Said creature under the bench..

[Annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 176050

 
> Ken:
 
> In the train station Dumbledore says that Harry's little bit of soul
> was destroyed. <snip> That is why in the final confrontation Harry 
is not reading
> Voldemort's thoughts to determine what he will do next and when.
> Instead Harry relies on a very old trick that normal humans 
practice:
> he messes with his opponent's mind to goad him into acting in the 
way
> Harry wants him to and to control the moment when he takes that
> action. Harry's verbal taunts cause Voldemort to lose control and
> telegraph his intentions. Harry is like the cat who knows where the
> mouse will appear, where it will go, and when it will appear. The
> mouse never really had a chance.
>

<snip>

> Harry was given a choice to pass on or to return to this life. He
> chose to return and one of the things that he did upon his return is
> to hold out a hand of salvation, one last time, to his mortal and
> detestable enemy. Voldemort was given a chance very few will get and
> still he refused it. That simple gesture by Harry was one of the 
most
> noble acts you will ever see. It's a different thread really but for
> me the Harry that came to the understanding and compassion it took 
to
> try to rescue Voldemort from his own horrific future has moved way
> beyond being an auror. In terms of magical skill Voldemort reached a
> plane that no other achieved and as Harry says the few others who
> might have, knew better than. Harry reached an equal height, but in
> the dimension of spirituality. I don't know what that makes him in 
the
> WW but in the Muggle world he bids fair to be a Saint.


Annemehr:

It seems to me you are trying to have it both ways.  What *was* Harry 
trying to do in the Great Hall, goad Voldemort or rescue him?

When I read Harry's words in that scene from Voldemort's point of 
view, there is no way I can see that LV could possibly understand 
what Harry is talking about, let alone consider it as the better 
option. Try for some remorse!  I've seen what you'll become!  What in 
heaven's name is Voldemort supposed to make of that? Does that sound 
like the voice of reconciliation?  Harry sounds more like Bre'er 
Rabbit: "Whatever you do, don't throw me in the brambles!"  "Whatever 
you do, repent!"

I don't know whether Harry, in following years, believes he did his 
best to help that "creature under the bench," but if it was a real 
attempt, it was worse than useless.  Not that I seriously think Harry 
had any real ability in that regard; probably the only one we know of 
who had any chance of helping Volemort was Luna.


 
Ken:

> <snip fragments of Christian theology> 
> He would not listen and now he is lost forever. 


Annemehr:

Yes, some Xian theology has it that you only need hear the Word, and 
act on it i.e. repent and accept your salvation.  Then again, many 
see something more like Calvinism and predestination here, so that 
there was nothing anyone, *even LV,* could possibly have done.  

Still, I keep going back to the HBP pensieve memory in the orphanage 
and seeing how Tom Riddle always was devoid of the empathy needed for 
remorse.  Psychopathy, and how.  JKR made him so evil that he had no 
good qualities whatever -- and thus no frame of reference for 
choosing between good and evil, even supposing he had any choice.  At 
this level, he ceases to be evil and becomes merely another victim of 
evil circumstance (and judging by the eternity presaged for him, the 
most pitiable of the victims).

Even JKR seems to have had an inkling of this when she made her 
interview comment that Snape was in some ways *more culpable* than LV 
because Snape had been loved by someone.
http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2005/0705-tlc_mugglenet-anelli-
3.htm

The Tom Riddle I saw was no more capable of feeling empathy and 
remorse than of conceiving of the fifth dimension, and it seems 
awfully hard to say he'd *earned* eternal misery for himself for 
failing to.

Annemehr