GH re-re-revisited

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 115612


Finwitch wrote:
> 
> Now let's see - yes, Voldy DID lose his powers (most of them anyway)
> when the curse backfired. He was left with the power to possess,
> however, and I don't know if Harry got that power from Voldy as well
> (and is actually doing that when he has those curious dreams!).
> 
> Still, most of Voldemort's powers are gone into Harry. He's
somewhere in Albania (for some reason he was thrown there). He lived
as a spirit and was less than a ghost...

Carol responds:
Doesn't he get there by possessing small animals? That's what he does
after he leaves Quirrell, at least.
<snip>


Finwitch wrote:  
> He *can* speak parseltongue. (I'm guessing he *regained* this
ability by possessing snakes. Any snake has this ability).
> 
> He has a wand and he *can* use it. (possibly gained by possessing
> Quirrell, who was a wizard).
> 
Carol responds:
Very good, assuming that Quirrell, who was never A DE, is capable of
using all three Unforgiveables (used by LV in GoF). But what about
Legilimency, a power that few wizards other than LV and Dumbledore
have, and which he apparently regains before he tries to possess Harry?
> 
Finwitch wrote:
> Voldemort INSISTS on using Harry's blood. And why? Because Harry has
his powers! So, in the ritual, Voldemort regained his powers trough
Harry's blood. <snip>

Carol responds:
Compelling as this idea sounds at first, LV even in the form of a
monstrous infant can torture, kill, and intimidate. He's regained the
ability not only to perform every conceivable spell or curse but to
speak Parseltongue and presumably to use Legilimency. What powers does
he need to "regain" from Harry that he doesn't have already, even
before he regains a body? The spell calls for the "blood of an enemy,"
and presumably any enemy would have done as well, but he could hardly
expect to capture Dumbledore and using Harry gives him great personal
satisfaction (it satisfies his thirst for vengeance), and of course he
thinks that he will also have the chance to kill Harry when he's
through using him.

I think, but of course I don't know, that Voldemort's powers are part
of his identity, which resides in his spirit, not in his body. When he
lost his body, some of those powers were transferred to Harry, but
Voldemort retained them in latent form. As a spirit, all he could do
was possess animals (and apparently understand their thoughts and
therefore communicate with other animals). But he could also use them
to kill and eat other animals, which is why he was regarded as a
spirit of terror by the rats and other creatures that Wormtail talked
to after LV's second vaporization. He was also able, somehow, to
communicate with Quirrell and persuade him to carry him, in some form,
back to England. (He only possessed him as a punishment, and a means
of control, after Quirrell failed to get the stone.) Almost certainly
he used Legilimency as part of the intimidation/indoctrination
process. I think that Voldemort's powers gradually returned to him as
he regained his strength, and he could use them to a limited degree
even in animal form, and whatever form he had when he met Quirrell.
(Could he have been a monstrous infant then, as he is in GoF,
transformed through Nagini's milk and an incantation without the use
of a wand? Or could that transformation have taken place only once,
with Wormtail using Voldemort's own wand to transform him?)

So many holes in the plot, and only Voldemort unreliably narrating his
own story to fill them!

Carol, hoping that this message doesn't double or triple post after
being eaten by Yahoo!mort