Voldemort's Snake Immortality

[naamagatus]

No: HPFGUIDX 110332

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)" 
<catlady at w...> wrote:
> Naama wrote in
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/110260 :
> 
> << So, compared to the phoenix, the snake would symbolise 
immortality achieved through fake dying or cheating death >> 
> 
> It is very clever and relevant how you distinguish between snake
> immortality and phoenix immortality. 

Thanks.

>There wasn't a clear distinction until you drew one. Snakes 
>sometimes symbolise immortality by not
> dying, by instead getting young again after being old. Snakes other
> times symbolize re-incarnation, which involves just as much real 
>dying as the phoenix does. 

Yes. Well, in HP the phoenix and the snake are clearly two warring 
principles, so I went with the "cheating" death vs. real death here. 
(Just to make the "warring principles" more clear: Dumbledore who is 
the epitome of good (according to JKR!) has a phoenix for a pet. 
Also, as we now know, his patronus is a phoenix. Voldemort, who is 
pure evil, has a snake for a pet and also has many snaky features. 
Then there is the Order of Phoenix - the most dedicated fighters for 
good, with the snake (and skull) marking the Death Eaters. So - 
phoenix is DD, is good, is light, and snake is Voldemort, is evil, is 
dark.)
> 
<snip>
> 
> However, I've also always assumed that Parselmouth was something he
> was born with. How does that work? Only people born with Parselmouth
> can achieve fake immortality by magic? People who are born with
> Parselmouth really ARE inherently evil, as wizarding stereotypes
> assume, dispite all the talk about 'choices'? 
> 

It's a question I've thought about. It would be very unlike the main 
moral thrust of the books, so I'd say that no, being born a 
Parselmouth doesn't make you evil (or mark you as evil). BUT, and 
this is just a suggestion - what if being a Parselmouth (and/or, 
having a snake as your patronus/animagus animal) enables you to 
perform certain immortality-causing spells on yourself, that would 
otherwise not be available? I've started out by thinking, like you, 
that Voldemort's snakiness came from some spell where he used snake 
venom or such. But I'm coming around to thinking that it has to be 
deeper than that. 

We know that he has a deep connection to snakes - he is a Parselmouth 
and I assume that Tom Riddle's patronus/animagus form is snake. What 
if one of the "steps" that he took was some kind of partial merging 
or melding with his animagus form? Didn't Lupin say that animagus 
spells can go horribly wrong? That might mean (again, speculating 
here) that wizards may lose their humanity via the transformation. 
What if Voldemort, an extremely powerful wizard, did precisely that, 
but in a controled way, so that he replaced some human aspects with 
snake aspects, while keeping some human aspects intact (mainly his 
mind, intellect)? Harry felt Voldemort as a snake emotionally 
(wanting to bite) - maybe one of the human aspects that were replaced 
by snaky ones is the emotional aspect?


Naama, delighted at the chance to discuss this