Seeing is believing

[prillalar]

The hp100 challenge this week is Thestrals. And while I was trying to think up a good idea for my entry, I got to wondering about them.

Hermione says, so we know it must be true, "The only people who can see Thestrals are people who have seen death." It seems from Harry's experience that you've got to see another human being die in front of you. Killing the memory of Tom Riddle isn't enough to do it for him.

Thestrals also have a keen sense of direction. Basically, you just need to tell them where you want to go and they'll take you there.

The like blood and raw meat. Oh, and they're great bony reptilian winged horses.

Some questions:

• What enables you to actually see the Thestrals? Is it some change in your vision? Are there other things you can see now too? Death-vision. Or does the death just change something in your aura that the Thestrals can sense and so they make themselves visible to you?
  
  
• Can Muggles see Thestrals?
  
  
• Why can't Harry see the Thestrals at the end of GoF? There's a scene where they all see the "horseless carriages". (OK, I know the answer to this one is that it's a big continuity error.)
  
  
• Why can't Harry see the Thestrals from the very beginning? Judging from his experience with the dementors in PoA, where he heard his mother pleading with Voldemort, he was right there when his mother was murdered by Voldemort. However, I suppose he could have heard the exchange from an adjoining room.
  
  
• How does a Thestral know where to go when you give it a London street address, like Harry does? It's a place Harry's been before, so perhaps it can somehow read the necessary info from his mind. But Hagrid says, "Once they're tamed, like this lot, yeh'll never be lost again. 'Mazin' sense o' direction, jus' tell 'em where yeh want ter go."
  
  
• Why are their names always capitalized?

Comments

[prillalar]

Interesting -- my Canadian copy has "Thestrals" all through. Now you've got me wondering why the US version changed the capitalization!

But, yes, JKR loooooves to capitalize things. Sometimes when I write, I lowercase them, like "Apparate", because I think they look weird. But I do the same in LotR fic with "Elf", "Dwarf", and "Man".