Slytherin's Snare (was:Mild TBAY, trying to answer JK's Edinburgh questions.

[catjaneway]

No: HPFGUIDX 132129

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "saraquel_omphale" 
<saraquel_omphale at y...> wrote:
> 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.  

Now Janeway:
So have I! I like everything that Saraquel said, and admire her 
restrained and logical analysis, but I've also come up with a more 
speculative (but I hope still logical) theory that I hereby offer 
up for your consumption: 

Maybe the reason LV survived the rebounding AK curse is related to 
the fact that he's the last surviving descendant of Salazar 
Slytherin. SS was invested in the idea of the superiority of certain 
blood lines, which logically would have included his own. So he 
probably wouldn't be too happy if his line died out. He even put
a chamber and a monster at Hogwarts to help out his future heir(s). 
So maybe he also provided some kind of time-persistent magical 
protection for his last surviving descendant in case his line was 
ever in danger of disappearing completely. This could have been 
something he left behind in the chamber (potion? instructions? 
basilisk?) or some kind of charm or other magic he performed himself 
that would work across time on his descendant. 

We know that Slytherin wanted to "purge the school of all who
were unworthy to study magic." (COS 151 US paper)  Maybe he had
similar plans for the entire WW --"cleansing" it of impure types and
putting pure-bloods in charge – with the ultimate goal of Slytherins 
(his own descendants, not just graduates of his house) ruling the 
WW.  This is only speculation, but it's based on Tom Riddle's
actions after opening the Chamber
  

When TR discovered his ancestry and opened the Chamber, he started 
calling himself "Lord," set the basilisk loose on mudbloods,
and eventually pursued immortality and tried to take over the WW.  
Perhaps this was all part of a grand plan by SS. He left behind his 
ideas, a strategy to restore purebloods to power, and information 
and/or materials that LV needed in order to take "steps
 to
guard myself against mortal death" (GOF p648 US paper) to make sure
that there would always be a direct descendant of SS around to rule 
the WW. 

My guess is that the quest for immortality required LV to develop 
his natural affinity for snakes to some extreme degree. Snakes are 
associated with eternal life in Eastern cultures* (shedding skin is 
like being "reborn"). Snakes are the Slytherin house animal, 
Parseltongue (snake language) is a trait associated with SS's 
genetic descendants, a basilisk is the monster SS left behind. And 
now LV looks like a snake (numerous references, but eg. GOF 643 US 
paper); he finds it easiest to possess snakes (GOF 654 US paper); he 
has a snake familiar (Nagini); and when he possesses Harry, Harry 
feels he is "locked in the coils of a creature with red
eyes"
 a snake? (OOP 815 US hardcover).  So there is a clear 
connection between Slytherin, snakes, immortality, and LV. Did Tom 
Riddle shed his "human" skin and become a semi-human snake as LV? Is 
this why he needed snake venom to stay alive before he was reborn?

It's possible that whatever this protection from Slytherin was,
it may have also caused the transfer of power from LV to Harry.
Harry's growing internal awareness of LV is associated numerous 
times in OOP with snake qualities: he feels he "a dormant snake had 
risen in him" (OOP 828 US hardcover); he feels anger "like venom" in 
his veins (OOP 535 US hardcover); he feels "like there's a snake 
inside me" (OOP 481 US hardcover), etc. So the connection between 
Slytherin, snakes, immortality, and LV is also extended to Harry. 
I
can't say exactly what the mechanism is, but it seems possible that 
the transfer of power to Harry may have involved a splitting of LV's 
snake nature, with part surviving as LV and part going into Harry 
(maybe literally through the cut in his head that turned into his 
scar?). Thus the twining smoke serpents and the "in essence
divided" comment by Dumbledore. 

Yucky thought: what if the snake is literally growing inside of 
Harry and will eventually try to shed its Harry "skin"? Then
Snake!Harry would emerge as something like LV. (This would explain 
something I've wondered about:  Why does DD say "
suffering
like this proves you are still a man!" (OOP p824 US hardcover). Why 
doesn't he just say it "proves you are a man/human." Does
"still" imply that someday he may not be?)

I could go on with these ravings, but I'll stop here and await
your comments.. or lack thereof! (If this idea has already been 
discussed, would love to read the previous posts.)

Janeway

*"The snake has long been a symbol of immortality because it 
constantly renews itself and is reborn as it sheds its skin. In the 
shade, the lethargic snake looks dead, yet it comes back to life in 
the sun. From the Indian subcontinent to the Mediterranean basin, a 
coiled snake has come to represent the navel of the universe. 
Similarly, a snake swallowing its tail is a common symbol of 
eternity, an "endless cycle of life and death" (Nissenson and Jonas 
20)." http://f99.middlebury.edu/FS013A/cleopat
ra_by_schieffelin.htm