Possession

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 89906

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "arrowsmithbt" 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:
> Possession. The mental(?) control of another being. Very different
> from the ability to  read minds. 
> In canon it seems that only Voldy can do this - why?
> What is it about  Voldy that gives him the power to possess?
> Numerous small animals, Nagini, Quirrell, Ginny, sort of with Harry,
> he seems to be able to do it at will, with no need for wand or 
> spells. 
> Is it a power that Tom developed on his own or is it a power from 
> elsewhere that also possessed Tom (maybe when he first entered the
> Chamber) and is it this possession that turned him into Voldy?
> If you're an heir, there is something to be handed down to you 
> isn't there?
> 
> If it is a power or entity separate in origin from Tom does Tom 
> still exist as a personality in some form inside the Voldy!Monster?
> Is this why DD keeps appealing to Tom; is he trying to break the
> hold of whatever has taken him over?
> 
> But the Chamber of Secrets is a special place, designed and built
> by a powerful and decidedly nasty piece of work - Salazar Slytherin.
> The title itself implies that there are, or were, multiple secrets.
> What were (are) they? Was there something in there that was waiting 
> for the right personality to enter that would allow it to take form 
> again?
> 
> Could it be that Tom is an (almost) innocent victim? Shock!Horror!
>  
> Kneasy

K. then responded:

No. I don't think so.

BBC Newsround/Fall 2000
Interview with J.K. Rowling, Transcript

Voldemort's a half-blood too


JKR: Like Hitler! See! I think it's the case that the biggest bully
takes their own defects and they put them on someone else, and they
try to destroy them. And that's what he Voldemort does. That was very
conscious - I wanted to create a villain where you could understand
the workings of his mind, not just have a 2-D baddie, dressed up in
black, and I wanted to explore that and see where that came from.
Harry in Book Four is starting to come to terms with what makes a
person turn that way. Because they took wrong choices and he Voldemort
took wrong choices from an early age.~~


Now Siriusly Snapey Susan:
I think as long as one is willing to postulate that Tom was already 
making BAD CHOICES and went seeking "The Darkness", it could still be 
*possible* that JKR's response in this interview still fits....  Or 
it could be that K's right and that Tom is not an [almost] innocent 
victim.

Even if it's not that Voldy is Possessed!Tom [or Voldy!Monster], I 
think Kneasy still asks some fascinating questions:

     1)  Why IS it called the Chamber of Secret*S*?  What other 
secrets are/were contained there?  
     2)  What happened to Tom when he entered it?  What did he learn 
& see?  What DID he inherit as Heir of Slytherin, if anything?  
     3)  What IS it about Voldy which allows him to apparently so 
easily possess others?  Is this some gift or talent he's always 
displayed?  Or did something happen to him which allowed him to begin 
to use others this way?  What THIS what he somehow inherited??
     4)  What is the reason for DD's continually calling him "Tom"?  
It *could* be merely a defiant refusal to grant him "Lord" status and 
to put him in his place as a former student.  But could it be 
something different, as Kneasy's suggested--a calling out to the Tom 
who might still be "in there" or "out there" somewhere?

Remembering JKR's infamous "I almost revealed it all in Chamber of 
Secrets" comment [paraphrased], I think these ideas are worth further 
contemplation.

Siriusly Snapey Susan