Skip to main content

magical theory - Infinite food source via self-cannibalism in Harry Potter



In the Harry Potter universe, one limitation of magic is the ability to generate food from nothing, being one of the five exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration. There are notably special cases noted at the Harry Potter Wikia page, mainly:



It should be noted that while food cannot be outright created from nothing, it can be multiplied if one already has some food to multiply, it can be enlarged or the food can be summoned if one knows the approximate location and is fairly sure the food will still be there. It should also be noted that while food cannot be conjured, consumable liquids such as sauces and potable water can be.



Also, it seems that if one has significant capabilities as a healer, all flesh wounds that aren't the result of a curse or jinx, can be repaired via incantations and no additional tonics, potions, ointments, etc.


Assuming we aren't concerned with diseases resulting from cannibalism, such as kuru, is there anything, beyond a lack of pain tolerance, that would stop a wizard from just periodically lopping off his leg, healing it back; and cooking, cloning, and deliciously seasoning (due to free ability to summon a nice white wine sauce) one's own lower leg? Maybe transfigure some of it into a nice chianti and fava beans.



Or maybe, if a pair of wizards worked in coordination, ripped out the other's liver, kind of like Prometheus's being eaten daily in Greek mythology? Sounds like a viable way to have infinite food and water. Kind of like the fish and bread story in Christian mythology (feeding tons of people with a single fish and loaf of bread), but a bit more gory. Organ meat should provide enough vitamins and calories to cover most nutritional requirements.



Answer



Wizards can't grow lost body parts with (normal) magic. Only dark wizards like Voldemort can do that like in the case of Scabbers during his comeback.



“And now Wormtail was whimpering. He pulled a long, thin, shining silver dagger from inside his cloak. His voice broke into petrified sobs.


      “Flesh - of the servant - w-willingly given - you will - revive - your master.”


      He stretched his right hand out in front of him - the hand with the missing finger. He gripped the dagger very tightly in his left hand and swung it upward.”


-Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, Chapter-32



Voldemort might have promised him to give back his hand after he returns,




“My Lord…” he choked, “my Lord…you promised…you did promise…”


      “Hold out your arm,” said Voldemort lazily.


      “Oh Master…thank you, Master…”


      He extended the bleeding stump, but Voldemort laughed again.


      “The other arm, Wormtail.”


      “Master, please…please…”


-Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, Chapter-33



Even though you have a new hand, it will not be under your control completely. Scabbers was killed by his own hand when he hesitated to attack Harry.




“You’re going to kill me?” Harry choked, attempting to prise off the metal fingers. “After I saved your life? You owe me, Wormtail!”


The silver fingers slackened. Harry had not expected it: He wrenched himself free, astonished, keeping his hand over Wormtail’s mouth. He saw the ratlike man’s small watery eyes widen with fear and surprise: He seemed just as shocked as Harry at what his hand had done, at the tiny, merciful impulse it had betrayed, and he continued to struggle more powerfully, as though to undo that moment of weakness.


“And we’ll have that,” whispered Ron, tugging Wormtail’s wand from his other hand.


Wandless, helpless, Pettigrew’s pupils dilated in terror. His eyes had slid from Harry’s face to something else. His own silver fingers were moving inexorably toward his own throat.


-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,Chapter-23



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...