Mild TBAY, trying to answer JK's Edinburgh questions.

[saraquel_omphale]

No: HPFGUIDX 132070

In the Edinburgh interview, JK said this is what we should think 
about: 

"There are two questions that I have never been asked but that I 
should have been asked, if you know what I mean. <snip> "Why didn't 
Voldemort die?" Not, "Why did Harry live?" but, "Why didn't Voldemort 
die?" The killing curse rebounded, so he should have died. Why didn't 
he? At the end of Goblet of Fire he says that one or more of the steps 
that he took enabled him to survive. You should be wondering what he 
did to make sure that he did not die— <snip> but you should be asking 
yourself that question, particularly now that you know about the 
prophesy."  (For the full interview go to 
http://www.mugglenet.com/jkrebf and select the Edinburgh interview at 
the bottom of the page.)

So that's what I've been thinking about.  Let's start with 
Dumbledore.  I think that what Snape told DD that convinced him to 
trust him, was what experiments LV had done to try and achieve 
immortality. Proof that the DEs know this is in GoF p562 when LV 
addresses the DEs in the graveyard "And then I ask myself, but how 
could they have believed I would not rise again? They, who knew the 
steps I took, long ago, to guard myself against mortal death?"

DD also had the prophecy, he knew that either Harry or Neville was the 
ONLY one who could conquer LV.

So with these two bits of information, he set about working out how to 
finally conquer LV. I suspect that DD has been putting into action a 
plan he hatched even BEFORE LV tried to kill Harry.  So he must have 
sat down with the Potters and the Longbottoms and devised something 
which would be a failsafe to keep both Harry and Neville alive in the 
event that LV tried to kill them.  Further DD has been enacting that 
plan throughout the course of the 7 books.  So part of the answer to 
why DD didn't try to kill LV is that he knows that whatever he does 
will not conquer LV because of the prophecy.  Only Harry can conquer 
LV.  

I also think that DD *behaves as though* he knows that LV cannot kill 
Harry simply by using the AK curse, probably because the combination 
of the prophecy, the information Snape gave him and the spell he 
devised with Lily tells him so.  LV doesn't know this and is still 
trying to use this curse to kill Harry.  Maybe this could partly 
explain why DD keeps seeming to allow/encourage Harry to get into life 
threatening situations with LV. (The Mirror of Erised etc)  

Another reason why I think DD 'wants' Harry to keep on meeting LV is 
because I think he wants Harry to really know what/who LV is.  My 
reason for thinking this is tied up with the next bit of the puzzle - 
what did LV do to ensure that he survived?

Don't expect chapter and verse here, I need some help from you guys!  
But I do have some ideas based on a theme, even if I can't explain 
exactly how it works.

The theme is having others inside us in some way. There are two ways 
in which this has been illustrated in the books - posession (not nice 
and disempowering to the point of death - Quirrel and the animals LV 
has possessed) and people living on in others even after they have 
died (nice, and empowering). DD says to Harry in PoA p312 "You think 
the dead we have loved ever truly leave us? You think that we don't 
recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble? Your 
father IS ALIVE IN YOU, Harry, and shows himself most plainly when you 
have need of him."  (My capitals)

Now, my specualtion is that LV survived because he spread himself 
about a bit. In other words, some part of himself has been transferred 
to others - and I don't mean just Harry. I think he has transferred 
some of himself into his DEs which is why they know what experiments 
he did.  

In GoF p566 he says, "You all know that on the night I lost my powers 
and my body, <very large snip> I was ripped from my body, I was less 
that spirit, less than the meanest ghost ... but I was still alive.  
What I was, even I do not know ..." I speculate that he survived 
because he was still alive in others in some way and they were still 
alive, thus keeping him alive.  The attempt to kill Harry with the AK 
curse took away his body and his powers, but it seems that life is a 
combination of these two things and something 'less than spirit'. 

I'm not someone who speculates much beyond what can be closely 
verified by cannon, so I think this is about as far as I can go as to 
the mechanism. But, there are inferences that can be taken from this.  

We know that Harry has some of LVs powers in himself.  We also know, 
that LV has some of Harry's blood in him, which allowed LV to touch 
Harry. News of which caused the gleam in DDs eye (GoF p604) So, in 
some way, they are alive in each other.  This opens up the 
possibility, that in order for one of them to destroy the other one, 
they have to destroy the part of themselves that is the other one.  
Hence, the reason I think DD wants Harry to know LV, is because in 
order to destroy LV, Harry has to destroy that part of himself that is 
LV, so he has to know what that looks/feels like and be willing to 
destroy it within himself.  

The prophecy says, "Either must die at the hand of the other, for 
neither can live while the other survives."  I have real problems 
here.  The major one being - that both of them are alive and survivng 
at the moment!  So, I'm wondering if the second phrase kicks in only 
AFTER they have tried to kill each other.  i.e. If Harry "kills" LV 
but doesn't kill the part of LV that is in himself, then LV has 
survived.  But the prophecy says that in the case I've just cited, 
Harry would not be able to live either.  btw - What the hell does JKR 
mean by the word live?  Harry would only be able to live (whatever 
that means) if he destroys every part of LV, which means the bits of 
LV stored in himself and other people.

If LV also exists within some of the DEs, then those parts of him also 
have to be destroyed at the same time.  So DDs plan must extend to 
them as well. (This could be a reason why Snape wants Harry alive.  
Because, maybe, when Harry destroys LV according to the prophecy, he 
will also destroy the part of LV in Snape and free him.)

OK, how this is going to happen is beyond where I'm willing or able to 
speculate.  But, I do think that whatever DD and Lily did is the key 
to the puzzle.  And I keep in the back of my mind the notion that Lily 
exists in Harry - probably in his eyes, and that when LV used Harry's 
blood, some of Lily got transferred to LV too.  But, hey, that makes 
things awfully complicated and I don't think the answer is going to be 
incredibly complicated.

Saraquel
Having got a lot off her chest, but probably not broken any new ground.