Possession

[arrowsmithbt]

No: HPFGUIDX 90766

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "johnbowman19" <jhnbwmn at h...> wrote:
(snipped)
> To me these posts are saying that Voldemort is possessed (obviously). 
> But when some one is possessed are they responsible for their actions? 
> Can they make choices of their own free will? No, they cannot. It's 
> like when someone is under the Imperius Curse, they are under someone 
> else's control. If Voldemort is possessed, he is not a bad guy. He is 
> just a tool for the use of another even worse guy. Also I do not think it 
> would be in line with the importance of choices in the books. DD 
> says that it is our choices that make us who we are. If Voldemort was 
> possessed he would not be an interesting bad guy. It is his choices 
> that have turned him into who he is today; he is not a possessed 
> victim but rather an evil mastermind. 
> 
> In closing, I think that if Voldemort is possessed he would lose some 
> accountability for his actions after being possessed, because they 
> were not made out of his free will, but rather Salazar's.
> 

I can see  the point that you're making, but IMO it does not necessarily
invalidate the possession theory. You have to ask yourself some other 
questions - are the choices we make irrevocable? Is it possible in JKR's 
world to change your mind? I think it is.

Let me briefly summarise my thinking, mostly as an escape from the posts
of the fevered bunch who have succumbed to the SHIPping-itis outbreak.
Fortunately, some of us have been innoculated against romance, or maybe
it's  a function of age.

We saw at the Ministry, just what possession is like to  the one possessed
when Voldy briefly took Harry  over. He  became a puppet of Voldy with
no control over his actions or speech but his mind still remained his own.
This is key, I  think. This is what I believe happened to Tom Riddle, but
Tom, whether by choice or design did not, or could not break free.

This could get alarmingly metaphysical and the names do not allow for
easy separation of identity, but I'll try  to break it down as clearly as I'm
able:
The Voldemort in the books consists of at least two entities within the 
same physical body - let's call them Voldy!Sally and Voldy!Tom and the
combination Lord Voldemort.
Voldy!Sally is the disembodied entity that was placed in the Chamber by
Salazar, lying in wait for any unwary individual who happened to drop in.
Voldy!Sally is not a person; it is easier to think of  it as a force for evil.
Voldy!Sally *needed* a physical body to  carry out Salazar's noble  work.
He got Tom.
Tom was subsumed as Voldy!Tom, the junior member of the partnership.
I assume that Voldy!Sally offered the usual inducements - power, riches,
revenge, arcane knowledge, immortality; the usual stuff. 
Tom was presumably satisfied with the arrangement; it suited his nasty
disposition and would enable him to wreak his revenge on what he thought
of as an uncaring and unfair society.   
And so the Lord Voldemort we all know and love was born.

Dumbledore knows all this, or at least has strong suspicions.
Voldy!Sally is just a force; it is an  aspect of Salazar, it does not  have a
mind to change, it cannot repent. But Voldy!Tom can, and if DD can get 
through to what remains of Tom and somehow persuade him to  break
the partnership, to resist the urgings of Voldy!Sally, then it will lead to a
split that may result in the destruction or weakening of the whole.

And Voldy!Sally can be resisted, Harry shows that. But it's not easy and
it is painful. 

DD,  being the daft old duffer that he is, does not think in terms of killing
and destruction, he thinks in terms of repentance and redemption. To trot
out an old quote, "There is no such thing as a bad boy." Tom can be saved
but only if Tom *chooses* to be saved. To make the wrong choice leads to
the "thing worse than death" in his  book. And Harry  has shown Tom how
to do it. 

(Will Harry have to repeat the lesson? There's a thought. Harry tempted, 
re-possessed and then making the choice that is being offered to Tom.
Possibly the first real choice he has had in the series - everything else
has been decided for him by others and Harry is showing signs of a
worryingly bloody-minded and stubborn independence.) 

As a FEATHERBOA fanatic, I see that this could lead to a distressingly gore
-free conclusion, with at least one of the major battles being an internal 
one inside Lord Voldemort, (Boo! Hiss! I want blood!) but it  might just
chime with the moral viewpoint that JKR is believed to espouse.   

I've no  real  evidence for all this, of course, except for JKR's comment
about Salazar leaving something of himself in the Chamber; plus the
behaviour of  DD in calling Voldy "Tom" when they meet in the Ministry
and his refusal to even attempt to destroy Lord Voldemort. Can't think
of another theory that ties all these three together so satisfactorily. 

But like all theories it all depends on JKR co-operating. We shall see.

Kneasy