LV in the MOM Atrium; Harry's Possession?

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 126776


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Chys Sage Lattes" 
<yami69hikari at y...> wrote:

Chys:
> Ok, I have a question- The whole purpose of the OoTP event in the
> Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries was that Voldemort
> himself NOT be there, that Harry do the dirty work of retrieving the
> prophecy for him, correct?
> 
> So then was Voldemort ever actually IN the Atrium that evening?
> Or was it that he was posessing Harry to attack Dumbledore? Could
> that be why Harry had no idea what was going on on the other side of
> the statue that was 'defending' him and herding him away- when in
> actuality it was LV posessing him and he just didn't know what was
> going on as he was too concerned with trying to get a good look at
> the unfolding action? He obviouly wouldn't see it from behind a
> statue, when he was the centerpoint of said action.
> 
> This has been nagging at me, as I can't remember a scene where
> Voldemort's actually -seen- in that battle. DD could have been
> talking to LV through Harry, and couldn't that be why it sounded 
like 
> LV kept trying to get DD to kill Harry? That he was not there at 
all, 
> but fighting -through- him?

Geoff:
Am I misunderstanding you? - or are we reading the same book?

To save me quoting about three apges of OOTP verbatim, let me precis 
what I see....

Harry tells Bellatrix that she should save her breath - Voldemort 
cannot hear her, whereupon said gentleman suddenly appears in the 
middle of the hall. He complains that the Death Eaters have allowed 
Harry to thwart him again and attempts to cast the Avadra Kedavra 
spell which is blocked by the wizard statue.

Dumbledore appears in front of the golden gates and he and Voldemort 
exchange spells. Dumbledore has his "Tom" conversation and there is a 
further battle between them. Harry is quite able to see what is going 
on even though the statue is keeping him back.

Then, when it seems that Voldemort is trying to flee and Harry 
attempts to come out from behind the statue, that is when the 
possession occurs....

(OOTP "The Only One He Ever Feared" condensed from pp. 716-719 UK 
edition)

As far as I read it, this is a real event. Voldemort is not 
a "projection"; he has come, forced into the action because events 
have gone against his planning. So I don't follow your reasoning...