Is Harry More Powerful Without a Wand? (WAS: Duel Harry)

[francienyc]

No: HPFGUIDX 43007

Grey Wolf wrote: "The DEs do not need demonstrated that Voldemort can 
beat Harry in any sort of fair ground. They know that he should be 
able to do so, they want to know whether the boy is *killable*, not 
if he's a bad duelist....Voldemort must have faced many challenges 
and doubts while he was creating his fear power base, and I'd imagine 
that a few candidates to DE were used as examples to the rest of them 
as to what would happen if they got out of line. There would've been 
no "lingering doubts" if he had killed Harry immediately while still 
tied to the gravestone."

But there would have been lingering doubts, because the DEs aren't 
sure that Voldemort can beat Harry.  After all, Harry bested 
Voldemort when he was only a baby, and then twice more.  Now, the 
Chamber of Secrets episode doesn't seem to be common knowledge, since 
not even Voldemort mentions it in his lengthy speech.  Yet even 
without counting that one, Voldemort still has something to prove.  
We learn from Quirrell at the end of Sorcerer's Stone "I met him when 
I travelled around the world.  A foolish young  man I was then, full 
of ridiculous ideas about good and evil.  Lord Voldemort showed me 
how wrong I was.  There is only power, and those too weak to see 
it....Since then, I have served him faithfully" (p. 291).  So we see 
that Voldemort's whole premise of power is amoral.  Power is outside 
of good and evil, it is in fact, a law unto itself.  Therefore, to 
truly be seen as the most powerful wizard, Voldemort has to defeat 
Harry fair and square, without a single question.  He admits this 
himself, acknowledging to the Death Eaters "And here he is...the boy 
you all believed had been my downfall...." (GoF 657).  He knows that 
they, like the rest of the wizarding world, see Harry as Voldemort's 
Achilles' heel.  He then performs the Cruciatus Curse, but stops, and 
explains to them all "Harry Potter escaped my by a lucky chance.  And 
I am now going to prove my power by killing him, here and now, in 
front of you all, when there is no Dumbledore to help him, and no 
mother to die for him.  I will give him his chance.  He will be 
allowed to fight, and you will be left in no doubt which of us is the 
stronger."  Voldemort begins to use Harry as a mere "example" the way 
he does with Avery earlier.  However, Harry deserves special 
consideration because of what happened before.  The victory must be 
completely decisive or Voldemort's power, the basis of his beliefs 
(as opposed to good and evil) will not be completely re-established.

On another note, which will eventually come back to my first point, 
Phyllis, I think, wondered why Fake Moody teaches Harry to throw off 
the Imperius Curse.  I felt it was kind of evident--the Imperius 
Curse had been Crouch Jr's imprisonment for years, and thus he has a 
strong hatred for it and does not want to see anyone forced under it 
(the exception of course being his father, for revenge).  Crouch Jr. 
is a very interesting character as Death Eater's go because he 
develops his own system of morals and ethics separate from 
Voldemort.  He hates attacking behind an opponent's back (thus we see 
Malfoy the bouncing ferret) and a Death Eater who walked free (hence 
his loathing for Karkaroff).  He metes out his own form of justice 
accordingly, without waiting for orders.  Of course, the fact that of 
his own "free will" (ironic phrase to use with regards to Crouch Jr.) 
makes him most dangerous because he has come to the conclusion that 
Voldemort is somehow right, unlike Quirrell and Wormtail who were 
forced into service.  Incidentally, Crouch Jr.'s loathing of a
lack 
of fair play could be part of why Voldemort chooses to duel with 
Harry.  I get the feeling that Crouch Jr. is a law unto himself, and 
if Voldemort went at odds with it he might loose one of his strongest 
(both in philosophy and actions) supporters.

(Inhaling now)

Caroline