My take on the Forest scene (also posted on Main)

[Geoff]

As Steve remarked on a recent Main post "Each to his own"; what 
follows are my own thoughts on the meeting between Voldemort 
and Harry in the forest.

In the early days after the publication of the book and in the 
sometimes intense discussions which took place, I made the point 
on a number of occasions that my belief was that Harry did NOT 
die in the Forest encounter and quoted canon to support my view:

`"But you're dead," said Harry.
"Oh, yes," said Dumbledore matter-of-factly.
"Then
 I'm dead too?"
"Ah," said Dumbledore, smiling still more broadly. "That is the 
question, isn't it? On the whole, dear boy, I think not."
They looked at each other, the old man still beaming.
"Not?" repeated Harry.
"Not," said Dumbledore.
"But
' Harry raised his hand instinctively towards the lightning 
scar. It did not seem to be there. "But I should have died – I 
didn't defend myself! I meant to let him kill me!"
"And that," said Dumbledore, Will, I think, have made all the 
difference."'
(DH "King's Cross" p.567 UK edition)

`Harry sat in thought for a long time or perhaps seconds. It 
was very hard to be sure of things like time, here.
"He killed me with your wand."
"He failed to kill you with my wand," Dumbledore corrected 
Harry. "I think we can agree that you are not dead -  though, 
of course, " he added, as if fearing he had been discourteous, 
"I do not minimise your sufferings, which I am sure were severe."'
(ibid. p.570)

There is obviously the section in the chapter where Dumbledore 
tells Harry he has the option to go on. This seems to suggest that 
he has gone to some sort of limbo but – and this is a big but – 
can go back which is not granted when people die. This is obviously 
some sort of unusual occurrence for unusual circumstances:

`He (Dumbledore) looked interrogatively at Harry and Harry nodded.
"Which means," said Dumbledore slowly, his eyes upon Harry's face, 
"that some form of Cedric must have re-appeared."
Harry nodded again.
"Diggory came back to life?" said Sirius sharply.
"No spell can reawaken the dead," said Dumbledore heavily.'
(GOF "The Parting of the Ways" p.605 UK edition)

But, to return to the results of the spell. I commented in a recent 
post that I thought that the Elder Wand had a part to play in the final 
fight.. When Voldemort cast the spell in the forest, I believe that Lily's 
power of love was still latent in Harry and forced the spell onto the 
Horcrux fragment in him. It was destroyed in a kind of reversal of 
what happened in Godric's Hollow where Voldemort's spell rebounded 
and disembodied him leaving the Horcrux fragment to latch onto baby 
Harry. There was obviously some sort of reaction because Voldemort 
was apparently knocked out judging from what Harry could determine 
without daring to open his eyes.

Now, what about the Great Hall duel at the very end? I believe that the 
Elder Wand came into play here. The sequence of holding the Elder Wand 
was that Draco disarmed Dumbledore on the Tower but did not take 
possession because the wand was buried with the Headmaster. 

However, because he had disarmed him, the wand's allegiance shifted 
to Draco although he did not have the wand in his possession. When 
Harry disarmed Draco at the Manor, the Elder Wand was not physically 
involved but, since Harry had defeated Draco, the wand's master had 
been defeated and so it's allegiance moved again – to Harry, Voldemort 
being ignorant of this change. 

So when Voldemort rather foolishly attempted an Avadra Kedrava for 
the third time on Harry, this was someone who was not the master of 
the wand attempting to defeat the real master without the authority 
to do so and the wand therefore responded to Harry's Expelliarmus 
and went to him while Voldemort's spell rebounded – yet again! and 
this time he had nothing left with which to cushion or reduce the spell.