Back to The Plan (Was:Re: Father Figures)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 164806

> Annemehr:
> Well okay, but *if* DD would have wanted to *prevent* LV regaining
> a physical body, by preventing Pettigrew's escape, then why isn't
> LV a vapor *now,* when he so easily could be?
> 
> "'You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore?' called Voldemort, his 
> scarlet eyes narrowed over the top of the shield.  'Above such 
> brutality, are you?'" [OoP ch. 36, US p. 814]
<Snip>
> Anyway, we know that at the time of that duel in the Ministry, 
> Dumbledore was already aware that LV had at least one Horcrux to
> tie LV's soul to Earth. 
<snip>
> The inescapable conclusion is that DD *wants* LV to have a body 
> these days.  It *has* to be part of the Plan -- that Plan that we
> *still* don't know, and which inevitably entails the cost of the 
> many collateral deaths we read about in HBP.


Jen:  It's also possible given the way Voldemort rebirthed that 
Dumbledore *couldn't* turn him to vapor again in the MOM or that it 
was impossible to do so without also killing Harry: 'and either must 
die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other 
survives'.  I've been considering whether the method of rebirth is 
another part of Voldemort's self-fulfilling prophecy, the action that 
made the last part of the propehcy come true (rather than that 
sentence referring to Harry as a Horcrux vs. the transfer of powers).

Yes, all things being equal to pre-GOF days Dumbledore should have 
been able to turn him to vapor, but JKR has specifically said there's 
a reason Dumbledore didn't try to kill him.  You say the reason is 
Dumbledore's plan and I say it's the mystery of what happened in the 
graveyard--LV isn't the same guy he was when he turned to vapor the 
first time:
  
"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." (TLC/MN)

Jen again:  There's something about the way Voldemort came to have an 
actual fetal body that we don't know about yet and the way he 
rebirthed (the gleam) that factor into this equation.  Even though I 
can't guess what it means, I still believe the graveyard will prove 
to be the critical part of the story and that the Horcruxes alone 
were not the reason Dumbledore didn't make an attempt at the MOM.  

Jen R.