It's A Wonderful Life? (was re: Overturning the prophecy)

[Derek Hiemforth]

No: HPFGUIDX 86674


>> Rachel:
>>   Just a small note that JKR might have been trying to give a hint 
>> in the scene after the prophecy has smashed in OOtP (british version
>> pg 814) between DD and Voldie:
>> 
>> "You do not seek to kill me dumbledore?..." - Voldie
>> 
>> "We both know that there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom... 
>> Merely taking your life would not satisfy me, I admit-" - DD
>> 
>> "There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!" - Voldie.
>> 
>> "You are quite wrong... Indeed your failure to understand that there
>> are things much worse than death has always been your greatest 
>> weakness-" - DD
>
>madeyesgal:
>
>In an earlier post, I (tongue in cheeck) suggested that Harry and LV 
>fight it out in the end, Harry disarm LV and in the end a dementor 
>administers the "kiss" to Voldmort. 
[snip]
>Couldn't this be what Dumbledore was talking about..."there are
>things much worse than death...?

Derek:
Taking a page from Frank Capra's classic film "It's a Wonderful Life,"
I wonder if Dumbledore was talking about making it so that LV had
never existed?  It's easy to see why merely taking LV's life would
not satisfy DD.  It's not because DD is so bloodthirsty... it's
because LV's presence in the world has caused so much pain and
death.  What if DD meant that he would only be satisfied if LV had
never existed, and all the evil he had done was reversed?

Perhaps they could somehow arrange things (time travel? an obscure
spell?) so that history is altered such that Tom Riddle never becomes
Lord Voldemort.  Maybe the ultimate solution is not for Harry to kill
Lord Voldemort, but for Harry to *prevent* "Lord Voldemort" and
*redeem* Tom Riddle by somehow turning him away from this course before
he ever takes it.

DD made much of the fact that Harry's asking the Sorting Hat not to
put him in Slytherin made him different from Tom Riddle.  Otherwise,
everyone admits that there are many similarities between the two.
What if Harry went back in time (or something) and talked to Tom Riddle
before the sorting ceremony... orphan-to-orphan, halfblood-to-halfblood?
What if Harry told Tom that his life could be whatever he made of it,
that he could ask the sorting hat to put him wherever he wanted to go?
Would Tom Riddle have gone bad if he'd been sorted into Gryffindor or
Ravenclaw instead of Slytherin?

This would fulfill the prophecy neatly.   The "Dark Lord" would not
survive (even if "Tom Riddle" did) and Harry could live.  Tom Riddle
has certainly marked Harry as an equal, talking in CoS about how alike
they are.

Too wild?  Have I now convinced you all that I'm crazy?  :)

- Derek