Must Harry Die? - sort of....

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 121548


Steve (bboyminn) wrote:
><snip>
> > "'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... 
> > etc...
> > 
> > This is the plain and simple part. No arguements hopefully.
> > 
> > "'...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can 
> > live while the other survives...etc...'"
> > 
> > This is the part that seesm to cause trouble.

Carol responds:
So far, I agree.

Steve (bboyminn) wrote:
<snip>
> "...for neither can live while the other survives..."
> 
> Is not so simple. The first and most obvious problem is that they
are both surviving and both living, but the Prophecy says that can't
happen.
> 
> It seems to imply that if one of doesn't die by some independant
> means, then both of them are doomed to death; each, meaning both, of
> them are doomed to death as long as his counterpart continues to
> survive. Extended further that opens the possibility for both of
them to die. <snip>

Carol responds:
Or maybe we need to look at what "survive" and "live" mean. If they
have the same meaning, the Prophecy is nonsense, as they are both
alive. Or are they? Maybe, instead, they are both *surviving* and
neither can truly *live* while the other continues to breathe and walk
the earth.

IMO, it's pretty clear that Voldemort is not *living*. He has never
died, as he informs he DEs in the graveyard scene, but the body he
inhabits is not a normal human body but the resurrected form of the
body destroyed at GH, which was already altered--or at least the face
was--by so many transformations that he was unrecognizable as Tom
Riddle. Hagrid says in SS/PS, "Don't know if he had enough human left
in him to die." And he seems to be right. Voldemort is no longer
human, either in form or in the capacity to feel. And he's not only
undergone the transformations and the restoration, but, via Quirrell,
he's drunk unicorn blood, meaning that he has only a cursed half-life.
So. Surviving, not living. But, if I read the Prophecy correctly, all
that would change if Harry were to die, or at least, if Voldemort
killed him himself and survived the conflict. Not that I think that LV
would be restored to human form (unless he so chose) or to human
feeling, but he would be in effect deathless and therefore, at least
in his view, truly alive. (I don't want to get into the mixed
blessings of earthly immortality here, only my reading of the Prophecy.)

What about Harry? it could be argued that he, too, is only surviving,
not truly living. He's had to endure life with the Dursleys, and even
at Hogwarts, there's always the threat of Voldemort (or the Dementors,
 or the supposedly murderous Sirius Black) that prevents him from
living the life of a normal wizard boy like Ron. Once he defeats
Voldemort, he can put all that behind him and finally *live.*

Carol, not arguing that this is the "right" way to read the Prophecy
but only presenting it as a possibility