Depends how you work it. Barty may have kept Moody just in case he lost the rest of the hair he'd gathered - a back up store.

In fact, I'd argue that Moody being kept alive means that you would be able to use the stuff, as long as it was gathered before death. I don't know for certain how badly treated Moody was, but I think it fair to assume that he wasn't in such good shape after being kept in the box for a year. And yet nobody noticed any ill effects on the polyjuiced body - it seems to work from when the sample was taken, not how the person is at the time

If it is important to the plot to be able to impersonate dead people, then go with it. Or find a way around the person being dead.


If I take a hair sample from the head of conjoined twins (meeting at the hip or something) do I turn into what one of the twins would have been, or the two of them? And if I take the hair from where they are conjoined, same question?

Alss, if a pregnant person took polyjuice, would the foetus also turn into a copy, or would they be unaffected, or would the impersonator just look pregnant?

 

Barty Jr. kept the real Moody alive to ask him questions and get info to keep up the ruse, more than anything else. As for whether or not it would work for a dead person, that's a tough one. As far as I know, you could spin it any which way and still conform to canon - there's no concrete evidence either way since most instances of Polyjuice have the hairs taken and used pretty much immediately.

I have wondered sort of the same thing though: If you used hair from before a major change or injury, would the resulting change reflect that change? Would hair from Moody when he had two legs and two eyes yield an undamaged clone body? Would hair from George Weasley before DH yield a clone with two ears? When taken to its logical conclusion, hairs from a baby Harry would yield a baby body when taken, no matter if adult Harry took it.

I guess you could say that there's a "shelf life" for the hairs. If not for canon examples of using hair from Muggles, I'd posit that the "magic" of the hairs dies out in a short period of time, but those examples kill that one.

TL;DR It's author fiat.

 

Continuing that, if you took a hair from a rotting corpse and used it in the potion would you look like it? Damn, that would be an interesting way to scare someone.

 

Not so. In book 4, Bartemius Crouch looks just like regular Moody does, even though the Moody in the chest is missing patches of hair and is malnourished etc. I guess it just gives you the genetics (visually) of the person in the potion.

 

You don't just look like the person, you physically *are* that person, which is a point that pissed me off about the movies, where Harry and Ron in CoS and everyone else in DH still had their original voices. Harry didn't need glasses anymore in CoS and his voice was that of Crabbe/Goyle, and yes, the thru-the-ringer Moody in DH was a bit confusing.

 

There's no canon evidence one way or the other for the second question. We know Barty Crouch Jr. kept Moody alive because he needed a "fresh" source, but there's nothing to say (or hint) as to whether a sample taken before the donor's death will still work.

 

Do freezing charms produce ice or do they just freeze the target in place? I've seen it go both ways in fanfiction and was wondering if there's an explanation in canon. Hell, I'm not even sure freezing charms are canon.

 

It's canon if you count Immobulus as a 'freezing' charm.

The freezing charm 'Glacius' originated because it was in the games, like 'flipendo.'

So it's pseudo-canon.

 

Slughorn claims to have used Freezing Charms to deactivate burglar alarms while he's on the run in HBP, so they are canon. That said, it doesn't say precisely what it does, so author fiat once more.

 

They just freeze the target in place. If it actually encased the target in ice it would probably be more of a transfiguration than a charm, but that's irrelevant.

 

Just how strong is Harry in comparison to the average magic user? And by that I mean is there any basis to the countless fics that make him out to be an uber wizard due mostly to the Dementor thing in third year? Because I always understood that as being more due to the fact that Harry was just really good at channelling happy memories rather than any Voldemort level magical ability.

 

I am sure the question has been answered very thoroughly somewhere.

But still the answer:

Harry is not really a uber or exceptionally strong wizard. He is normal, maybe a bit talented but no where near the level of Voldemort. As a matter of fact, I like to think that all those fanons with big core or thinks like that are crap.

Then who are strong?: People who are excellent academically, have a talented mind(and not a big magical core) and have lots of experience are somewhat strong. So don't ever imagine that if Harry realizes Dumble's manipulations, he would suddenly break a power barrier and become the light lord.

 

It´s an interesting question. While Harry isn´t as talented as his father´s group of friends, I think him more talented than generally accepted. Not because he´s amazing, but because people overestimate the ability of the rest of the population. When most of the Ministry has trouble with shield charms, Harry isn´t average.

I´d probably describe him as an average good wizard.

Also, as previously noted, we should remember that Harry´s knowledge and understanding of magic extends much further than we see.

 

Yeah I am a little iffy on canon but I think he whips out some new ones in DH. I was more curious seeing as the Patronus is seen as evidence of godly might in more than a few fics recently. However my understanding of that had more to do with a suspicion that seeing as Harry's life was for the most part fairly shitty he could get a better handle on happy memories because they stood out more.

 

I'm pretty sure that any properly cast Patronus, with the caster being under minimal influence from Dementors, will be able to drive away a large number of them.

 

^ Not true. Lupin states plainly that more Dementors there is, harder to drive away implying that average wizard can't drive away more than few.

Harry has very strong patronus no two bits about it.

 

It depends on whether Harry can actually be bothered to try or not. The first two years he did fuck all, but in 3rd year he actually focused and studied for the Patronus and as such can cast a powerful patronus.

Again, in 4th year he pisses about half the year, but the two times he does focus- learning the Accio spell and learning spells for the third task- he can cast very powerful spells. Other examples of him focusing and being awesome are 5th year focusing on learning for the DA, and at the end of 6th when he focuses and performs a side-along apparition on his first try.

The problem is that Harry has a really shitty attitude towards learning. He's willing to read books and enjoys that- before his first year he spent much of his time reading textbooks- but as soon as it becomes labelled "work" then he almost gives up.

 

...

Makes you wonder what a Ravenclaw Harry, or a proper Slytherin Harry would be like.

So few stories out there that explore this angle, in a non-Gary Stu manner.

 

I blame that attitude on Ron's influence and Harry's desperate need to have friends. The moment Harry befriended Ron, he would do nearly anything not to lose him.

If Ron wanted to play Exploding Snap and do homework later, Harry would play Exploding Snap and do homework later.

If Ron ditched extra reading, Harry would ditch extra reading.

And because it was just the first year of school, and the workload wasn't very demanding, the both of them could get away with it and not fail the year. Harry learned to put only the minimum effort because of Ron.

By the time Hermione joined them, Harry was closer to Ron, so her more diligent habits never had the chance to sink in.

Imagine if he had managed to cross the barrier at King's Cross Station on his own, boarded the train earlier, and befriended someone more studious, like Hermione, instead of meeting and befriending Ron before any other child...

I realize that it wasn't that kind of series, but I would have loved to see more about the "learning magic" side of that fictional universe. Harry's lack of effort in that area bothered me. That's why I love the kinds of stories you mentioned, especially when they try to elaborate on the magical system we saw and do it right.

And yeah, they keep either failing at not making Harry overpowered, getting supremely boring, or are practically discontinued once the author loses steam and direction, with so few, precious exceptions.