Special Harry? and Voldemort qs

[sashibuya at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 11590

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Kathleen Kelly MacMillan <kathleen at c...> 
wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Ebony Elizabeth Thomas" <ebonyink at h...> 
> wrote:
> > Would someone who does not subscribe to the "There's Something 
> Special About
> > Harry" theories please explain away PS/SS Ch. 1?  Even the 
opening 
> seems to
> > foreshadow his unique status.
<snip>

I guess I'll try to explain why I think "there's something about 
Harry" too. (You know, this line is begging for a very twisted parody 
to be written...) But I don't think there is anything *conclusive* in 
the text yet. 
Some of the things special to Harry can be explained away by his 
mother's sacrifice or by the after-effects of botched Avada 
Kedavra...others seem more mysterious. 

1) Parseltongue power, ability to sense Voldemort-explained by after-
effects of AK. These are extraneous powers that Harry would rather 
not have. Would the fact that they share the wand core also be like 
this? I get the feeling the wand is supposed to express something 
about the inner-most nature of the wizard, although this is just an 
impression. Has Harry gotten anything else from Voldemort? 

2) Surviving Voldemort's Avada Kedavra. It seems to be Lily's 
sacrifice, as Dumbledore implies this; kind of an "ancient magic" 
thing. The counter argument is this:  Avada Kedavra is a curse 
predating Voldemort, apparently. In past times, probably many wizards 
have been killed by it, especially if there are periodic dark wizard 
uprisings. Has no one ever been willing to sacrifice themselves for 
another like that before? Perhaps there are other factors as well 
making Harry's situation unique, like him being an infant, or the 
parent-child bond. Remember that everybody seems to find this 
*unprecedented* in wizarding history, and they don't say "because of 
his mother's sacrifice, young Harry Potter lived." There doesn't seem 
to be much certainty as to exactly why Harry lived. On the other 
hand, I can see Rowling taking the first tack equally well, 
emphasizing the sacrifice. 

3) Being singled out by Voldemort in the first place. Many people 
conjecture that this means that Trelawney's prophecy said that Harry 
would one day defeat Voldemort, which shows up in a lot of myths. In 
canon, though, it's unclear why exactly Voldemort targeted the 
Potters, said that Lily didn't have to die, or if the prophecy has 
anything to do with Harry at all. Why Voldemort *seems* to have 
specifically gone to the Potter house to kill Harry and possibly 
James argues for some kind of specialness unexplained by other 
theories. However, as I said before, this rests on a lot of 
assumptions. 

Voldy questions....

Despite all the parallels, is Voldemort actually that much like Harry 
in personality? What was he like as a student? Kind of like Draco? In 
some ways, his school record sound more like Hermione's or Percy's. 
Was Voldemort's ancestry known among his followers? 
Some people in the series imply that Voldemort has achieved a kind of 
immortality, and in fact will never be permanently defeated. Or 
perhaps they meant this metaphorically, as there have been great dark 
wizards before Voldemort, and there will presumbably be some 
afterward. Will Harry and co have to apply "constant vigilance?" How 
did Voldemort want to achieve immortality before his defeat? Did it 
involve the Philosopher's stone or something else? 


<snip>

Charmian