Apparate/Disapparate that is the question.

[madeleone]

OK, I know this question was posed awhile back and I thought I had a clear understanding of the meaning of and difference between Apparate and Disapparate.

My take was: Apparating was arriving, and Disapparating was departing.

So, if Severus appears in my living room (in my dreams): POP! Severus apparated into the middle of madeleone's living room.

But if he was leaving my house to return to Spinners End, he is departing so he Disapparated: Severus Disapparated from madeleone's house to Spinners End.

But in posting a chapter of a story, where I say of Hermione that: "She didn't seem determined to Disapparate off to murder Theodore Nott",  I was told: "change this to Apparate: Disapparating is arriving after Apparition)"

Disapparating is arriving? I thought it was just the opposite? So now I am totally confused again. Can someone set me straight?

Comments

[mw48.livejournal.com]

I think the admin (sorry to admin if reading) is being ultra-pedantic in a way that makes very little sense.


I suppose what they're getting at is that (as you say), if he arrived in your living room, 'severus apparated into madeleone's living room' and then 'disapparated back to spinner's end' - to and fro, back and forth etc.

So - did Hermione apparate to the location she is in now? if so, she might then 'leave' or 'disapparate' to Theo Nott's...if it is the first 'journey' as such, then maybe it does make maybe the TINIEST bit more sense to say 'apparate'. But quite honestly, since you could presumably apparate to several different places in succcession, without that go and return to same place type of mentality, it shouldn't matter...

Just my 2c.

[madeleone]

Thanks for the input. I was just confused because I thought I had finally gotten it all figured out then this statement pretty much sounded like the complete opposite to me.

In answer to your question, no Hermione was already at her home in this scene.

It really doesn't make a huge difference to me.

But I've had other stories where I was told to use Disapparate rather than Apparate. So I try to get it right

[talesofsnape.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you're right. I assume that Apparate is from a similar root to the word appear, and Disapparate is similar to disappear.

However, in general, we talk about to Apparate and mean both halves of the process. I'd probably use Apparate in the sentence you have given because although she's talking about disappearing from where she is, it's also implied that she's Apparating to Theo. I'd tend to use Disapparating where the scene ends with someone dematerialising with no mention of where they go to.

[melusin-79.livejournal.com]

i agree that apparate = appear and disapparate = disappear, but if i'm referring to the process I would almost always use apparate

[madeleone]

OK, I guess I just wanted reassurance that I hadn't gotten it all turned around. In the past I have been asked to change Apparate to Disapparate based on the situation, so I try to get it right.

Thanks for the help. :)

[christev.livejournal.com]

I agree that it's a picky thing to call. My take, and I'm not 100% sure that this is canon, is that if I'm doing it, I'm always Apparating.
If someone else is doing it, then coming to me, they're Apparating; going away from me they're Disapparating.

[madeleone]

Ahh, I hadn't thought of it that way, so if I were writing from Hermione's POV I would say Apparate no matter if she were coming or going?

But in this example, it's actually from Severus' POV. Hermione has just heard that Theo said some terrible things about her in the press and she's furious. Severus is observing her and thinks She didn't seem determined to Disapparate off to murder Theodore Nott, ... He knew he'd be able to find her at his own pub before the night was over; it was the only one around.

[christev.livejournal.com]

Okay, once again I need to put in my disclaimer of not being sure if this is following canon rules. But it sounds to me that in your example, even though it's Snape observing her, he's getting inside her head, "she... seemed determined to (Dis-)Apparate..."

So by my previous reasoning, it's shifted back to her point of view. Beyond that, I actually think it sounds better to say "Apparate" in that sentence. (sorry!)

[bunney.livejournal.com]

It depends on the perspective of the character. For example:

Hermione is at home waiting for Draco. From her perspective, when he arrives, he is Apparating into her presence. When he leaves, he is Disapparating from her presence. From Draco's perspective, as the traveler, he is doing both, concurrently. He is Apparating to Hermione's home and Disapparating from his home. From Lucius's perspective, at Malfoy Manor, Draco has Disapparated, then will Apparate back. It's all a matter of who is observing and who is traveling.

[madeleone]

I totally agree with you on this. It is all in who's perspective you are looking at.

I guess I was confused by the statement that "Disapparating is arriving after Apparition" as I thought I had finally gotten it figured out that Disapparating was departing.

[aurette.livejournal.com]

I ran in circles with this a while back and couldn't find a definitive answer. It seemed, from my research, that JK left Ap and Disap rather interchangeable and not particularly specific to coming or going, and anything I read that assigned jurisdiction was more fanon-based than canon-based. To stay on the side of caution, I use Ap for both about 99% of the time, but that's only because I am basically clueless on the issue. I will be keeping an eye on this convo for my own edification.

[madeleone]

I know it is so confusing. I would be happy to just stick with Apparating but I have been called by an admin previously to change Apparate to Disapparate (I don't remember where or what story, it was a while back). So I tried to get it straight in my head which was which.

I made the change as requested. But I still felt confused.LOL

[aurette.livejournal.com]

Oh lord. That's the type of confusion that would break me. lol.

[redskyatnight76.livejournal.com]

That statement, "Disapparating is appearing after Apparition" is definitely not right.

My evidence: when Dumbledore holds the Death Eaters captive in the Dept of Mysteries in OOTP, he uses an 'Anti-Disapparition Jinx' on them. Since what he's trying to do is stop them from leaving, not from arriving, Disapparition must, therefore, refer to disappearing and not appearing, and that statement you were told cannot possibly be correct.

Also, if you look up Disapparate in the spells index of the HP lexicon, it gives three or four examples of JKR's use of 'Disapparate' and they all refer to people disappearing - never, ever to people arriving after Apparating.

I've checked this out in canon myself too, and it seems that basically, you can use 'Apparate' and 'Apparition' for either arriving in a place, or for the actual process of moving from one place to another, so it's almost interchangeable.

'Disapparate', on the other hand, can only be used in the sense of leaving one place and travelling to another. You can Disapparate from one place to another, but the actual act of appearing at the other end is Apparating.

[aurette.livejournal.com]

I like this. I'm keeping it.

[madeleone]

Thanks redsky, The way you explained it is exactly my understanding as well. I did refer to the HP lexicon and noted the same examples you pointed out.

I guess I was just thrown by the statement that "Disapparating is arriving after Apparition" and thought that maybe I had somehow misunderstood the whole thing.

[christev.livejournal.com]

HECK WITH IT! Say she "magically vanished" and be done with it!

LOL