Re: Hands up, who’s been possessed? (long)

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 116335


Dungrollin:
> The biggest problem with Ginny's (so-called) 
> possessions, is that she doesn't remember anything 
> about them. Which has led many to
> believe that either the possession was of a 
> different nature to those effected by present-day 
> Voldy, or that she wasn't truly possessed.

Geoff:
However, she believes that she was....

<snip>
"Well, can you remember everything you've been doing?" Ginny 
asked. "Are there big blank periods where you don't what you've 
been up to?"
Harry racked his brains.
"No," he said.
"Then You-Know-Who hasn't ever possessed you," said Ginny 
simply.'

(OOTP "Christmas on the Closed Ward" pp.441-442 UK edition)

A bit more ammunition for your case?


Dungrollin:

(The following is highly speculative.)

Sorry, I was being too concise.  Yes, Ginny believes she was 
possessed, however, her experience was nothing like Harry's, 
in that she remembers nothing about it. (This is irritating. 
We have no memories of pain, or of what it felt like in general, 
for us to compare with Harry's experience). And the assumption 
that she knows what it feels like is thus a red herring, IMO. 

If I'm right about Quirrell only being possessed some of the 
time, and clearly remembering what happened, and Harry 
remembering everything about his possession in the MoM 
...(actually, the only evidence we have of this is that when DD 
mentions it Harry doesn't go `Huh?  What?  I was 
*possessed*?!')... and if Ginny was *really* possessed, then 
Diary!Tom must have had some hand in altering her memories.

Which means that Diary!Tom and Vapo!Mort are very different 
creatures.  It's really annoying me. 

I'm going off on a tangent now.

*How* could Diary!Tom creating a body through stealing Ginny's 
soul have strengthened the present-day Voldemort considerably?

There would have been the body of a 16-year-old Riddle, with 
whatever was in the diary controlling it.  How could that have 
helped Vapo!Mort?  Possessing the new alive Riddle would surely 
have resulted in the death of that body too, as it did for 
Quirrell and the animals.

Unless... Well, we don't know *why* possession is lethal.  The 
conflict of having two different souls in one body, perhaps?  
If the new Riddle had a duplicate of LV's soul, then perhaps 
Vapo!Mort could have possessed him with no ill-effects.  

Alternatively, if what was in the diary really was just 
memories, perhaps the new Riddle would not have had a soul at 
all, so Vapo!Mort could have moved in sans problème.  This makes 
more sense to me, I doubt that LV would have duplicated his soul 
(if such a thing can be done at all) and put a copy in the 
diary; too great a possibility for competition, too high a 
chance of it falling into the wrong hands and being used against 
him.

So what was Diary!Tom, and what was Vapo!Mort?  How could 
Diary!Tom create a body using Ginny's soul?  And while we're
at it, where do a wizard's powers reside, anyway?  In his mind, 
body or soul?

If Vapo!Mort was LV's soul, then it is the soul that is able to 
possess another body, which would imply that the soul is where
the other magical powers reside, too.  However, Voldy says in 
the graveyard scene that he lost his powers *and* his body – but 
if he were bodiless and thus unable to use a wand, then, in 
effect, losing his body did lose him all his other powers too.  
Apart from the ability to possess.  For which, apparently, you need 
only a soul.  (Evidently, it doesn't require a wand and an 
incantation.)

Why is LV the only character (AFAWK) who can possess other 
beings?  Did one of his experiments involve loosening the ties 
between body and soul, and is that how he gained the ability to 
possess in the first place?

Am I grabbing at straws?  Has someone cleverer than me thought 
this through before?

Dungrollin

Reflecting that there are few things in life as satisfying as 
stripping wallpaper.  And writing a thesis isn't one of them.