So, what I have is not a weird, wild conspiracy theory at all. Rather, it’s just a bunch of suspicions and unanswered questions. I’m throwing this out to you all to ponder. With all of this information, I suspect that Harry was being prepared, though not yet specifically trained in necromancy.
Jim Butcher has stated several times that there’s a specific literary tool that is used to spoonfeed information to the reader, called the “joy of idiocy.” Basically, what this means is that if something complex is happening in the book, there must be an idiot around to ask questions so that the reader can get all of his questions answered. In the first several books, Murphy plays the idiot to Harry for common supernatural questions, and Harry plays the idiot to Bob about more complex questions. And it’s pretty clear in the beginning that Harry doesn’t know much about the supernatural world around him. Bob instructs Harry on the different types of werewolves, on the fact that there are multiple faerie queens (because remember, Dresden threatens Toot in Storm Front with the faerie queen, singular), on just about every potion, the Fallen, the differences between vampires… pretty much everything complex that comes up.
This changes with Dead Beat. In Dead Beat, Harry questions Bob about Kemmler. However, Butters questions Harry a lot about necromancy – and Harry has answers. Without hesitation, Harry is able to tell Butters about necromancers, zombies, drummers, the effect of stopping said drummer versus the effect of cutting the zombie off from the energy, why human spirits are only used in necromancy, the two variables (impression and age) which make a zombie or spirit strong, and much, much more.
In fact, Harry goes far more in-depth with Butters in Dead Beat about the mechanics of necromancy than he goes with Murphy about thaumaturgy in Storm Front.
How does he know all this? All right, so it’s very possible that there might have been a necromancer as a villain-of-the-week between two of the earlier books. That’s always possible… except that Dresden never really mentions it. It would be the perfect time to mention an earlier baddie, and Jim had already made a point in several prior books to outright state that Harry does plenty of other stuff that we don’t see in the books.
So, that’s piece of evidence number one. Piece of evidence number two is that Evil Bob recognizes the “true power” within Harry. When Evil Bob (the separate entity, not the “original” Bob) speaks to Dresden in Ghost Story, he states that Dresden’s death would be the loss of potential, that Kemmler would be interested in Harry, and that Harry is perfectly suited to be a far better apprentice than Corpsetaker. Grevaine, as well, sees the ability within Harry and offers him a partnership deal in Dead Beat. Furthermore, Dead Beat mentions several times about Harry’s ‘taint;’ Grevaine ‘smells’ the True Magic on Harry, which is presumed to be Evil Bob’s attack. However, Harry has always been somewhat tainted by black magic. It’s implied that this is from Harry’s killing of Justin in a duel to the death, but it’s very possible that if Dresden was being taught by a necromancer, and learning the basics of necromancy, that some of this taint might come from dabbling in the basics of the art.
Remember, also – when Butters asks Harry if Grevaine is a wizard like Harry, his response is to snarl back, “He’s not like me.” True, this could just point to Harry’s overall struggle to be a good person and doing the right thing. But it could also be that he recognizes on a deeper level that he very much could have turned into a creature like Grevaine had his path been slightly different.
The third piece of evidence… is that Harry is really, really good at necromancy.
I mean, it’s sort of universally acknowledged that the resurrection of Sue is pretty much a monumental masterpiece. Dresden explains this by stating that he’s read Kemmler’s book. However, I doubt that the book itself would have spent any time going over the basics of necromancy, something that the followers of Kemmler had devoted their life to studying. Furthermore, while Lasciel could have taught Harry the forms of basic resurrection, what Harry does with Sue is neither a resurrection of a ghost or a resurrection of a zombie – he calls forth flesh made from ectoplasm to serve as living flesh. Furthermore, even if Lasciel taught him everything here, it would mean that Harry pulled off, with no issue or error at all, an incredibly huge, difficult piece of magic in an art he had never before used, did not feel comfortable with, and until then had treated as evil, on his first try. This goes from improbable to almost completely unbelievable.
Harry uses the excuse of Halloween as the reason for why he’s able to do said magic, and perhaps there’s some truth to this. But Molly’s training shows us just how difficult it is to pick up a new discipline, especially one that you’re not familiar with. In Skin Game, Harry is fairly confident that it would take Hannah some time to learn to open a Way back to Chicago. With this in mind, combined with the knowledge that Harry has a very solid understanding of the mechanics behind zombies, spirits, and necromancy, plus the fact that two separate practitioners of necromancy clearly see the potential and ability within him, makes me think that it's extremely likely that his first tutor, the evil warlock and owner of Kemmler's trusted assistant, was likely including necromancy in the coursework.
Thoughts?
