My bads then. I was misunderstanding what you were saying. I thought you were saying Justin was teaching him how to raise the dead. But him giving Harry some info on such types of magic that he might encounter, and Eb expanding on that somewhat when Harry shared what he knew, makes sense.
Mm, but that's not what I'm stating, either. Second Aristh's got a point on this; Ebenezer's teachings were mostly about using magic responsibly.
One of the notable exceptions was Elementary Magic by Ebenezar McCoy. It was the first book most wizards ever handed an apprentice. It dealt with the nuts and bolts of moving energy around, and stressed the need for control and responsibility on behalf of the wizard.
Though now that I thought about it, Ebenezar hadn't handed me a copy of the book when he'd been teaching me. He hadn't even lectured me more than a couple of times. He told me what he expected, and then he lived it in front of me. Damned effective teaching method, to my way of thinking.
and
Ebenezar had been a mentor to me at a time I'd badly needed it. He'd taught me just about everything I thought was important enough to be worth knowing. He had been unfailingly generous, patient, loyal, and kind to me.
But he had been lying to me the whole time, ignoring the principles he had been teaching me. On the one hand, he taught me about what it meant to be a wizard, about how a wizard's magic comes from his deepest beliefs, about how doing evil with magic was more than simply a crime- it was a mockery of what magic meant, a kind of sacrilege.
My main point was that Dresden's knowledge and intuition of the workings of necromancy, especially as he answers Butters, is
far too in-depth, far too familiar to the workings of necromancy, to have been taught by someone other than a person who has used it. And the only reason for going that in-depth in a forbidden, illegal art would be to prepare someone to
know the basics and the groundwork, in order to actually
do it. Now, I don't trust Ebenezer any more than I can throw him, but I don't believe he would be sneaky-teaching Dresden this sort of stuff. On the other hand, DuMorne
certainly had plans for Harry.
You state that this might have just been taught to Harry in passing, just like Harry does with Butters. I disagree. Harry asks Butters to ask him any questions, completely opening the floor to him, and Butters' questions are all over the place. Harry's not reciting answers given to him over a decade ago that he didn't have to use since; he's expounding on topics which Butters doesn't initially grasp. He's demonstrating a functioning knowledge of the workings of necromancy. And then later on, he actually
does it.
Do you have any evidence to support your statement that this is all just general knowledge? Something that would suggest that the wardens know why zombies respond to a drummer, the fact that it causes desire within them? Any reason why apprentices would commonly be taught that it just doesn't make sense to try to resurrect squirrels and dogs, because the imprint of a life depends on its sentience and its age? All of that seems like the kind of information that a
practitioner would know, rather than an exterminator. And as it's already been demonstrated, when a law is deemed illegal, the general workings of it are
not widely known. That's why none of the White Council knew much about mental defensive magic; that's why time travel is only theorized and guessed at, and why only a handful of people know that the Outer Gates are literal gates.
I mean, I'm honestly asking - is there evidence? I haven't read
Fistful of Warlocks yet, and that seems like the kind of book in which it would be clear what the Wardens did and did not understand about how necromancy functioned.
Furthermore, how do you defend Harry's immediate ability to know how to do a complex magical art that disciples of the great Kemmler had spent their entire lives on, yet could not pull off such a feat? Even given a Fallen tutor and the fact of Halloween, the fact of the matter is that this is something completely brand new. One doesn't learn advanced magics never attempted before just over one very good study session. You could set me up for a day with a master carpenter explaining every single tool and technique he does in great detail, but I can guarantee you that the table I make the next day isn't going to be sold at Ikea. I just don't understand the subject well enough. That's why Lasciel improved Hannah's "power" by simply augmenting her rage and giving her access to Hellfire - these are quick and easy ways to amp the power, rather then spend the energy on tutelage. Remember, Harry doesn't hold the coin, so the ressurection of Sue is all him. I find it hard to believe that he could just pull this off with nothing but a good instructive lesson and a lot of gumption.
