LV's experiments (was: His mother's eyes)

[kempermentor]

No: HPFGUIDX 122066



Carol responds:
<snip>  The Protego deflects the AK onto
> Voldemort, who is not killed because of the protections he put on
> himself (even he doesn't know which "experiments" made him immortal,
> but something did. See the speech in the graveyard quoted by Juli in
> post 121918). 

Kemper now:
Sorry to snip most of your post, it was enjoyable.

I can see how one may find the use of blood disturbing.  It seems 
barbaric.  When I was working this out I didn't want to consider it, 
but blood is such a strong/powerful symbol in religion 
(Judeo/Christian anyway) and literature that it seems important to 
the charm.  Referring to family, Hagrid says, "Whatever yeh say, 
blood's important
."  (Ok, it's a bit out of context)


 Even though LV does say that even he doesn't know which of 
his 'experiments' made him survive the rebounded curse, it is still 
him making the remark.  He may be speaking truthfully, but it is easy 
to see that LV would lie about which experiment made him un-killable 
if not immortal.  It is so that he has the knowledge and no one 
else.  That way he would not need to worry about any young, dark, 
upstart wizard vying for his power and position.  Why would LV want 
to share immortality with anyone? 

I think that LV suspects what saved him: his ability to leave a part 
of his soul behind.  We first see it in CS, when sixteen-year-old 
Tommy leaves a part of himself in the diary.  
This is quite a trick.  Tom's a bright boy; he can see the 
possibilities in this bit of magic.  He can easily imagine having his 
soul entirely outside of his body someday.  Although not a spiritual 
young man, he knows the soul can live forever and that it's the 
vessel that tires and dies.  Over the years, he practices separating 
his soul and body, but the closer they come to complete separation, 
the difficult task becomes even more painful, LV becomes even 
weaker.  He knows the soul is useless without the body.

I have another hypothesis about Ancient Law: two souls can't 
completely occupy the same body.  This allows for possession as the 
possessor still has facilities over his own body.

LV sees the necessity of extracting the soul from another 
witch/wizard some day.  A day when he's in the winter of his life.  
He starts experimenting.  Witches and wizards disappear never to be 
seen.  LV is no longer experimenting with separating his soul and 
body, for the time being.  Without an appropriate host for his soul 
to embody, other than a diary, then the neat trick of separating his 
soul and body is a practice in painful futility.  LV's experiments 
are the development of a fourth Unforgivable Curse: Absque Spiritus 
Vita.  The curse will rip soul from victim's body.  

The experiments aren't up to snuff.  That's ok, LV is still young and 
has ample time to perfect the curse.
That is until that fateful Halloween.

Some posters have suggested that LV wanted to switch places with 
Harry.  I don't think so.  Why would LV wish to switch places when he 
was at the peak of his power?  He wouldn't.  He goes to kill Harry.  
But it backfires due to the shield charm and my hypothesis of another 
Ancient Law, mentioned in my prior post.  It is plausible that LV 
recognized the AK's backfire moments before it hit his body.  In 
those moments, he performed the magic that released his soul from his 
body and became less than spirit.  (He probably had never totally 
separated his soul from his body and that left him weaker than he had 
imagined and in a great deal of pain.)  

He tells his DEs that the curse rebounded onto him, saying, "I was 
ripped from my body."  Again, I think he lies to his followers so 
that they are left in the dark and needing his dark direction.  He 
ripped himself from his body.