Keep Harry Horcrux Free Challenge!

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 140343

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

Jekatiska:
> I'm snipping off a lot of very interesting theories about Harry 
being 
> or not being a horcrux and chipping in my own thoughts (apologies 
if 
> these have come up time and time again, I can only come and have a 
> quick browse not that often...)
> 
> It occurred to me that the prophecy gives a clue here: "neither can 
> live while the other survives" - so Voldemort must kill Harry in 
order 
> to live. Or vice versa, of course. There's a defeinite paradox here 
if 
> you ask me: 

Geoff:
I have commented in the past that I tended to avoid getting into the 
Horcrux discussion until I broke cover in message 139859 to discuss 
why I thought Harry was not a Horcrux. Contributions to this topic 
have been appearing on the group either supporting this idea or 
denying it and, having  given more thought to it, I am making another 
foray out from my trench to pose some more ideas.

I believe that if Harry is a Horcrux with a soul fragment inside him, 
this would be a plot device which would create problems and possible 
paradoxes within the Potterverse which Jo Rowling has crafted.

One of the points which has often been made about the Harry Potter 
world is that choice is paramount to the action. The pivotal 
statement is probably the oft-quoted one made by Dumbledore in Book 
2: "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more 
than our abilities." (COS "Dobby's Reward" p.245 UK edition)

Harry has made choices – sometimes consciously, sometimes not – which 
have guided him towards the side of light, of compassion and 
acceptance of the need to be prepared to tackle Voldemort.  Tom 
Riddle, on the other hand, has set his mind to becoming powerful and 
has chosen evil and selfish ways of doing it. Others, such as Snape 
and more recently Draco, are making choices which are rather 
ambivalent leaving us still uncertain about where their final 
loyalties will lie. I feel that this possibly reflects Jo Rowling's 
views on Christianity. The Christian faith is a faith of choices. No 
one is a Christian by birth or privilege but by choice. But, if Harry 
is a Horcrux, this ability to choose is being seriously eroded and 
there then seems to be an argument for those who take the Calvinistic 
view of predestination. 

Let us therefore consider the various scenarios which might emerge if 
Harry is indeed "encasing"  a piece of You-Know-Who's soul. If he is, 
then it would seem that, in order to kill Voldemort, he will have to 
sacrifice himself to do it. If he chooses to walk away from the 
situation and decides to ignore the prophecy, then he is condemning 
the Wizarding World to a likely takeover by the Death Eaters. Even 
then, his security would not be guaranteed because Voldemort would 
still feel unsafe as long as Harry was around so our hero would spend 
his time in hiding, looking over his shoulder all the time and 
knowing that he had left his friends to the tender mercy of the Dark 
side. 

But we do know from Book 6 that he is deciding to face up to 
Voldemort. Ginny says "I knew this would happen in the end. I knew 
you wouldn't be happy unless you were hunting Voldemort." And for 
Harry himself, `Moving felt much more bearable than sitting still: 
just as setting out as soon as possible to track down the Horcruxes 
and kill Voldemort would feel better than waiting to do it.' 
(HBP "The White Tomb" p.603 UK edition)

However, this is where our paradoxes begin to raise their heads. 
Harry arrives for a stand-off with the Dark Lord having dealt with 
all the other Horcruxes. I can see three scenarios here, all of which 
present problems if Harry is a Horcrux. 

Number one. Harry apparently kills Voldemort. The last remnant of 
soul in him is destroyed but – there is still a piece of soul in 
Harry. What happens? Does Voldemort become disembodied again? What 
happens if you have a piece of soul but it is not within you? Does he 
become an empty shell like a soul-sucked Dementor victim? Or would he 
be able in some disembodied way to seize on the piece in Harry? I am 
reminded of the Lord of the Rings here when Gandalf says that, if the 
Ring is thrown into Mount Doom, Sauron would not die but fall so far 
that the possibility of him arising again could not even be imagined. 
Would that happen here and Voldemort become almost a ghost figure? 
Presumably, as per the words of the prophecy, Harry would have 
vanquished him, but what of the future?

Number two. Voldemort kills Harry. this is the worst case scenario 
because it would leave Voldemort as the victor in possession of the 
tattered remnants of his soul and with no viable opposition to him. A 
new Dark age would descend upon the Wizarding world.

Number three. This I consider to have a low probability. They fire 
spells at each other and kill other simultaneously and both soul 
fragments are destroyed. The last time they did something like this, 
we saw the Priori Incantatem effect. If, as I imagine, they are still 
using the "brother wands", Dumbledore says that "they will not work 
properly against each other.." (GOF "The Parting of the Ways" p.605 
UK edition). So, unless the spells do not "collide" there is a very 
low likelihood of them killing each other.

My feeling is, that for the purposes of the plot, scenario two seems 
to be unlikely. I cannot see Jo Rowling, having brought us so far 
along the way, allowing Voldemort to win by a flick of the wand. 
Scenario one provides an unsatisfying resolution to the problem of 
really vanquishing him and scenario three hints at a rerun of the GOF 
event which would leave the fulfilment of the prophecy unresolved.

So, for better or for worse, I'm sticking with the Harry-is-not-a-
Horcrux camp as I feel that, within our fictional universe, JKR needs 
to show that the choices, the efforts, the sacrifices of those whose 
have stood alongside Harry, and those who have taught him to use his 
gifts have not worked in vain. This is not the real world, it is 
fantasy and we need a satisfying closure.