The Rite to...ah... Rembody? Voldemort and Various Reactions To It.

[teceler]

So, grabbing that information about Doholov and talking about his reaction to the rite made me start thinking about it again. And how it differs from canon, and how that's important, and such. And also how everyone reacted.

Apparently my brain is in the mood for this kind of thing today.

I'm working more off of Lupin's report on the Pensieve memory here than Harry's report to the ISS, because it's more detailed.

So: They used Selwyn's blood as 'blood of the enemy', which makes sense, as Voldemort's 'death' was his plot, so Voldemort would probably consider him sufficiently Important. (And is naturally, much preferable to him capturing one of the Order for that purpose). However (unless I'm totally misremembering, I don't have the books handy), canonically, using Harry for that had the effect of negating Harry's protection, at least partially. So Harry may still have that (depending on whether he had it in the first place, which is a question of how exactly the difference in Voldemort's understanding of the prophecy changed events there. I don't think we have a solid answer on this?)

The bone is, I think, the only element that matches canon precisely. The Order's discussion on that was interesting--apparently that could be changed, too. (In which case, I'm actually a little surprised that Voldemort didn't go dig up a more Important (I should clarify that this is his definition of important, as far as I grasp it) ancestor to use. Maybe it's stronger with a direct link?

And then we have the substitution of Bella for Pettigrew, and the use of a finger instead of a whole hand. I'm fairly certain we're not going to be seeing more parallels based on that replacement (it seems to be more a matter of who was available and, well, Bella), though the finger/hand thing is interesting.

And...okay, again, I don't have the books in frount of me, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall there only being three components in canon? (right, having checked the wikis, yeah, apparently there were only three components with phrases in canon.) So... any ideas on why they included that and how it affected the ritual? (Also: !!!)

Anyway. Then we've got Selwyn's reaction, which is actually an interesting consideration with how this affected people.

As for reactions: Bellatrix, naturally, was excited.. Lucius seems more worried about his own security (and, in context of later revelations, this seems to indicate he was frightened. Antonin Doholov we've already discussed/are discussing. Raz apparently looked somewhat shaken. I think that's everyone we heard from/about, if I missed someone, please say, especially since I seem to be missing at least a few of the more key figures.

Comments

[kiya]

Harry's protection in canon came about from Lily shielding him from the AK, so I'm pretty sure he doesn't have it. (He also doesn't have the other effects of a link with V, such as being a Parseltongue or seeing through Nagini's eyes (IIRC); this also means that V can't send him illusory "prophetic" dreams to lure him into stuff.)

[adeliej]

Yeah, the Alternity players added the killing of Prince Charles. Which was a bit of a revelation, particularly in the context of undoing the wards. There was a discussion around the time the Muggle wards were put up around Ireland, when the Order was trying to figure out strategies they could use to remove the wards. Someone said that to undo a dark ritual like that, you needed to do the reverse, which meant (in this case) getting Seamus or someone closely related to him to be involved.

Lupin said in the notes from the meeting: Dora broke in and asked whether Minerva was absolutely certain that there was NO way to undo the rite that didn't require someone's death. Minerva sighed heavily and said that no, she wasn't absolutely certain, she wasn't an expert on the Dark Arts or Our Lords' rituals and the mysteries surrounding them. That philosophically it is believed generally that one can always counter Dark with Light, and that in doing so a death would obviously not be required. But to counter death with life, a number of the pieces would be needed alive. And in the case of the British Royal Family... see above about 'Freedom Day.'

But Prince William is alive! So it might be possible to undo the wards if the Order can get him, or one of his relatives (if there are more alive) out of imprisonment.
(I'm guessing Prince William was there so that they could ensure Charles wouldn't resist being killed, as that sounded like an important element of the ritual.)

With the finger rather than hand given by Bella, maybe having the "heart of the conquered, taken by right" meant that the sacrifice by one of his followers didn't need to be as great?

(ETA details of discussion I couldn't find earlier.)

[contrariwise]

Didn't Bella cut off her ring finger, too? Telling, that.

[wintercreek]

Let us also note that it's Bellatrix's ring finger she cut off for Voldemort; at one time it was believed that the vein in the left ring finger ran directly to the heart (Citation), so Bellatrix might have been getting as close as she could to literally giving Voldemort her heart. Padma doesn't say which ring finger, but the level of B's devotion suggests left ring finger to me!