Why Leave Harry at HW at the End of HBP?

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 148411

Dung, now:
> Pawns, exactly. Except that Snape's fighting back. It's Wizard's 
> Chess between Voldy and DD, and DD has the upper hand because he 
> knows trusts and loves his pieces, whereas Voldy's trying to treat 
> his pieces as though they're a Muggle set and not alive at all. 

Jen: I don't have anything to add here, this analogy just struck me 
as so right-on it deserved another reading. :)

Dung:
> The thing is, we don't know whether Voldy really is greater and
> more terrible than before because he used Harry's blood in the
> graveyard. All we've got to counter it is that blasted gleam. But
> he might be, for all we know, even if DD's gleam is a hint that
> having used Harry's blood could lead to his downfall eventually.
> In fact, I'd say that since he's managed to get rid of DD this 
> time round, and he wasn't able to do that last time round, he
> probably *is* greater and more terrible than before, which doesn't
> mean he's any more invulnerable.

Jen: Gee, why have I never read this before? This is honestly my 
first time to think the words of the first prophecy might be 
connected to the events of getting Harry's blood at the graveyard. 

Or alternatively, the mixture of unicorn blood and Nagini venom? The 
prophecy also claimed the servant would 'aid' the master to rise 
again and that could be read as the cauldron scene and/or obtaining 
the fetal form which made the graveyard possible. JKR did say in the 
TLC/MN interview there was something significant about the fetal 
form Voldemort took prior to a full body:

"I feel that I could justify every single piece of morbid imagery in 
those books. The one that I wondered whether I was going to be able 
to get past the editors was the physical condition of Voldemort 
before he went into the cauldron, do you remember? He was kind of 
fetal. I felt an almost visceral distaste for what I had conjured 
up, but there's a reason it was in there and you will see that."

Dung: 
> Characterising his attempts to kill Harry as an obsession with 
> faulty wiring's a bit harsh... I suspect that his major problem is 
> that he believes in fate (JKR doesn't, she believes in hard work), 
> rather than in making choices. Being Slytherin's heir and all that 
> will do that to a chap, though, won't it? I think DD is pretty
> clear that if Voldy hadn't acted on the prophecy, he would have
> been a lot better off. All his current obsessions come back to
> that, really, that he believes the prophecy. 

Jen: Well....maybe it's harsh. I like your explanation of him 
believing in fate, anyway. Besides the hard work, I think luck was 
her other reason for her own success? Good news for Harry, then ;). 

You know, this connects more to the comments above, but the reason 
I'm unsure whether Voldemort is actually greater and more terrible 
is because it's pretty hard to see past all the weaknesses 
Dumbledore exposed in HBP. Besides the sad (to me) conditions of 
Riddle's beginnings, there's the part about being scared of the dark 
and dead bodies which is difficult not to connect to little child 
fears, esp. of the dark.  So yes I do tend to see him as 
having 'faulty wiring' both in nature *and* nuture and don't quite 
understand where JKR is headed there.

To be a bit repetitive 'cause I like the idea: I hope there's more 
meaning than simply exposition for book 7 (or the horcrux search) in 
the story of Riddle's evolution into Voldemort. It seems like so 
*much* exposition for that. I'd like to think there's something in 
Voldemort's story which, similar to whatever Harry learns about Lily 
in Book 7, will have meaning for 'what Harry has to do in the end.' 

Jen R.