Speculating on Voldemort's conscience

[lucianam73]

No: HPFGUIDX 142351

Eileen_nicholson wrote:
>(snip snip snip)
>
> Just how far are Harry and Voldemort combined? Do portions of 
> Harry 'know' that they are not Voldemort, do portions of 
> Voldemort 'know' that they are not Harry?
> 
> Voldemort seems fairly one-dimensional now - did he ever have a 
> conscience and if so, has he discarded it along the way? Did he 
> think it unnecessary and inconvenient, and popped it into a 
> horcrux?  Did he lose it to Harry at Godric's Hollow? 


Lucianam:

The Harry/Voldemort connection is a point I hope JKR really manages 
to explain clearly. Otherwise the Prophecy - not to say the whole 
series! - won't make much sense.

I think you got a very fortunate imagery there - 'how far are Harry 
and Voldemort combined' - so instead of using the word connection 
I'll use your word, combination. I think it might be more accurate!

Well, the way I see it, things like a conscience, morals, fair 
judgment, a sense of compassion, etc., they'd all fall into 
the 'soul' category, wouldn't them? Rather than into 'mind' (I'm 
using the 'body, mind and soul' idea here).

So yes, I guess it's possible Voldemort's conscience has been 
mutilated too, along with the rest of his soul. I think he no longer 
has anything that resembles a conscience.  Only we haven't had any 
indication that Voldemort's soul has been neatly split into 
specific, identifiable parts as a conscience would be (for example, 
his conscience going into the ring, his compassion going into the 
diary, his morals into Nagini, etc). I suppose all these good 
qualities are mixed together and he gradually lost them as he'd grew 
more and more evil - or, as JKR put it, less and less human. 

About a piece of Voldemort's soul having been 'inserted' in Harry 
that night in GH - well, that'd be the Harry is a horcrux theory, 
right? (or Harry's scar is a horcrux, I'm not sure)

I think it's possible. At least it'd explain why Tom Riddle and 
Harry's histories are so similar (orphaned childhoods, raised by 
Muggles, a sudden wonderful wakening to the wizarding World, best 
times of their lives in Hogwarts). It would mean the 'bit of Voldie 
soul' in Harry would go through almost the same experiences it had 
when it was in Tom Riddle's body - only with different results now.

Instead of the hatred, indifference, ambition, cruelty, desire for 
revenge, etc., it had to experience while in Tom's body, 'Voldie's 
bit of soul' now has a chance to feel love, friendship, compassion, 
altruism, pain after the loss of a loved one (Riddle never had a 
chance to mourn his mother, and he loathed his father). Maybe those 
experiences meant more than the previous bad ones, and that piece of 
soul is now redeemed?

That would mean, if ever that bit of soul re-enters Voldemort's 
body, Voldemort would be forced to, in a sense, to see things from 
Harry's POV also. Maybe even be able to feel things from Harry's POV?

I wonder if there's a way of getting that bit of soul off Harry 
without killing him - if he is a horcrux, he'll have to be 
destroyed. 

Well, anyway it's not a sure thing there's a bit of Voldemort's 
soul in Harry (though I like that theory). Maybe all Voldemort 
transfered to Harry in Godric's Hollow was some of his magical 
power?  


Lucianam, now seriously (no pun!) worried Harry's gonna snuff it