Child at Kings Cross (was:Disappointment and Responsibility)

[urghiggi]

No: HPFGUIDX 175084

Marion wrote:
  Voldemort is down to two eighths of his soul and is a small 
> sickly miserable child.  
> 
snip:

Although, if  Voldemort used up most of his own soul, perhaps there is nothing to be 
done.  Of course Harry does try in the final duel. (pg 741 US edition)  He tells Voldemort 
that he's seen what he will become - I assume he means that miserable child - and 
suggests he try for a little remorse.  
> 

Julie added:
Well, and this is interesting in light of the "Is the WW a Calvinist place" discussion. The 
treatment of the Slytherins as uniformly (OK, NEARLY uniformly) "bad" might bolster that 
idea. But this particular scene apparently does not. Because JKR implies that being stuck at 
the afterlife 'station' as a tortured, agonized, immobile, un-helpable child is a fate that LV 
could avoid, if only he could do some last-ditch soul-repair via the remorse remedy. 

This view of the afterlife clearly isn't Universalist (i.e. everybody gets to go on the train in 
the end, no matter what). But it does imply that even a guy who's the epitome of 
eeevvvviillll could turn things around extremely late in the game. 

Nevertheless, even if he believed that stuff, LV would likely prefer eternal pain on his own 
terms  to an "out" that would require humility. Certainly after that forest knockout and 
Harry's miraculous resuscitation, he must've had more than an inkling that the Elder Wand 
wasn't gonna solve his problem, and the jig was definitely up. In fact, the whole last duel 
scene is a little odd, in that LV doesn't actually seem all that surprised when "dead" Harry 
comes alive once again, or that the Elder Wand had failed to knock him out. At the final 
point, with NO horcruxes left... it really almost defies belief that he'd try to kill Harry yet 
again, with the weapon & curse that had already miserably failed...

But as has been discussed here, LV isn't written as such a smart guy....

Julie H, chicago