Lord Voldemort's Death

[Cathy Drolet]

No: HPFGUIDX 110189

I'm just formulating this so please bear with me.

Snape is a Potions Master and he was a Death Eater.  He knows at least one potion that will "stopper death." (PS) I think it quite possible that as a DE he brewed potions which LV used on his path to immortality, one or more of which may have worked.  LV only knows that "I was less than a spirit, less than the meanest ghost ... but still, I was alive.  *What I was, even I do not know* ...<snip>...it appeared that one or more of my experiments had worked, for I had not been killed."

LV has said, "There is nothing worse than death." He doesn't want to die, perhaps is afraid to die, or he wouldn't be working on immortality. (Yes, he wants to be powerful forever, and rule the WW forever, but that in turn still makes him want to stay alive, or not die.)  Would he have become a ghost when he AK'd HP, if he hadn't taken steps to ward off death?  I think it quite likely.  Perhaps the step that worked, a potion maybe or a spell, made him 'nearly' a ghost.  Just one step away from being a ghost. Ghosts can't eat or drink, but LV was able to a drink potion, a potion made from unicorn blood and snake venom.  "Unicorn blood will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price.  You have slain something pure and defenceless to save yourself and you will have *but a half life,* a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips." [Firenze] "But if you're going to be cursed for ever, death's better, isn't it?" [Harry] "It is, unless all you need is to stay alive long enough to drink something else -- something that will bring you back to full strength and power -- something that will mean you can never die." [Firenze] (PS)  But, LV never got *that thing* and I am not convinced that the rebirthing potion did it, either.  It may explain the "gleam" in DD eye; he knows the body LV created for himself did not make him mortal again, but is only a shell for his ghost-like self to dwell in and use.

Nick said, "Wizards can leave an imprint of themselves upon the earth, to walk palely where their living selves once trod.  But very few wizards chose that path."  He later said, "I was afraid of death, I chose to remain behind, I sometimes wonder whether I oughtn't to have ... well, that is neither here no there ... in fact, I am neither here nor there...I know nothing of the secrets of death, Harry, for I chose a feeble imitation of life instead." (OotP)  It appears to me, from this, that Nick was quite melancholy about his dicison. Could he feel that being a ghost is, to him, something worse than death?  

Dumbledore told Harry, "Not being truly alive he [LV] cannot be killed." (PS)  What if that still holds true?  LV underestimates so much of the old magic, what if the potion he used 'only' gave him a body to house the 'near ghost'?  It didn't actually make him 'mortal' again, he just has a physical flesh house around his nearly ghost soul.  He can hold a wand and perform magic, because he still knows the spells (his memories were not erased), and has a body to hold the wand.  It may explain the "gleam" in DD eye (GoF); he knows the body LV created for himself did not make him mortal again, did not return him to "full strength and power" but is only a shell for his ghost-like self to dwell in and use.  

DD didn't attempt to kill LV because he believes only the one referred to in the prophecy has the 'power' to do so.  DD attempting to kill him, as I said once before, would leave him as Vapormort and we would be back at the beginning.  Harry needs to find the antidote to the potion (which utilizes the power the Dark Lord knows not) , or the counter curse, to remove the 'bit' of LV that keeping him from being a ghost.  He doesn't even have to get rid of the new body, as the Ghost!LV wouldn't inhabit it anyway (as Nick, Myrtle, etc are no longer in their physical bodies).  

DD said to LV, "Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness." (OotP)  LV as a ghost, only an imprint of himself, a feeble imitation of life, powerless and wandless, unable to ingest a potion to ever make him anything more or less, trapped between here and there, laughable to some degree;  would that be worse than death to LV?

Thoughts?

DuffyPoo








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