Vanquishing Voldemort (Nick)

[dcgmck]

No: HPFGUIDX 106652

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Suzanne Chiles <suzchiles at y...> 
wrote:
 As Dumbledore says in
> OoTP:
> 
> "We both know there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom ... 
Indeed, your failure to understand that has always been your greatest 
weakness."
> 
> I am beginning to think that Dumbledore and/or Harry will find a 
way for Harry to kill Lord Voldemort, leaving merely a old, broken, 
Tom Riddle.  In this way, Harry fulfills the prophecy but does not 
commit murder.


I also think that the Voldemort/Riddle connection is what needs 
splicing and that it is Dumbledore's target in his plan to "vanquish" 
Voldemort.  Since killing is not something DD relishes and since 
Harry is deeply disturbed by the thought that he must someday become 
a killer if LV is to be defeated, there has to be another way.  

 - In HPI only someone not looking for the stone could find it.
 - In HPII Tom Riddle is a memory that can be eradicated by the fang 
of a mythical creature after being unwittingly revived by a sleep-
walking Ginny.  More important, a clearly anticipated if improbable 
wand malfunction clears the way.
 - In HPIII time is turned to allow for the impossible.
 - In HPIV the time-honored tradition of cheating makes possible 
Harry's success while an impossible imposture provides a portkey for 
an improbable revival.
 - In HPV an unexpected mind-meld saves Arthur Weasley's life, an 
unexpected Grawp gropes his way to Hermione's and Harry's freedom, 
and the unexpected appearance of DD saves Harry in the nick of time.

There always seems to be a new deus ex machina to save the day and 
the moral line for our increasingly angry young protagonist.  Now the 
emotional dam has burst, but unless Rowling wants an equally angry 
global audience, Harry will find his way back to moral rectitude sans 
priggishness.  This means helping DD facilitate the LV/TR split.  

I can't help thinking of Nearly Headless Nick's response to Harry 
when asked about the afterlife.  Nick said that he is a ghost because 
he feared death too much to move on.  Voldemort shares Nick's fear.  
It is what has driven him to seek so many ways to survive death.  
Somehow Nick's fear and Riddle's mortality have to be significant in 
helping Harry escape Voldemort's ultimate trap: seduction to the Dark 
Arts.