Speculating on Voldemort's conscience

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 142368

> > Lucianam:
> > Maybe all Voldemort transfered to Harry in Godric's Hollow was
> > some of his magical power?  
 
> Valky:
> You may have guessed, I'm not buying that, since no objective
> paths of deduction that I have ever seen lead there. If Harry is
> not a Horcrux,I'll need another explanation. <g>

Jen: I rearranged your post Valky, because I wanted to add this 
thought to the mix before moving on. 

I'm still not a Harry horcrux proponent, but also believe something 
more was transferred that night at GH. We find out in COS the one 
power Harry knows for sure Voldemort passed to him was the ability 
to speak Parseltongue. Then in HBP, we discover the ability to speak 
this snake-like language was not just a magical power possessed by 
Slytherin himself, but an ability passed down through the Slytherin 
*bloodline*, a genetic trait rather than merely a magical power, in 
other words. 

Valky is making the case that blood=soul in Alchemy, meaning that 
Parseltongue could have transferred via the soul-piece into Harry. 
While this certainly would explain certain things, it seems to cause 
another large plot-hole (characterization hole?) for me which I'll 
try to explain below.

Valky:
> At the end of PS/SS Dumbledore told Harry that the love the
> resides in his very skin is agony for someone so devoid of
> goodness, hence I always wondered by Voldemort didn't burn up on
> the spot during his ressurrection, he was touched by Harry's
> blood, was he not? By Harry's loving soul? Voldemort counted on
> his dark sinister magic to overcome Harry's protection, and it
> appeared that it had worked. I just wonder if it *was* Voldies
> dark magic that really overcame or was it a fragment of redeemed
> Voldemort, transferred in Harry's blood, that saved him?

Jen: This is the point where Harry having a bit of Voldy's soul 
seems so improbable to me, and yet like you explained, the 
alternative explanation doesn't completely work either! 

1) Dumbledore has been researching Voldemort's horcruxes since COS, 
going on 2 years at the time of the gleam. He's aware Voldemort has 
more than one, he has most likely figured out Voldemort planned to 
make a horcrux at GH with Harry's death because that is the sort of 
thing Voldemort would do, and Dumbledore understands horcruxes at 
this point better than anyone alive (and the same could be said for 
his understanding of Voldemort).

2)  Dumbledore was the one who told Harry about the protection in 
his skin, and he also knows there's more to the story, that he 
himself performed a charm to protect Harry while he lived where his 
mother's blood dwelled. Yet he was not alarmed to hear that 
Voldemort was able to take Harry's blood, did not view it as a 
failure of the protection, no, he did seem to consider the event a 
triumph for Voldemort but one for Harry as well.  

What you would have expected to happen from our canon explanation of 
the blood protection was exactly what Valky described--Voldemort 
would have experienced unbearable pain like in the DOM, or Quirrell 
in PS and perhaps even burned on the spot. Since he didn't, the very 
next thing should have been Dumbledore musing, "what in the world 
went wrong? Voldemort cannot touch Harry, let alone have his blood 
inside of him." But he *doesn't*, he doesn't even consider the 
possibility there's something wrong with that picture. 

This issue isn't like not knowing the Marauders were animagus, or 
making the mistake to think Snape and Sirius could put the past 
behind them. Helping Harry vanquish Voldemort has become the most 
important thing in Dumbledore's life, especially when he's just 
heard the story of Voldemort returning to bodily form.  

I guess like you said above Valky, you would need to know more about 
the events at Godric's Hollow to believe that the power transfer was 
all there was to it. I would also need to hear something more about 
Dumbledore to understand how he could overlook the possibilty that 
Harry had a piece of voldemort's soul in him, especially once 
Dumbledore understood the notion of multiple horcruxes and the most 
unusual fact that Harry received powers from Voldemort. I mean if WE 
can come up with this idea, knowing far less than Dumbleore, how, 
how, how could he have credibly overlooked the possibility? 

I'm really struggling with the possibility JKR might say "well, I 
told you Dumbledore was capable of great mistakes" and somehow that 
will be the only explanation we'll get. I just hope if Harry does 
have a soul piece, there's an event, historical reason, something 
other than just Dumbledore having a this huge, inexplicable gap in 
his problem-solving abilities.

Jen, hoping she explained that well because this is a very slippery 
issue to get a grip on.