Fate and Choices

[nplyon]

No: HPFGUIDX 42299

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "digitopolis_2000" <digitopolis_2000 at y...> 
wrote:
> The wand chooses the wizard...
> We know that Harry's wand core comes from Fawkes, and so does 
> Voldemort's. In CS it's mentioned by Riddle that there are strange 
> similarities between Harry and himself. However, because of their 
> choices they've become very different people. But the wand 'chose' 
> them perhaps before all these decisions were made.
> 
> Why would Harry and Voldemort both have wand cores from the same 
> phoenix - especially considering the association between phoenixes 
> (sp?) and loyalty? How much of this is pre-destined and how much of 
> it is due to their choices? JKR wants to tell us that it's our 
> choices that show who we truly are etc. but I keep getting this 
> recurring feeling whenever I read the books that many things are as 
a 
> result of fate.
> 
> val

I think this is where the choices come into play.  Canon tells us 
that when Voldemort was in school, he was Tom Riddle, a handsome, 
talented, and high-performing student.  I think that he may have once 
been a very different person from what he was but that, as he grew 
older, he grew more and more bitter.  His father's abandonment 
obviously affected him greatly and I think that getting his revenge 
became a kind of obsession to him that made the Dark Arts look very 
appealing.  If he were to become a powerful Dark wizard, he could 
certainly show his father that he is not insignificant, that he is 
not some piece of trash to be discarded.  I'm inclined to believe 
that this was his first motive in his quest for power.  Adopting the 
title of "lord" is another indication of this.  By giving himself 
this honorific title, it's like he's trying to rise above his real 
situation.  He hungers to be seen as important and what better way to 
gain importance than by giving himself a title, gaining power, and 
using that power to oppress others?  He certainly cannot be ignored 
then.  Then, in the tradition of many power-hungry beings, he found 
that once he killed his father and grandparents, he hungered for 
more.  The more power he got, the more he craved.

How does all this relate to the Fawkes wand choosing him?  I think 
that when he was 11, he may have been just as good a kid as Harry 
was.  If this is true, it makes sense to me that the wand with 
Fawkes's tail feather in it would have chosen him.  However, unlike 
Harry, he allows his latent anger over his childhood to overtake him 
and, ultimately, he chooses to take his intelligence and power and 
use it for evil purposes.  It's not necessarily that anyone is 
predestined to be chosen by a particular wand.  Rather, I think the 
wand is something like Sorting Hat in that it reads what is within 
that person and makes its choice accordingly.  I think that when 
Riddle points out his similarities to Harry, he is hinting at what 
Harry could become if Harry makes the same choices that he, Riddle, 
made.

~Nicole, who had fun deconstructing Voldemort.