The Fateful Night (VERY long)

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 42253

CMC wrote: 
> My guess is that Voldemort's body did not remain intact. It seems to 
> me that he would have tried to resurrect his original body if it 
> still existed rather than go through the complicated flesh, blood and 
> bone procedure. Even if that were unfeasible, it seems he would have 
> at least pondered the option if his corpse still existed. 

As you may have read, I myself go for the "there wasn't enough left of 
Voldemort's body to make a smudge on the ground" theory, but that 
wasn't the place to speak about it. I was just expressing what we 
didn't know and what looks most probable. The fact is that I don't 
think that the WW wouldn't have believed that Voldemort is dead without 
a body there. I get away with it by saying that there WAS some of his 
body left -enough to have some clever muggle or wizard to identify him 
(is there some magical equivalent to the ADN teast?).
 
> If his body had not been destroyed, it would also mean that there are 
> two Voldemorts out there, one living and one dead. 

There is always bits and pieces of your body around, all of them dead: 
your skin flakes and falls every day of your life, and even if by the 
time you're fifty you've flaked enough to build your body over several 
times, there aren't several "you"s aound, one living, and the rest 
dead. Dead meat is dead meat. Without a soul (defining by soul whatever 
is that ghost are made up in Potterverse), the body of Voldemort is 
nothing but feed for the worms.
 
> Voldemort's physical destruction may have resulted from a side effect 
> of the "love shield" which protected Harry, or may have been an 
> effect of the various "experiments" the Dark Lord said that he 
> performed upon himself in his quest for immortality (GoF, Chap. 33)
> 
>    - CMC

Or, as I said in the long post, it may be caused by the AK hitting him. 
Or by any other of a dozen reasons I could come up with. If you want, 
you can consider an addendum to section 2:

i) What happened to Voldemort's body and why

Although I included it in the (e): Number of corpses. It is just 
another of the places where what little information we've got allows 
for multiple interpretations.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf