[HPforGrownups] Re: Baby in King's Cross chapter of HP7 -- please can we stop it a baby!

Sun Aug 12 02:27:08 UTC 2007

No: HPFGUIDX 175144

Valerie:
> I wondered if anyone had thoughts about that baby in the "King's
> Cross" chapter? The one that's crying, but Harry feels repulsed by
> it...Was that supposed to represent the Voldemort part of Harry that
> had been removed from him by Voldemort's attack on Harry?

 Geoff:
>Someone wrote quite recently that they thought that it was Voldemort going 
 >through a similar experience to Harry in King's Cross.
 >It hadn't occurred to me at that point but there seems to be canon evidence 
>that Voldemort also collapsed at the same time as Harry at the end of "The 
 >Forest Again" ...
[snip] 
>I now believe that the child is the form that Voldemort will take after death 
 >because of the damage he inflicted on himself by creating Horcruxes and 
>when Harry asks "What is that, Professor?" Dumbledore replies "Something 
 >that is beyond eiher of our help" which seems to confirm this.
 >(DH "King's Cross" p.567 UK edition)
I'm starting to get the creeps referring to the "creature" under the chair in chapter 35, King's Cross as "the baby" -- it brings to mind a helpless infant left abandoned by his mother -- well, that did happen to Tom Riddle, so in that regard the form and placement is interesting -- but, "the stunted creature under the chair" (p. 709 US) is not a baby (its physical appearance first is described as having the "form of a small, naked child" (p. 706) and thereafter once or twice referred to simply as a child, but it is more often referred to as a "creature" -- it is not a child -- its form is that of a child.  It is, in my opinion, the damaged soul of Voldemort -- actually one eighth of Voldemort's soul (or less -- did he split his soul committing murders that he didn't use to make Horcruxes?)   Descriptions of the "creature" and Harry's reactions to it are very interesting.  As are how he and Dumbledore refer to the "creature" -- as an it, not a him or a her, but an it.  I've
 quoted some pertinent passages from chapter 35 at the very end of this message for anyone who is interested in having them handy.

I also find the physical description of the creature interesting in light of the descriptions of Harry and Dumbledore.

Harry's "body appeared unscathed...He was not wearing glasses anymore." (p. 706)
Dumbledore's walk was "sprightly" and his hands "were both whole and white and undamaged."  (p. 707)
Does that mean that Voldemort's form is the best he can hope for?

Let's not forget Hermione's instruction on Horcruxes in Chapter 6, The Ghoul in Pajamas (p. 103):
"And the more I've read about them," said Hermione, "the more horrible they seem, and the less I can believe that he actually made six.  It warns in this book how unstable you make the rest of your soul by ripping it, and that's just by making one Horcrux!"
Harry remembered what Dumbledore had said about Voldemort moving beyond "usual evil."
"Isn't there any way of putting yourself back together?"  Ron asked.
"Yes," said Hermione with a hollow smile, "but it would be excruciatingly painful."
"Why?" How do you do it?" asked Harry.
"Remorse," said Hermione.  "You've got to really feel what you've done.  There's a footnote.  Apparently the pain of it can destroy you.  I can't see Voldemort attempting somehow, can you?"

I know I'm not saying anything new and sorry to be so long-winded saying it, but I do get creeped out referring to the "creature" as a baby; doing so implies that the "creature" is a sweet, innocent infant and it is far from that.  I'm not even a mom (just an aunt) and it creeps me out...

Christy, who loves the chapter art for chapter 35, which portrays Harry the young man, not Harry the boy.

Passages from Chapter 35 that described the creature under the chair: 
p. 706 - 707
Then a noise reached [Harry] through the unformed nothingness that surrounded him:  the small soft thumpings of the something that flapped, flailed, and struggles.  It was a pitiful noise, yet also slightly indecent.  He had the uncomfortable feeling that he was eavesdropping on something furtive, shameful.
For the first time, he wished he were clothed...

...All was hushed and still, except for those odd thumping and whimpering noises coming from somewhere close by in the mist...

...[Harry] was the only person there, except for--
He recoiled.  He had spotted the thing that was making the noises. It had the form of a small, naked child, curled on the ground, its skin raw and rough, flayed-looking, and it lay shuddering under a seat where it had been left, unwanted, stuffed out of sight, struggling for breath.
He was afraid of it.  Small and fragile and wounded though it was, he did not want to approach it.  Nevertheless, he drew slowly nearer, ready to jump back at any moment.  Soon he stood near enough to touch it, yet he could not bring himself to do it.  He felt like a coward.  He ought to comfort it, but it repulsed him.

p. 708
Harry glanced over his shoulder to where the small, maimed creature trembled under the chair.
"What is that, Professor."
"Something that is beyond either of our help," said Dumbledore.

p. 709
He was distracted by the whimpering and thumping of the agonized creature behind them...

p. 722
"...But I know this, Harry, that you have less to fear from returning here than he does."
Harry glanced again at the raw-looking thing that trembled and choked in the shadow beneath the distant chair.
"Do not pity the dead, Harry.  Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love.  By returning, you may ensure that fewer souls are maimed, few families are torn apart..."

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