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

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.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

Which Doctor Who works are canon?

I have been watching a Doctor Who documentary and they mentioned that Paul McGann did audio stories so he wasn't just a one-hit Doctor (and that there are novels featuring his Doctor as well). My question is: is Doctor Who canon just the show, or is it like Star Wars where some books and audios are canon and some are not? The documentary also shows that before 2005 they did audio stories where the Doctor is female and obviously that cannot be — not the female part, but the show doesn't count any female Doctors in episodes like The Day of the Doctor . Answer Nothing, and also everything The definitive piece of writing on Doctor Who canon is this blog post by writer Paul Cornell . I'm essentially going to be summarizing his post here, much less eloquently, but one section I want to quote directly is this: Nobody at the BBC has ever uttered a pronouncement about what is and isn't canonical. (As I'm sure they'd put it, being such enthusiasts for good grammar.) Be...

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...