Skip to main content

apparition - Why didn't Fawkes Apparate Harry and the others out of the chamber?


In the Chamber of Secrets Fawkes appears in the chamber through Apparition while Harry is fighting the Basilisk.



We also know he can side-along Apparate others with him and, at least with wizard Apparition, multi-person side along Apparition is possible .


Why then did Fawkes decide to fly not just one person, but Harry, Ron, Ginny and Prof. Lockhart collectively out of the chamber through the pipes, which is presumably riskier?


Ginny was weakened by Riddle, Harry was tired after fighting the Basilisk, Ron was tired of moving the rocks and Prof. Lockhart had his memory erased. Moreover, Ron might not even have been able to remove enough rocks to create the hole by the time Harry was done with the Basilisk and the diary. Apparating them out would have been faster and safer but he didn't.


Why didn't Fawkes Apparate out of the chamber along with Harry and others instead of flying? Is it due to limitations with phoenix Apparition?



Answer




Why then did Fawkes decide to fly not just one person, but all Harry, Ron, Ginny and Prof. Lochart out of the chamber through the pipes, which is presumably riskier?



I think this is a flawed assumption. Quoting from an answer to Why didn't Mr. Weasley use Side-Along Apparition to get to the Quidditch World Cup?:




It's not easy, Apparition, and when it's not done property it can lead to nasty complications...


You don't mess around with Apparition. There are plenty of adult wizards who don't bother with it.



In Deathly Hallows, we see a case where Apparition goes wrong, and nearly kills Ron. Both Side-Along Apparition and Apparition within Hogwarts grounds are the kinds of things we only see people like Dumbledore do. Based on this, I think it's plausible that Fawkes thought flying out was the safer bet, rather than attempting powerful and dangerous magic on a bunch of kids.


Plus, consider the fact that at least half the group doesn't even know about Apparition yet: Harry grew up with Muggles and Lockhart had just erased his own memory. These aren't the kinds of people you want to suddenly try to Apparate with; they could get scared and let go, or distract Fawkes enough to throw off the whole spell. Compare that with what actually happened in the book:



An extraordinary lightness seemed to spread through his whole body and the next second, in a rush of wings, they were flying upward through the pipe...The chill air was whipping through Harry's hair, and before he'd stopped enjoying the ride, it was over...



As you can see, this isn't a desperate struggle for weakened students to cling to a straining bird; instead, it's a quick, easy, and fun end to what had been a pretty terrible day so far.


Which brings up another point, maybe Fawkes just wanted to fly instead of Apparating. Keep in mind he's just recently resurrected, the last time Harry saw him he was like this:




a decrepit-looking bird that resembled a half-plucked turkey...its eyes were dull and, even as Harry watched, a couple more feathers fell out of its tail.



Now that Fawkes is back to full strength, in the prime of his re-youth, it seems likely that he'll enjoy any chance to spread his wings. Plus, he's Dumbledore's pet, so he's got to have a little bit of style.


TL;DR: Apparition is dangerous, especially with people who don't know what it is, and flying everyone out was a simple and fun alternative.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...