Vanquishing Voldemort (Nick)

[dcgmck]

No: HPFGUIDX 106707

Suzanne Chiles 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."
> > 
> David Gabbard: 
> I'm glad you brought this quotation back up to the surface - What 
is Dumbledore referring to when he says "We both know there are other 
ways of destroying a man..."  Why/What do they BOTH know? Have either 
one of them already destroyed a man in a way worse than killing him? 
Did Bellatrix just do that to Sirius? 

Hm... I thought he was referring to the Longbottoms and to Barty 
Crouch, Jr., for starters.  I did wonder if perhaps Dumbledore was 
also referring to the wretched existence Voldemort experienced 
between his initial downfall and his recorporealization, as well as 
to the way Voldemort had sacrificed his humanity out of fear of 
death, similar to Nearly Headless Nick's sacrifice of immortality for 
his purgatory-like existence at Hogwarts.  Fear of risking the 
unknown is, after all, its own kind of self-destruction...