Killing Harry, Smart!Voldemort (WAS Spying Game II )

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 40162

Having missed out *completely* on MAGICDISHWASHER, I have decided to 
offer my own thoughts on SpyGame II before it is too late.  Even if 
I have nothing to say worth saying.  ;-)

************

Pip:


> ***Harry can be killed***
> 
> Harry has very powerful, instinctive defences. These cannot save 
him 
> in all situations - falling unconscious off his broom is dangerous 
> (PoA). 


This is interesting.  Is there any *real* evidence that Harry can be 
killed?  

Yes, Harry falls off of his broom in PoA.  One of his teammates 
says, "I thought he was dead for sure."  But if Harry really can't 
die (or, at least, die in this fashion), then the students at 
Hogwarts wouldn't have any idea about that.  So I don't think 
Harry's Quiddich plunge tells us anything about Harry's capacity to 
be killed.  

Along those lines, the fact that Snape and Dumbledore both try to 
protect Harry from a fall isn't dispositive either.  Falling from 
that height would likely *hurt*.  I would think these adults would 
intervene to prevent a student from suffering injury.

Now, Quirreldemort seems to think there is some benefit to knocking 
Harry off of his broom.  But I figure either Quirrel was doing the 
thinking there, or Voldemort figured it was worth a shot and 
couldn't hurt.

Or . . . or . . . causing Harry to fall from his broom in PS/SS may 
have been the first step toward -- you guessed it -- *weakening* 
Harry.

Pip:

> When Harry is *not* the [official] audience:
> "I have my reasons for using the boy, as I have already explained 
to 
> you, and I will use no other." (Voldemort p. 14. )
> This doesn't entirely sound like he fully expects to end up 
killing 
> Harry. He wants to 'use' him. In fact, Wormtail and Voldemort get 
> through the entire conversation in Chapter One without once 
> connecting the word 'kill' with 'Harry Potter'. And it's not that 
> they prefer euphemisms either - both Wormtail and Voldemort 
> use 'kill' - Wormtail when asking if he's to be killed and 
Voldemort 
> when talking about his killing Bertha Jorkins. (p.16)


I think we might need to tweak this a bit.  Voldemort and Wormtail 
may not have directly discussed killing Harry, but *Frank Bryce* 
sure got the message:  "And he was planning more murders -- this 
boy, Harry Potter, whoever he was -- was in danger -- "

No, I think the original plan was always to use Harry and kill him.

Pip:


>Plan A 
> includes a lot of 'softening the kid up first'. Plan A includes 
> weakening Harry - crucio, tying him to the gravestone in a long 
and 
> horrifying ordeal. Plan A is the plan of someone who knows that 
Harry 
> is very strong indeed.


Yes, I agree with this and am quite persuaded by it.  

And the best part is that Plan A gives us Smart!Voldemort, and, uh, 
there aren't a whole lot of other theories that lead us anywhere 
*close* to Smart!Voldemort.  ;-)

Pip:


> At no point in this duel does Voldemort launch a stupid, reckless 
> attack. He takes great care to ensure that Harry is already 
>weakened 
> and exhausted before the duel starts, that he has to use a weapon 
> that he's only half-trained in, that he is hit with 'softening up' 
> spells first, that he is taunted into playing the duel Voldemort's 
> way, and that when he is finally hit with an Avada Kedavra, Harry 
is 
> concentrating on launching another spell, not on defending 
>himself. 


Oh, goodness!  Another argument for Smart!Voldemort!  Yes, yes yes!

Pip:


> ***The Portkey is two-way to allow Harry a line of retreat. ***
> 
> It has been suggested that Voldemort is going to use the two-way 
> Portkey to launch an attack directly into Hogwarts, using the 
element 
> of surprise.

<snip>

> This suggests that the Portkey can have only one use - if its 
> deliberately two way nature is NOT aimed at Death Eaters, it can 
only 
> be aimed at Harry. Voldemort has given Harry a line of retreat. 

Uh oh.  

I was really rolling there with Pip, particularly as she was making 
*so* much headway with Smart!Voldemort.  But then we do an about-
face and go straight back to DumbAsAFencepost!Voldemort.  Plan B is 
that Voldemort is going to *let* Harry escape so that Harry can go 
get *stronger*?  So that he can learn how to use his wand, learn how 
to cast Dark Curses, learn to defend himself, and generally grow 
into a Superhero?   So that Harry will be really ready and 
experienced and cool as a cucumber when it is time for their next 
confrontation?

Whoa!  Doesn't the Evil Overlord Handbook say anything about 
*that*?  

Eh, well, maybe it's in the footnotes.  ;-)

I think that the only way Harry was getting out of that graveyard 
was over Voldemort's dead body.  Voldemort didn't *want* there to be 
three more books.  Oh, no.  He was ending it right there, and he 
didn't need or want a Plan B.  

Well, OK, maybe there was a Plan B.  But it was going to be really 
*messy.*  Plan B was for Voldemort and the DEs to chase Harry (come 
on, you know 30 grown men – all of whom can apparate -- can run down 
an injured 14 year old boy, right?).  When they caught him, they 
were going to . . . well, you know how we've speculated about the 
ways Harry was going to kill Sirius without AK?  Yeah.  Voldemort 
was going to get *medieval* on Harry.  Lots of ropes twisted around 
necks.  Lots of Harry being dropped onto his head again and again.  
Lots of Harry being buried alive.  

Had enough?  ;-)

Nah, I'm sticking with my prior view of why the Cup is round-trip.  
Crouch Jr. blew it.  The Cup was always set to be a round-trip from 
the center of the maze.  Otherwise, the winner would have to grab 
the Cup and battle his or her way past these life-threatening 
obstacles back to the entrance of the maze to claim the thousand 
galleons, which doesn't make sense.  Crouch Jr., being talented but 
rather new to the art of programming Portkeys, didn't know about 
this round trip feature, or more likely, didn't care.  'Cause Crouch 
Jr. had every reason to think that the only thing that might be 
returning via the Cup was Harry's corpse.

Of course, I also like the idea that the smoke people turned the Cup 
into a portkey.  "You must get to the Portkey, it will return you to 
Hogwarts."  So how did James know *that*?  I'm thinking that James 
and Lily protected their little boy by distracting Voldemort and 
enchanting the Cup.


Pip:

> ***Harry turns out to have unrealised powers.***
> 
> Harry has an amazing ability to dodge spells. 
> 
> In the duel:
> 
> [Harry ]" rolled behind the marble headstone of Voldemort's 
father, 
> and he heard it crack as the curse missed him. " ( p. 574 - a 
> Cruciatus spell )
> [Harry] " dived behind a marble angel to avoid the jets of red 
light 
> and saw the tip of its wing shatter as the spells hit it" ( p.580 -
 a 
> large number of Stupefy spells.)
> [Harry] " dived as he heard more wand blasts behind him; more jets 
of 
> light flew over his head as he fell.." ( p. 580 - more stunning 
> spells.)

Yes, this is disturbing.  And the graveyard isn't the only time a 
spell misses Harry.  When Draco tries to curse Harry in GoF, "Harry 
felt something white-hot graze the side of his face."  And in case 
there is any doubt that Malfoy shouldn't have missed Harry there, 
Moody behaves as though Malfoy shouldn't have missed:  "'Did he get 
you?' Moody growled."

Yeah, something is *up* with Harry's ability to dodge spells.  

Pip:

> There's another implication that suggests Harry's defences might 
not 
> be a full time 'shield' - he can get hit. Mostly when he doesn't 
> think to dodge.

Ah, but as I said above, Harry can be missed even when he doesn't 
think to dodge.  That suggests that his natural shield operates even 
when he doesn't know someone is firing at him.

Pip:

> At the end of the fight, Voldemort is not in a bad position with 
his 
> Death Eaters. Harry escaped, true, but Voldemort has shown that 
Harry 
> can be captured, injured, fought to a draw. Defeating Harry is 
going 
> to be tough - but it *is* possible.


Voldemort isn't in a bad position with the DEs because the duel was 
a *draw*?

Well . . . Voldemort had better hire a darn good spin doctor if he 
hopes to convince anyone of *that.*  Voldemort *lost* in the 
graveyard.  No doubt about it.  Oh yeah.  Oh, he got his body back.  
But the only lasting injury to Harry is a small cut on his arm.  And 
it was hardly a draw, because Harry broke the connection while 
Voldemort was fighting his way through *smoke people.*

Nah, Voldemort got totally *spanked* in the graveyard.  Sheez, I 
cannot even imagine Voldemort's next line of dialogue after Harry 
was transported from the graveyard.  Somehow, I suspect that 
*someone* received a good long Cruciatus Curse for allowing that to 
happen, and I'd bet that it was Wormtail.  Wormtail, who neglected 
to impress on young Crouch Jr. the importance of disabling the round-
trip Cup feature by, uh, cutting the *red* wire.  ;-)

And Avery.  Because torturing Avery is just so *convenient.*

Cindy