Would DD Kill? Other Ways to Destroy a Man.

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 157719

> Tonks wrote:
>
> Before HBP some here criticized DD for only playing a defensive 
> game. When he had the chance to kill LV he didn't. Now we see the 
> reason why. The horcruxes.  LV can not be killed until the horcruxes 
> are destroyed.  So here is a question. If the horcruxes had been 
> destroyed before the MoM battle would DD have killed LV?  I know 
> people will say, no, because it is Harry's job.  But put that 
> aside.  Would DD actually take someone's life?  I think he would not.
> 
> At one point DD tells LV that "we both know that there are other 
> ways to destroy a man, Tom".    Would DD use one of those methods 
> himself?
> 
> I get the sense that the "other methods" are worse than murder. Like 
> the Dementor's kiss for example. Does anyone wonder why LV hasn't 
> attempted to use one of these "other methods" on Harry?  What are 
> these "other methods" that both DD and LV know about?
> 
> Thoughts??
> 

Ken:

First of all I would argue that both Harry and DD have already killed
LV in a technical sense. They have each destroyed one of his horcruxes
and sent part of his soul on to the next life. That would seem to be
akin to murdering part of his soul. Canon is unclear on this however.
I had a revelation about this a few days ago while reading Slughorn's
horcrux comments. And then a couple of days after that I realized that
a few pages later DD contradicts some of what Slughorn said in a very
fundamental way and offers no comment on the discrepency. Is this a
clue, a character's mistake (which one's?), or evidence of a horcrux
theory revision that the author forgot to apply consistently in both
scenes? At the moment I don't think we have any way to tell.

A dementor's kiss would be one way to destroy a man without killing
him. The Longbottom's fate is another. We now know that DD is trying
to hide his suspicions/knowledge of LV's horcruxes from LV. So it is
quite possible that DD was merely deflecting LV's attention from the
real reason DD didn't try to kill him: that it was too soon. To reveal
this at that point would be to give away the game. DD does not want LV
to know that the horcrux hunt is going on. Certainly logic would tell
him that DD must know that he has at least one horcrux and would be
looking for it. LV may not know that DD suspects there are several and
hiding that from him would be useful.

But why not kill LV in the MoM scene? Sure, he wouldn't really be dead
but he would be bodiless again, the DE would be leaderless again, and
it would buy some time to find the horcruxes. At that point DD had to
know that there were at least two horcruxes since Harry had destroyed
one before LV's return to his body and LV's bodiless soul bit or
spirit was still anchored to the Earth during the interim. I *think*
that implies there still had to be an intact horcrux somewhere. With
all the inconsistencies and unknowns in horcrux theory it is hard to
be certain about that either. 

It is likely that LV's second return to a regenerated body would have
happened quite quickly but still it seems that buying time would be a
good thing at that point. I suppose an argument against that is the
famous gleam in DD's eye upon learning that LV had used Harry's blood
in the process. Tom's father still has more bones to give, LV still
has servants willing to give flesh, but it is very unlikely that LV
would get the use of Harry's blood again. It is quite possible that DD
wants LV's regenerated body to be based on Harry's blood even more
that LV does. LV will probably get a nasty surprise about that in book 7.

I happen to think that both DD and Harry would kill LV given the
chance under circumstances that mean it would end him for good or even
merely give the Order a short term tactical advantage. They both say
that this is their intent. I think it really might be that DD saw a
strategic advantage to keeping LV in a body based on Harry's blood and
his comment about other ways to destroy a man was just a smokescreen.

Ken