On Potter

[fightingthecage]

Yes, I realise I am at one with the spam tonight. Forgive me. I just remembered a HP thing that has bugged me for ages and so it must have its own entry in the hopes that someone will notice it and give me a good explanation.

But first, check this art out.

Because if I have to accidentally click on anything that brain-hurty, YOU HAVE TO TOO!

OK, so the Thing. It is Apparition. What I don't get is that part of the method of doing it is determination to get where you're going, right? They're supposed to fix their destination in their head and then concentrate and as long as they're doing it hard enough, they'll wind up where they want to be.

But what if they can't visualise where they want to be because they've never been there before? Like, if Harry wanted to go to New York, would he just visualise New York in general? How would his destination be specific? How could he apparate in front of his hotel on, say, 77th & Broadway if he'd never been there and didn't know what it looked like? And what's to stop someone from apparating and ending up stuck through half a wall or something? If they didn't know a wall was going to be where they wanted to be, how would they know not to want to be there?

Its bothered me since apparition was first introduced, probably because I'd read The Belgariad before HP and the difficulties with that sort of travel were quite often pointed out in those books. But OK, its a whole different universe and kind of magic. One of the things I was looking forward to in HBP was hopefully having an apparation lesson explained...only when it was, nothing was actually made clearer.

Somehow, clicking on Snape art brought that query to mind which is why I've just had to post about it. Help me out someone?

Comments

[aberration]

I'm not sure you can Apparate somewhere if you don't have at least a specific place in mind - I think you could perhaps think, say "Broadway and 12th St." or , say the woods close to where the Quidditch World Cup is - you may not have to picture it, necessarily, but it does sound like you at least have to be precise about it. It sounded like the vague places Hermione took Harry and Ron to while they were on the run during DH were places she'd been to before, but if they knew exactly where to go, like the village, that would work, too. NYC might be too big, though, but if you were going somewhere specific you'd probably know where it is.

Also? I hate you.

[fightingthecage.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I suppose that would make sense. I'm trying to think off the top of my head whether anyone ever apparated to somewhere random and nothing immediately springs to mind. It would work as long as no one just thought of a destination and happened to apparate into a tree or something - perhaps the magic automatically takes them to somewhere without obstructions. It also explains how, when they do know where they want to go, they can be specific, like 'the step outside number 12, Grimmauld Place.' I can live with that. Sort of like sending a letter to somewhere I've never been - I technically know the address but don't have to picture the actual place to get it there. Yeah. Cool, thanks!

Also? HA! *beams*

[fightingthecage.livejournal.com]

I don't know! It's just...no. Just no! And its even worse when Snape has legs like that.

(Oh God, please don't ever say that in a public arena. Someone will go and write it. Probably badly, although there may not be actually any way to do it well. Ick.)

Yeah, it must be I suppose. I just assumed that because they had to concentrate so hard on where they wanted to be, it would follow that they were thinking about a specific spot to arrive on, which would be the most efficient way of travelling. I mean, everyone always seems to end up just about exactly where they want to be when they apparate - the exception being one of the twins at the start of OOtP, when he apparates on top of Ron in the dark. And he says its harder to do in the dark, which suggests that he was thinking of an exact place to arrive.

Argh. I dunno. I imagine you're probably right though, its the only thing that makes even a bit of sense.

[wanttobeatree.livejournal.com]

Completely unrelatedly, I dreamt Scribble was a boy last night! If it is, I will totally declare myself a psychic.

[fightingthecage.livejournal.com]

I dream Scribble is a boy all the time! This is outside verification! Maybe this is saying something. If it turns out to be so, I will gladly dub you a psycho psychic also. :)