Keep Harry Horcrux Free Challenge!

[msbeadsley]

No: HPFGUIDX 140302

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "esmith222002" <c.john at i...> wrote:
> I can't believe it but I have actually come full circle during the 
> course of this debate. Only last week, my wife and I were laughing 
> the naivety of those who believed Harry wasn't a Horcrux. Now, I 
> genuinely believe that he isn't. I think the facts are these;

I think Harry is a horcrux. It's just the conclusion I came to after
my third read-through of HBP, my fourth read-through of OoP, and
exposure to the ideas offered and challenged and worked and reworked
in this forum. (I don't think anyone who disagrees with me on the
subject is naive or anything else. As a matter of fact, they could be
right. They just came to a different conclusion; and it's going to be
quite a while (squelch impulse to bite nails here) before any of us
are shown to be right or wrong on the subject. But is it time yet for
a POLL?)

However, I have never believed that Voldemort intentionally made Harry
a horcrux, so I have snipped all of your arguments around Voldemort's
horcrux-related *intentions*.

> JKR continually claims that the AK rebounded onto Harry, so it is 
> common sense to believe her!!!

Wait. Did you mean to say the AK rebounded onto Harry? I thought it
rebounded *off* of Harry and *onto* Voldemort, otherwise he who walked
away (or was carried, sorry) and he who didn't would be reversed,
wouldn't they?

> When Voldemort was strong enough he realised that he couldn't be 
> picky, and just had to choose a Horcrux to make the number up to 7. 
> So he chose Nagini - which is why he looks so snake like!!

But didn't Voldemort's features change gradually, becoming more and
more distorted with each new horcrux, with the eventual result being a
pronounced resemblance to a snake? (My own theory about why Voldemort
has a snakey face changes from it having to do with his Slytherin
blood to the notion that as he loses more and more of his soul, he
becomes less and less human/mammalian, and regresses evolutionarily
into something more primitive and cold-blooded. I wonder, if he
continued to make horcrux after horcrux, if his arms would atrophy and
fall off and his legs fuse into something long and tapered and sinuous...)

> Yes, the problem of Harry's Voldemort-like powers remain. But it is 
> still possible that the rebounded AK caused a transference of power.

It's entirely possible. I just doubt it, considering that this would
mean that not only was Lily's sacrifice and Harry's survival of an AK
something hitherto unseen in the magical world, but that yet another
completely unprecedented (as far as we know) event took place in the
form of Harry ending up with some of Voldemort's powers. Horcruxes are
(somewhat) known magic, and the unintentional transfer of even a
mini-horcrux-sized piece of of Voldie's soul into Harry would explain
several things (parseltongue, the connection, maybe even the voice
Harry heard in his head 4th year urging him to resist the DADA
teacher's Imerio!) without the need to grasp after yet more vague,
unexplained magic.

> At the moment, I am very interested in Snape's actions during the 
> duelling club in COS. He suspected Harry was the parseltongue - BUT 
> WHY?? If you are against Horcrux Harry, then it suggests that Snape 
> knows something about the AK curse (and he knows as much about the 
> Dark Arts as anyone) that would suggest a transference of power. If 
> you are for Horcrux Harry, then you could argue that Snape knew that 
> Voldemort has attempting to make Harry a Horcrux.

Taking the Grand Tour entire (reading books 1-6 contiguously in order)
is on my agenda real soon now, but for the moment I cannot find (and I
looked) my copy of CoS. The best I can do from the Lexicon's guide to
that chapter is to remind you that Snape's "shrewd and calculating"
look at Harry *followed* Harry's commands to Draco's conjured snake
(which, if people here are correct, immediately followed Snape's
whispered suggestion to Draco). If Snape did indeed suggest the snake
spell as a test, why would the *result* (of Harry speaking
parseltongue) leave him "shrewd (I suggest this should be *shrewed*,
since it's Snape <beg>) and calculating"? I would imagine the "shrewd
and calculating" would more likely coincide with the idea of testing
Harry. Besides, even if Snape suggested the snake spell, I can easily
imagine it being for one of several other reasons, one being simple
homage to Slytherin. And the notion that the snake test (if it was
one) had to be inspired by wondering if Harry were a horcrux also
strikes me as only one of several possible interpretations as well.
Although it strikes me as least likely, for all we know the story of
Harry and the snake at the zoo could have gotten back to Snape. Maybe
Mrs. Figg was there (or Mr. Tibbles hangs out at the zoo and reports
back to her).

> Brothergib (about 85% sure that Harry isn't a Horcrux!!)

Sandy aka msbeadsley, 86.99% sure Harry *is* a horcrux.