Do you agree? (Harry as Horcrux)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 163913

Annemehr wrote:
<snip>
> I really like your Captain Kirk's door image, but the problem here
is that Harry was stabbed with the Basilisk fang just before he
stabbed the diary with it -- so if he *was* a Horcrux, and your theory
is accurate, he ought to have ceased to be so right then.
> 
> That is partly why, in my "De-Horcruxing Harry" post earlier in this 
> thread (#163784), I concluded that, if merely making a hole in a Hx 
> is enough to release the soul piece, and if Harry is indeed a Hx, 
> then the Hx would have to be restricted to his scar.  Other parts of 
> him have bled numerous times, including the arm which was stabbed by 
> both the fang and the knife Wormtail used to resurrect LV.
> 
> I do take note of your idea that is might need to be a magical
object that creates the new portal, though.

Carol responds:
Good points. I don't happen to think that Harry is a Horcrux at all,
but you've at least established that *if* there's a soul bit in him,
it resides in his scar. (Still a big *if* in my view, but I'm trying
to avoid that topic.) And clearly, the soul as envisioned by JKR isn't
quite as intangible as we normally conceive of it since it can be
split, encased, and sucked out. (See my "wind, breath, spirit" post
upthread. I suppose the soul is envisioned as being like a gas, fluid
yet containable and somehow divisible into equal sevenths even after
only four murders.) Stabbing or cracking the object, whether with a
Basilisk fang or a spell that breaks through the protections, releases
the soul bit and de-Horcruxifies the object. In the case of the ring,
doing so also released a curse that didn't so much protect the Horcrux
as punish the Horcrux-breaker, no doubt to prevent him from destroying
any others. No doubt the violator (DD in the case of the ring) was
intended to die.

To return to your post, I'm not sure that a magical object (wand,
Basilisk fang, etc.) is required in all cases. The diary, as I've
repeatedly pointed out, was designed to be interactive (Ginny and
Harry both wrote in it and read the responses of Diary!Tom; Harry
visited one of the memories in the diary). It could not be unopenable
or contain a protective curse like the other objects, whose soul
(sorry, *sole*) purpose is to anchor the soul bit to earth. And Harry
sustained no harm from destroying it for that reason, IMO. Unprotected
as the diary apparently was, would any sharp object have destroyed it,
say a nonmagical or nonpoisonous fang or a twelve-inch knife? Ginny
failed to destroy it by flushing it down the toilet, but maybe, like
Harry trying to fight the boggart-dementor while still wanting to hear
his mother's voice, she didn't *really* want to destroy it, only to
get rid of it. What would have happened if she had thrown it into the
Gryffindor common room's fireplace? Would fire have destroyed it?
(Most of the other Horcruxes are made of virtually indestructible
gold, no doubt with anti-melting spells protecting them.)

> Mike:
> > Harry's special connection to Voldemort occurs via the guest soul
piece and via the portal, i.e. Harry's scar. Furthermore; Harry's 
> > access to the essence of his guest is why he can speak
Parseltongue and, ... what else?? We'll see I 'spose.
> 
Annemehr: 
> What else?  Well, I would say, the power of possession.  If you're 
interested, I sorted through some of the canon for this idea back in 
message #119783, before HBP was published.

Carol:
Aagh. I can't seem to keep my own resolution! Yes, Harry's scar is a
"portal" and he canonically has some of Voldemort's powers. But "guest
soul piece," not necessarily. We can't assume that the scar is a
Horcrux. That remains a theory, and only a theory, and not one that
I'm buying for reasons already stated.

We know that Parseltongue is one of the powers that Harry acquired
from Voldemort. I agree with Annemehr that possession is likely to be
another. I made a similar suggestion in post #142385 (not pre-HBP, alas!):

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/142385

"But what about the one power that remained to Voldemort after he was
vaporized, the one power he could wield without a wand? Suppose that
Harry has acquired the power of Possession along with the ability to
speak Parseltongue (and perhaps a bit of Legilimency)?

"We know that Voldemort can no longer possess Harry, but what if Harry
possesses Voldemort? What better way for the Love Harry supposedly
represents to enter Voldemort's mind, destroying him through the
"ancient magic" he despises? And how fitting for Harry to turn
Voldemort's own powers against him without stooping to casting an
Unforgiveable Curse.

"And instead of being a passive instrument of destruction who must
himself be destroyed, Harry can actively wield the power of possession
as no one else in the WW can."

Carol, going back to Annemehr's post to see if she agrees with it