Harry's Protection (was Re: Questions)

[catimini15]

No: HPFGUIDX 119310



Bonjour Kneasy,

I took the liberty to write to you directly. I hope you don't mind. In
your response to SSSusan and Snow (post 119230 - Sat Dec 4) you say :
«Besides, when thinking of the power as 'life', I can't help
remembering the title of the first chapter of the first book: "The Boy
Who Lived." Appropriate, no?

Indeed. Very much so. This passage from your post reminded me of an
answer you once gave me to which I never replied back. On September
30th (post 114258) I wrote : «Harry is, of course, The Boy Who Lived
but on that fatal night, at Godric's Hollow, Voldemort survived too.
Could it be that Tom Riddle aka Lord Voldemort is also a boy who lived
?» To which you responded (post 114278 - Thu Sep 30) : «Well, at GH
Voldy was hardly a boy; at a rough estimate he was between 60 and 70.
And he himself doesn't consider that he lived, he merely existed. But
too many people have pointed out too many parallels between the two
for casual dismissal to be a comfortable option.»

Like I said, I never took the time to reply to you because your answer
was implacably logical. Voldy was sixty-ish at the time of Godric's
Hollow(G'sH) and way past boyhood. Also, it is so hard for me to
express my thoughts in english that I simply abandoned my idea.

Today, I have decided to try to explain myself thoroughly on The Boy
Who Lived. I can't help but think of all the similarities between
Harry and Tom/Voldy. Like you said, there are «too many parallels
between the two». I know that Voldy was an elderly man in G'sH but he
once was a boy. A boy named Tom Riddle who grew up to be Voldemort.
JKR once said that we should ask ourselves why didn't Voldemort die in
G'sH ? Could it be because Tom - when a baby - also received some sort
of protection ? Given by his dying mother maybe ? Just like Lily did
for Harry ? This is what I meant by Voldy being a boy, or maybe THE
boy who lived ! Voldy seems to think that it is his work on
immortality** that saved him... Wouldn't it be ironic if it was the
love of Tom's mother, trapped in Voldy's body when the AK backfired in
G'sH, that permitted him (Vapor!mort) to survive, to live, or merely
exist ? After all, DD did call Voldy Tom in the MoM (OotP). There has
always been something, or someone there (in Voldy) still alive. Merely
existing. Could it have been (could it be ?) Briefly-But-Just-Enough-
Loved-By-His-Mother-Tom ? This idea could almost be in sync with your
possession theory ! Yes ? No ? Anyway... Tom's mum was the second to
last descendant of Slytherin (a very powerful wizard). She died giving
birth but maybe she was herself a powerful enough witch to cast a
protection spell on her soon-to-be orphaned son.

I am not too keen on mushy mushy love resolution of the series but I
suspect «les bons sentiments», like we say in french, will play a key
part at the end of book seven.

Cheers,

Nadine

** Am I the only one to be bothered by the fact that Nicolas Flamel
(and his wife) postponed their deaths by six hundred years and nobody
complains while it seems a terrible crime for Voldemort to have tried
to achieve immortality ? He is an evil lord, a cruel assassin, an
outlaw, but why is his work on immortality so reprehensible ?