Self-destruction of "essentially divided" Dark Lord

[ellejir]

No: HPFGUIDX 70964

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Florentine Maier" wrote:
> "The scene in chapter 22, where Dumbledore consults one of his  
instrumens. It shows him a puff of smoke shaped like a snake. Then DD 
says, "Naturally. But in essence divided?" and the snake divides into 
two snakes. DD observes this with "grim satisfaction." There hasn't 
been any solution for this scene, so I think it contains  an 
important clue. 
So here's my latest proposal:
The Dark Lord is in essence divided, because he is composed of two 
personalities: Tom Riddle and Lord Voldemord. Harry Potter has the 
power to vanquish the Dark Lord by making Tom Riddle and Voldemort 
fight against each other. Riddle and Voldemort will kill each other 
and both die."<

Me:
I thought that the scene that you describe here was odd.  It seemed 
to break the tension which had been building with Harry's dream of 
the attack on Mr. Weasley, Arthur's rescue, and the question of 
whether this was going to be *the death* in book 5 (for which we had 
all been prepared.)  I interpreted the snake image as referring to  
the snake in Harry's dream, inhabited by both Voldemort and Harry.  
The division into two snakes indicated that the two minds (Lord V's 
and Harry's) are still separate but intertwined.  But that 
interpretation almost seems to belabor the obvious, so I'm not sure 
that it is correct. 
Also, (forgive me if this has been discussed to death) at the end of 
the book Dumbledore once again becomes quite friendly with Harry, and 
is no longer avoiding looking at him.  Are we to assume that the link 
between Harry and Voldemort's minds has been severed permanently by 
Lord V's failed possession of Harry at the MoM?  It seems strange if 
it is so.      Elle