Elixir of Life/Stone/Voldemort's Mortephobia

[msbeadsley]

No: HPFGUIDX 79644

"Tricia Hemans" <hardcoreukuk at y...> wrote:  Arguable: In the first 
book it said that by drinking the Elixir of Life it would make the 
drinker immortal, but later in the story Dumbledore says to Harry 
that the Flamel's had enough Elixir stored in them to set their 
affairs straight. But, if drinking the Elixir of Life makes you 
immortal then if you had some, you would never die, ever. You can't 
just be immortal as long as you have a certain item, then that would 
mean you could still die. You would be still mortal like Achilles. 
Immortality means you can never die.

---> "msbeadsley": I thought that's why Voldemort was after the 
Stone, and not a (Flamel's) stock of elixir.  He wanted to be able to 
continue to make the elixir indefinitely, so that he could drink it 
forever and be, in effect, immortal.

Or maybe, although not as likely IMO, Voldemort thought the elixir, 
on top of all the other immortality magic he had hunted up and doused 
himself with, might just nudge him over into god-never-die status.

Why *is* Voldemort so determined not to die, anyway?  Does he believe 
he will face some sort of other-side-of-the-veil Wizengamot?  Perhaps 
it's like the priori incantatem effect; if he dies (and someone else 
may have said this fairly recently; am I cribbing?) and goes beyond 
the veil he will be surrounded by all those he sent ahead.  He seems 
to have way more than the usual "my brain cannot deal with the 
concept of its own non-existence" fear of death.