Killing Harry for Fun and Profit

[Peggy]

No: HPFGUIDX 127996


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at y...> wrote:
<really big snip>
>> Voldemort's Shield-
> 
> We don't have details, but we know Voldemort has spent his whole 
adult
> life pursuing and experimenting with protections against death.
> Further, we know that one of more of these has, to some degree, 
worked. 
> 
> 
> Now combine this new concept of Prophecy Shield with the protections
> that both Harry and Voldemort originally each uniquely had, and you
> have two extremely hard to kill people. 
> 
> Let me expand this by asking a question, if you were a general 
wizard
> or a Death Eater, give that Harry couldn't be killed by the 
strongest
> Dark Lord in a century, and given that the attempt by said wizard
> rebound and generally destroyed said wizard, would you want to be 
the
> next person to attempt to kill Harry? 
> 
> Just on the original vanquishing of Voldemort by baby Harry alone, I
> can't imagine that any one is too eager to put Harry's vulnerability
> to the test. I certainly wouldn't want to be the first. 
> 
> Now in terms of the End Game, the conclusion of the story, things 
have
> gotten a little sticky. It's not simply a matter of an effective way
> to lure one or the other into a trap. It's going to take some very
> special and unique circumstances to cause the downfall of either 
Harry
> or Voldemort. It's going to take some very special, unique, and
> powerful magic to accomplish the job. Although, perhaps the key is
> that to 'vanquish' either, the solution is to NOT use magic; for one
> to kill the other by non-magical means; think Colt 45, the Arch/Veil
> of Death, or even Sword of Gryffindor.
> 
> This is what make the conclusion of the series so spectacular, JKR, 
in
> a sense, has written herself into a corner, but placing both key
> characters in a position where they can't actually be killed. Yet, 
in
> the end, we know that one or the other must be killed, or if not
> killed then so sufficiently vanquished as to prevent them from ever
> being a threat again.
> 
> That leaves us with one overriding heart-pounding sleepless-night
> inducing question - HOW?
> 
> Just a thought.
> 
> Steve/bboyminn

Now Peg:

Well, my take on Voldemort's "protected" status is way back in the 
messages:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/121546

A quick summary--Lord Thingy is a magical construct, not 
really "alive" in the usual sense.  The prophecy has been fulfilled 
in part because of the rebounding AK.  The real issue isn't how to 
kill him (he's dead where he stands, in a sense), rather, it's how to 
undo the spells holding him together.

Because of the constraints of the Prophecy, as stated by JKR in the 
person of Sibyl Trelawney, Harry is only vulnerable to AK at the 
hands of LV.  LV is dead already (Oh, Harry didn't have a 
direct "hand" in the curse?  Prophecies are notoriously vague on 
details.)  

Other curses by other people will work, but because of the structure 
of the action nobody except LV will get to try to cast AK at Harry.  
Remember the end of GoF, when Fake!Moody was about to cast the AK and 
was interrupted by DD?  Hmmm . . . Food for thought, what if Barty 
Jr. *had* managed to articulate the curse?  Is it the power of the 
Prophecy (working through the structure of the story) that prevented 
him?

I know this isn't a point-by-point response, but Steve's post just 
prompted a few random thoughts on my part.

Peg