posted
I just finished the book earlier in the afternoon. It was great, such a fun read. I am inclined to think Snape is pure evil. Unless he and Dumbledore had a plan already thought out, here is why I think he is evil.
Snape has no desire to chat things out like other evil characters, he did not tell Dumbledore his plans, did not tell Dumbledore how long he had been planning to kill him, never said how foolish Dumbledore was for trusting him. Snape walked right up to him, and when he realized Malfoy was not going to act he killed Dumbledore without hesitation. Snape is a cold blooded death eater, I think the most evil death eater of all and he was looking forward to killing Dumbledore so he could prove Voldemort could trust him.
I think its possible Snap had some sort of plan with Dumbledore but I hope he didnt. I loved the treachery of it all! It was brilliantly written. I trusted Snape because Dumbledore did, and when he was betrayed I felt I had been betrayed.
posted
The only thing holding me back from believing Snape is a through and through Death Eater is Dumbledore's final words.
Like someone else on here said, there is just no way that Dumbledore would beg Snape for his life. Maybe there was a plan, maybe Dumbledore knew about the Unbreakable Vow, I don't know. But those words have to mean something. Rowling likes to intentionally lead people down the wrong path before springing a trap. I can't tell if she just sprung it, or if she is still leading us on.
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posted
I like the way Rowling leads us down the wrong path. Completely the opposite way I felt when reading DaVinci code, the way Dan Brown wrote cliff hangers and brought us down the wrong path annoyed me, it was almost childish. I think Rowling is such a great author, her Harry Potter books are so fun to read. Has she expressed interest in writing any other books after the HP series? I would be interested to see how she wrote a stand alone novel or another series.
I dont know about Dumbledores last words. His whole world was being torn down around him, he was poisoned, the school he loved was being ransacked by death eaters, and he was being betrayed by someone he had supreme confidence in. If Snape and Dumbledore did not have some sort of plan about this, then Rowling did such a great job at showing Snape as evil. I was so impressed in the way that Rowling really made me hate Snape, the betrayal was so well written.
KITE RUNNER SPOILER!!
Snapes betrayal of Dumbledore made me feel very similar to the way I felt when reading about Amir's betrayal of Hassan in the Kite Runner after the Kite flying competition.
End Spoiler!!
An array of emotions, dissapointment, betrayal, rage, sadness, sickened that there are actually people like that in the world. Although the Kite was set in this world, so perhaps it was a little more disturbing.
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posted
I dont see how Harry is going to come close to defeating the death eaters in this next book. Harry is such a novice wizard compared to the Death Eaters, Snape was deflecting Harry's spells left and right, it was childs play. What makes Harry think he is capable? Perhaps he will have some serious Auror training, like Auror boot camp or something. Things are looking grim if he does not go through a very significant transformation. How will he defeat them, with love as Dumbledore suggests?
Secondly I wanted to ask anyone else if Harry seems to be alot less powerful than other wizards from the past? Look at Snape and his potions ability, voldemort was already casting very powerful spells at Harry's age. Even Harry's father and his crew of Sirius and others were doing pretty high level magic at a young age. What is Harry's natural ability in magic? is it luck? ingenuity?
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posted
Promethius, I know! It seems like the odds are so against the good guys. But then doesn't it always seem that way before they go on and win anyway? I think that's true in real life as well as fiction. It seems a whole lot darker and more impossible while the battle is raging. For instance during the civil rights movement here in the southern U.S. I remember how society was, how black and white people interacted back then and it seemed totally impossible at the time that society could ever be transformed the way it has been. Even though there's still so far to go, really the good guys succeeded against seemingly impossible odds beyond anyone's wildest dreams.
I think this was true also against the Nazis in World War 2. The Battle of Britian was a very dark time for the British, and I'm sure it felt like they were fighting against enslavement at impossible odds.
Frodo and Sam, too, to jump back to fiction again, seemed pitifully inadequate against the situation they found themselves in at the end, in Mordor.
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quote:JKR: Well, I'm prepared to bet you now, that at least before the week is out, at least one of the Horcruxes will have been correctly identified by careful re-readers of the books.
posted
She said in a Time magazine interview that "I think I can say categorically that I will not write another fantasy after Harry. Wait, now I'm panicking."
I think that means no, but it's a little ambiguous.
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quote:Originally posted by Promethius: I dont see how Harry is going to come close to defeating the death eaters in this next book. Harry is such a novice wizard compared to the Death Eaters, Snape was deflecting Harry's spells left and right, it was childs play. What makes Harry think he is capable? Perhaps he will have some serious Auror training, like Auror boot camp or something. Things are looking grim if he does not go through a very significant transformation. How will he defeat them, with love as Dumbledore suggests?
Compared to some of the death eaters (like Snape) Harry is a novice, but remember they stood up to them pretty well at the Ministry during year 5. One problem though is he lacks focus - for instance, he tried to take on Snape raging. He's gotta learn to keep his cool. But who knows, maybe the next book will actually take place over several years?
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posted
I could see him getting some short, intense training. Dumbledore expected him to learn Occlumency (which would do a lot to get his mind under more focused control) in a few months to block out invasions of his mind. I wouldn't be surprised if it was possible to learn DADA abilities, or Auror abilities in such a short period of time too, if he was given intensive training in it.
I'm a little curious as to who the next D.A.D.A teacher will be. You'd think all the really good people would be out there fighting against the Death Eaters. This is assuming they keep Hogwarts open, which I think they will. I haven't heard a lot of speculation on this yet on here, but I think they will. McGonagall will be headmistres, and they will need a new head of Gryffindor and a new Transfiguration teacher. But Lupin or someone in the order I bet will be brought in to teach DADA, and someone will be brought in for potions too.
Actaully, that is just wishful thinking. I WANT Hogwarts to be open, but it seems like Rowling is pushing VERY hard for it to not be. She says in that interview that Harry and Ginny would be parted, so not at the same school. And that's a lot of reshuffling with the staff to cover at the beginning of the next book. And there aren't really many qualified people to take the place of those that are now gone.
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Yeah, I supremely doubt if Hogwarts will stay open, and even if it does, I don't think Harry will return to it.
This is all about growing up, remember. Rowling's seperating him from everything that makes him a child. Now he's going to have to go back and face the memory of the murder of his parrents - which he has never, ever seen in actual phsyicality.
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We don't know how Horcruxes work, exactly, only that they are storage devices. Nothing was mentioned about retrieval at any point. I mean, without knowledge of USB drives, a Flash Drive is pretty useless, no?
Say that the Horcrux itself must be *consumed* in order to be used, in that it, or some part of it, must be destroyed or used in the magic needed to bring the Big Bad back.
If this is true, would it be possible that Harry *was* a Horcrux, but that his blood was used at the end of Goblet of Fire to bring Voldy back - thus *consuming* that Horcrux?
Might this be the reason for Dumbledore's look of triumph?
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posted
Very brainy! I'm sure there's some connection between Harry's scar, the sixth Horcrux, and the generous blood donation in GoF. Your theory sounds like a good idea.
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That's a good idea, but wouldn't Voldemort have already consumed a Horcrux to come back at that point? He had a sort of body - the blood only allowed him to get a real body back. So, what I mean is, he died when he tried to kill Harry. Then he sprung back from a Horcrux probably immediately afterwards. Then he was "lower than a ghost" for many years, until he eventually possessed Quirell, then got whatever goofy body he had before Goblet. Although....what happened to him after Quirell? When Quirell died, did Voldy have to use another Horcrux? This is getting pretty confusing....
Okay, so he died orginally, used a horcrux. Then MAYBE had to use another after Quirell. But I'm guessing he didn't need one to get his "real" body back, therefore, I'm betting the "look of triumph" was something else.
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posted
It said in the book that the blood of anyone would have worked, but that Harry's blood was extra special because it dissolved the shield Harry had against physical contact with Voldemort.
Thus, I'm doubting the Harry is a Horcrux theory.
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posted
I agree. Harry is not a Horcrux. Voldermort was not expected the curse to rebound on him like that, it came as a shock to him, yet, even before he went after Harry he created his first Horcrux, possibly the diary, then maybe the second, the ring. The third and fourth ones are probably the Slytherin locket and the Hufflepuff cup. Then you have the mysterious fifth, sixth and seventh ones, but I don't think any of them are Harry, but the snake is. Harry's blood is the blood of his mother whose last act of love, dying for him, left lingering protection. Which is why Harry Potter has to stay with the Dursleys, bonded by blood to Aunt Petunia.
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Still, just a passing thought. I really don't buy the Harry as Horcrux idea, as I said before, because of the need for two separate events - the killing, and the creating.
I am intrigued, though, by a couple of things. Dumbledore never told Harry how to tell if something *is* or *is not* a Horcrux. I mean, it doesn't seem too apparent from the thing's physical appearance, you know?
I mean, Dumbledore himself couldn't tell that the locket he grabbed was not a Horcrux when he grabbed it, or at least he did not let on to Harry that this was the case. And Harry had to open it to see that it was a fake.
I mean, the Invisibility Cloak could be a Horcrux for all we know - could have been Rowena Ravenclaw's, even.
How is Harry to tell?
And, then, how is he to destroy it? I mean, the most powerful wizard in the world got a withered hand! And didn't let Harry in on exactly what sort of curse did that, or how it could be countered - only that Snape saved him.
(which, btw, further supports the idea that Snape didn't want Dumbledore dead, and that he acted for other motivations - perhaps at Dumbledore's orders)
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posted
Pretty much. If Snape really wanted Dumbledore dead, he could have killed him then by slipping poison to him or something. It would have been a better strategy anyway because then Harry would not know about the horcruxes.
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Tatiana, thanks for the link! Great interview, even if she is entirely too fond of "no comment" and evil laughter. My favorite bit:
quote: I think, that I'm surprised when sometimes people say to me, “Oh, you know, the books are getting so dark.” I'm thinking, “Well, which part of ‘Philosopher's Stone’ did you think was light and fluffy?”
posted
I have a few problems with the harry is a horcrux theory.
Problem One - It does feel right. Harry having a fragment of LV's soul? Would it corrupt him?
... but if that doesn't work for the Spock's out there.
Problem Two - I'm not convinced that at the moment LV's curse on Harry Potter failed and it bounced back and killed him that he would have had the strength or presence of mind to complete the spell required to make a Horcrux (Not withstanding that we don't know how this is done)
Problem Three - The prophesy says neither can live while the other survives, whereas if Harry was a Horcrux it might be more accurate to say LV can live while HP survives.
Posts: 571 | Registered: May 2001
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Well I have finished a barrowed copy and I have to admitt that I have only skimmed everbody else's impressions, (10 pages!) and if I am redundant consider this a reinforcement of your theory and/or impression rather then an attempt to usurp your place as first to spot what I saw.
First I was damn accurate in my predictions. Dumbledore dies, and the book focuses on the keys Harry will need to beat Voldemort.
Apartation, we know Harry can do it.
Occulmencey, and whatever the word was for casting without vocalization. Here we have Snape telling Harry how to beat Voldemort at the end, Snape's japes at Harry are full of sound advice concealed as venom. "You need to close your mouth and mind to be fast enough to beat me...
We also have the insights into Voldemort's Character, he likes to take trophies, return to the scene of the crime, and he planned to use Harry's murder to create another, a seventh Horcrux. That means that he likely left some object, or artifact at or near the Potters old house, one that would have been a final horcrux but instead may be a link to Griffindor, Huffelpuff or Dumbledore even.
It is also certain that Voldemort has been home to the old Potter house and has somehow made it his own. Perhaps it is his lair, or more likely it has been altered to mock Harry in some way.
Wormtail at Snape's house was pretty hard to overlook as an evil thing, but if Snape is on a suicidal mission of redemption because he loved Lilly as so many seem to have, well then it is just possible that he is not fully evil but is using evil means to fight greater evil.
So we need Harry to start mastering the skills he will need, as has been pointed out, he really seems to lag as a student. He needs to master the fudamental skills apart from magic words, he has the power as can be seen so well in the third movie when his Patronus repels 100 dementors, he needs the mental disciplines to make him sharp.
Actually they all do, none of the Order should be allowed out until they can cast subvocally and can block mental intrusion to stop anticipation. Also they need a set of standard field equipment to stand up to the same round of spells like stunners and binds and such. They have the whole wizarding world to draw from they just need creative solutions.
As for locating the bad guys, well I have to say that they show little creativity in that, almost total ineptness. Tracking, tracing and scrying for individuals and their activities should be pretty familiar turf, even if they are unplottable in their lairs when they move it should be very swift from spot to pounce.
Great book! Predictable because we draw to an inevitable conclusion, but skillfully crafted, with a few amusing errors that made it through all the editors, it also adds another mystery, who is the other stalker? The one that broke through Voldemort's spells to snatch his Horcrux? Clearly this is the mystery the next book title will hint at and the next book will solve. It is certain that whoever it is, in knowing Voldemort well enoough to find at least the one Horcrux, will be able to anticipate his return to the Potter residence, Harry may catch him there or pick up his trail there.
posted
You know, I hadn't thought of that-Snape's insults to Harry actually were rather specific advice on how to defeat a mind-reading Wizard.
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posted
That makes sense Rakeesh. In his own, unpleasant way, Snape was giving really great advice. I'm afraid Harry won't realize that though. He's been so convinced for so long that Snape is evil that I think it'll be almost impossible for him to believe otherwise...to the point of getting himself into very great danger.
Here's my theory about that quoted from my post on Galactic Cactus:
quote:My sister and I have decided that A) Snape is good. (I'm clinging to this hope!) B) Harry will have a really hard time being convinced of this (well, I would too) and C) Snape will have to die saving Harry or fighting Voldemort for Harry to finally believe it. There. My prediction.
I'm pretty sure we're going to see Snape's death, and I'm pretty sure that Harry's going to see it too. SOmetimes I just wish that Dumbledore would've told Harry his reasons for trusting Snape so that all the misunderstandings would be avoided.
But then, it's the misunderstandings that make it crazy dangerous and interesting when all is said and done.
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posted
My prediction is that at the end of the next book once Harry has killed Voldemort he will return to Hogwarts as the defense against the dark arts teacher.
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I think Dumbledore did not tell his reasons for trusting Snape because he did not want Voldemort reading Harry's mind and discovering Snapes betrayal.
I was totally convinced of Snapes evil before, but I may be coming around to him being a good guy. Which is stupid because I really want him to have betrayed Dumbledore, as I said before I thought it was such a great scene.
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posted
I think there may be many reasons Dumbledore didn't tell Harry exactly why he trusts Snape -- most importantly because evidence that convinced Dumbledore very well might not convince Harry. Or, more likely, Harry might use it against Snape. What if Snape has sworn an Unbreakable Vow to Dumbledore, or been verified by some other magical means? Even if Harry were convinced that Snape is on The Side of Good and Righteousness, he'd still hate and resent him.
And under stress, in a classroom situation, Harry would use what he knew, and there goes Snape's cover. And dignity as well. Dumbledore wouldn't risk that.
My 11-year-old just finished the book (I think she read it almost as fast as I did!) and despite my explanation of why I think Snape is on the right side, thinks he is evil. When I pointed out that this would mean Dumbledore had been very wrong, and trusted him wrongly, she declared, "That's Dumbledore's problem!" Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Here is my full defense of my Harry-is-a-Horcrux theory:
First, we learn from Slughorn that a person's soul splinters every time they murder someone, so V's soul was freshly splintered when he came upon Harry.
Second, Dumbledore theorized that V was going to use Harry's death to make his last Horcrux. Since we don't know how Horcruxes are made, the entire enchantment(or "process" as Dumbledore puts it) could take place before the murder is committed, and then the bit o' soul is then bound to the object.
Therefore, if V's got freshly splintered soul pieces and a complete Horcrux-making process, but never bound it to anything, I could see the soul binding to the object of the killing curse, since the object of the killing curse didn't die.
Also, Harry was seeing things that were happening to Voldemort, such as watching the Muggle get killed, and watching Arthur Weasley get attacked. It's Mr. Weasley's attack that makes me most curious: it wasn't just a link between Harry and V, but a link between Harry and Nagini(who I believe is also a Horcrux); based off the... primal thoughts Harry shared with Nagini as the snake attacked Mr. Weasley, I don't think Voldemort was possessing him - meaning it was a connection that they shouldn't have had... unless maybe they both held pieces of V's soul.
Finally, someone mentioned what the prophecy says, which I hadn't honestly thought about, and it's a very good point. However, as JKR said in the most recent interview, the prophecy only comes true because Harry and Voldemort choose to carry it out. They could make the prophecy moot by shaking hands and having a butterbeer and a laugh. Another reason Harry doesn't necessarily have to die: his scar could be the Horcrux, and there could be a way to purge Harry of his scar. That or a dementor could start to kiss Harry and pull out the Voldemort-soul before the Harry-soul, then get patronused away.
I don't necessarily believe in my specific examples of Harry surviving despite being a Horcrux, but they're more to say that I believe it's possible for it to happen. Plus, the spell or whatever to remove a Horcrux could be non-fatal. No person's ever been a Horcrux, so you never know.
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posted
If nothing else, it might be interesting if Harry thought he may be a Horcrux... even if he weren't.
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You know, I've always thought that it would be cool if Harry used his knowledge of the muggle world to his advantage in defeating Voldemort. Voldemort is contemptuous of muggles, and by extension of non-magical technology in general, right? So all of his defenses are likely going to be against magical attacks. Harry and Hermione, with a deep understanding of the muggle world, could likely come up with some interesting and probably deadly combinations of conventional and magical technology. That won't happen, of course--that isn't the kind of book that Rowling is writing--but it would be an interesting read if it were.
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quote:Originally posted by Noemon: You know, I've always thought that it would be cool if Harry used his knowledge of the muggle world to his advantage in defeating Voldemort. Voldemort is contemptuous of muggles, and by extension of non-magical technology in general, right? So all of his defenses are likely going to be against magical attacks. Harry and Hermione, with a deep understanding of the muggle world, could likely come up with some interesting and probably deadly combinations of conventional and magical technology. That won't happen, of course--that isn't the kind of book that Rowling is writing--but it would be an interesting read if it were.
Hehe... we get to the end of book 7 and in the big final battle, as Hermione distracts Voldemort, Harry pulls out a shotgun and puts a hole through his chest.
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One does have to wonder if many wizards know what guns are and what they look like. But I'm betting that Voldemort, having lived as a Muggle for an extended period of time, could ifgure it out.
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posted
Ok, sorry for the sudden change of subject, but this thought just occurred to me and I wanted to ask you:
JK insinuated that by a close reading of Chamber of Secrets, we could become aware of who the Half Blood Prince is. Didn't she?
She also referred to all the info we could have if we read Chamber of Secrets more closely. I'm assuming that she's referring to the Horcrux thing, but I'm still not seeing where we could have been tipped off about any of what she was intending. Can you guys remember anything from that book that gives anything away that we eventually learned in HBP?
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posted
It's time to put this "Harry is a Horcrux" theory to rest. I went back and looked at the Horcrux chapter, and there is just no reason to believe that this theory is valid.
First, you have Slughorn telling Tom, "Killing rips the soul apart. The wizard intent upon creating a Horcrux would use the damage to his advantage: He would encase the torn portion." Clearly, then, killing is necessary to rip the soul apart.
Now, we know where several pieces of soul are, and DD guessed about the rest: 1) Voldemort's current body; 2) The Locket; 3) The Ring (destroyed); 4) The Diary (destroyed); 5) The Hufflepuff Cup; 6) Probably Nagini; and 7) Probably something of Ravenclaw's or Gryffindor's. This is all straight out of Dumbledore's mouth.
Further, there is evidence which directly suggests Voldemort failed when trying to create a Horcrux from Harry's death and, instead, eventually used Nagini. Harry: "You can use animals to make Horcruxes?" DD: "Well, it is inadvisable to do so...However, if my calculations are correct, Voldemort was still at least one Horcrux short of his goal of six when he entered your parents' house with the intention of killing you. "He seems to have reserved the process of making Horcruxes for particularly significant deaths. You would certainly have been that. He believed that in killing you, he was destroying the danger the prophecy had outlined. He believed he was making himself invincible. I am sure that he was intending to make his final Horcrux with your death. "As we know, he failed." Dumbledore then goes on to describe how Voldemort likely used Nagini as the last Horcrux.
Since Voldemort gave Lily a chance to survive, he was not going to use her to create a Horcrux, but was going to use Harry. When he failed to kill Harry, he failed to make a Horcrux. Therefore, Harry cannot be a Horcrux.
EDIT: I realized that when Voldemort died, the Horcrux let him come back to life, but the Horcrux still remained afterwards, it wasn't like, consumed or anything. So there are always seven, until one is destroyed.
posted
Isn't there a possibility that Dumbledore is wrong?
Also, the delicious potential irony is this: Voldemort intended to use Harry's death to make the Horcrux. But the spell rebounded, and the corresponding death was... himself. That'd be funky, wouldn't it?
...if you can consider what happened to him dying.
The thing that convinced me was the chat Dumbledore has with him in book 2. It just sounds exactly like a Horcrux.
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posted
I believe Harry's batting average is about one out of six. In fact, I think book six was the first time he'd ever been right-- Book One he thought Snape was trying to steal the Stone, Book Two he thought Malfoy was the Heir of Slytherin, Book Three he thought Sirius was after him, Book Four he certainly didn't think Mad-Eye was really Barty Crouch Jr and Book Five he thought Sirius was really in trouble. All in all, he usually isn't very correct in his guesses...
And about the Harry-is-a-Horcrux theory, a Horcrux could have been made from Lily or James' deaths.
Oh, and Promethius-- JK Rowling has said that neither Harry nor Ron will come back to Hogwarts to teach, though one of Harry's classmates will (she said it won't be the obvious choice though, so I'm guessing it won't be Hermione).
posted
Well, I wouldn't say that. He's had some pretty good guesses here and there, but they are all minor things. He takes a lot of good guesswork on minor things - often in tandem with Ron and Hermy - and then jumps to the wrong conclusion.
I mean, in book one, they did a lot of great detective work, for 11 year olds, to figure out that the sorcerer's stone was in the basement at all, and that someone was after it. The fact that they picked the person with obvious physical evidence of having to get past the dog, rather than the person who was pretty darn unassuming throughout, does not seem so far fetched.
Personally, I think Harry got a hold of Jo's manuscript on this one, so he knew what she was planning.
posted
Yeah, what threw me is that Harry is usually *so* wrong in his assumptions about what's going on. I wasn't expecting him to actually be right about anything.
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posted
On Snape being asked by Dumbledore to kill him:
"'DON'T --' screamed Snape, and his face was suddenly demented, inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling dog stuck in the burning house behind them--'CALL ME COWARD!'" (pg 604)
Not, I think, the behavior of a man who has just taken part in a major victory for his side. Snape would have been condescending, would have mocked Harry for failing to stop him, would have gloated that the end of all Harry cared about was near now that Dumbledore was dead. Instead, he becomes enraged that Harry should think him a coward.
Exactly the sort of rage and indignation you would expect from a man who made a horrible sacrifice (in some ways, worse than what Dumbledore endured). Exactly the treatment you would expect from a person who hates Harry personally but realizes how vital he is to the cause of good. Exactly what a man who had just killed someone he loved in order that others might live would do.
I don't think Snape is Good. He's a flawed human with a pretty nasty streak. But I do believe that he is on the side of Good, and is horribly tormented by some of the evil things he has done.
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posted
There isn't enough talk of how a Horcrux is made, in the sense of what a Horcrux can be made out of, to figure out if Harry could be one. I don't think he is, after all, if he could have made a living being into a Horcrux, my guess is he would have done it, but then, as his ultimate fear is death, you'd think he'd be a little more afraid of using a fragile human body to entomb a piece of his soul in don't you think?
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posted
I suspect that the only way Harry is a Horcrux is if it was unintentional. In which case, there may well be eight pieces of Voldemort's soul to account for.
By the way, does the soul tear in half every time a Horcrux is made? Does that mean that the diary had half Voldemort's soul, while the next one had a fourth, and so on? So that the soul currently in Voldemort's body is not 1/7, but 1/128 of a soul? If killing tears a soul any time it is done, why does Voldemort need to kill to make a Horcrux? Why not rip out piece #47 of his soul, that was split off when Voldemort killed Red-robe #12 before he got any lines?
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posted
Dumbledore had to drink ALL the horcrux juice. It was a calculated dosage.
If the horcux juice was impenetrable while in the basin, then it was also impenetrable while inside Dumbledore. The delay tactic on the astronomy tower gave the juice a chance to fully work its way through the wizard's system. Dumbledore was thrown off the tower because the curse rebounded so violently from his juice-infused body.
After the crowd at the base of the tower disperses, we never see the body again.
It was all an act to get Snape close to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and to save Draco from doing something unforgivable.
Whoever stole the real horcrux from the cave must have had a refill of horcux juice on hand to setup the fake horcrux. Either that or they vomited the juice back into the basin.
The whole horcrux excursion was setup by Dumbledore to make sure Harry witnessed the "murder." But Harry is the only one who knows about the impenetrable quality of the juice. He will figure it out much later, giving Snape a chance to get in position, but also allowing Harry to trust Snape when it comes down to the final showdown with Voldy.
Posts: 2655 | Registered: Feb 2004
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Shigosei, I was wondering that too! Well, more the 1/128 than the rest of it . . .
Except maybe there is a time limit, after which the soul repairs itself? But if the soul IS halved each time, then that does imply that Voldemort currently possesses 1/2*1/2*1/2*1/2*1/2*1/2 of a soul = 1/64?
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Oh, yeah, he only divided his soul 6 times, so 1/64. Perhaps it is like the binary fission of bacteria: grow, and split, grow and split, grow and split. Although there's a pretty strong implication that this is very bad for the soul, while reproducing is probably good for the bacteria.
Skillery, a rebounding killing curse would have put Snape (and everyone else on the tower) in danger of what happened to Voldemort when he tried to kill baby Harry. I think Dumbledore would prefer to die. Plus, I'm not sure that having a protective potion running through his circulatory system would have been enough to prevent the curse from hitting and killing other tissues.
What *does* the avada kedavra curse do to the body, anyway? The book says it doesn't leave visible marks. Would anything show up on an autopsy?
Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
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No it wouldn't. Note the first chapter in Book 4 when it said that the Riddles were healthy except for the fact that they were dead.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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