

So while direct eye contact isn't needed, it would be harder to perform looking through binoculars from 100 metres away than it would be if you were standing in front of them.

 

I just really think Harry was frustrated with the Ministry's incompetence. You're correct about there being no proof, but Harry was (or thought he was) a pretty good judge of character. Plus, because of Sirius, the Ministry throwing people in Azkaban without a trial to cover their asses politically is probably a bit of a berserk button for him.

 

It really doesn't help that in the conversation with Scrimgeour the Minister name drops Umbridge as if that's a good thing — and thinking that Harry would be okay with that under any situation.

Still, there's something about the Stan Shunpike thing that bugs me. Perhaps it's just one of those missed opportunities. If anything it's the thought that out of anyone out there Stan Shunpike makes more sense (to me) as a Death Eater than, for instance, Lucius Malfoy. What reason does a man like Malfoy have to overthrow the current system? He's already at the top (this might not necessarily have been true in the 70s when Voldemort's rise started but I think there's enough in the books to infer that the Malfoys and especially the Blacks held significant political and economic power at the time). But Stan Shunpike is a working class bloke; if anyone is going to either (1) interact with muggleborns on a daily basis and (2) feel some sort of competitive pressure with muggleborns it's going to be Stan.

I also think it would be a great way to show how the Death Eaters are (a) everywhere and legion; and (b) not necessarily mustache-twirling villains and psychopaths. Someone in Stan's position may very well have legitimate grievances about the way the current political and economic reality treats someone in his position. The fact that the guy is someone who has also treated Harry pretty decently in the past is just a nice punch to the gut and could cause friction between Harry and his friends. Harry already knows that a traitor among his father's friends turned Harry into an orphan. Imagine if not only does he pull away from his friends because he wants to keep them safe but also because a nagging voice in the back of his head keeps telling him that one of them might be a spy.

As an aside, I think one of the clever things that JK did was basically make many of the "good" guys basically buy into the blood purity concept. For instance, the squib accountant. It adds a nice bit of complexity that I just wish JK had taken a bit further.

But then again, there's a reason why we all read and/or write fanfiction.

 

I sometimes wonder whatever this (and other things that I liked, for example assimilation of Hermione by magical society) was done on purpose or is it case of "ops, I failed to think about it" that turned out right.

 

When writing, what is your stance on listening to music. For example, Rothfuss believes it to be a distraction while writing. Do you share his opinion or do you find listening to music stimulates the creative juices or have some other beneficial effect?

 

Depends if it has lyrics or not. Music with lyrics I find distracting more often than not, except for certain bands/types of music.