Harry's scar, love, and the death of Voldemort

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 171553

Carol earlier:
>  In any case, the problem with the whole Harry!Horcrux theory  (any
version) is that it's circular. If Harry is a Horcrux, he must be
destroyed like the other Horcruxes, but if he dies (or is
soul-sucked), how can he, the Chosen One, the only "one with the power
to destroy the Dark Lord," kill or destroy Voldemort after the last 
Horcrux (himself) is destroyed? OTOH, if Harry!Horcrux isn't 
destroyed, he could "kill" Voldie but Voldie wouldn't die because his
main soul (what's left of it) would still be "anchored" to the earth
by Harry!Horcrux.
> 
> I can see him *thinking* that the last soul bit somehow found its
way into his scar and that he has to die or be destroyed, but if he
does think that, Hermione or Snape (or someone) will [IMO] explain
that he isn't a Horcrux and doesn't need to die. Also, if Harry is
indeed the Chosen One, Harry and only Harry can destroy [Voldemort],
so something other than an AK (which any powerful and motivated wizard
can cast) is needed to destroy him [LV]. What powers does Voldie have
that no one else has? Parseltongue and possession. It seems to me
likely that Harry acquired both of those powers at Godric's Hollow.
> 
Kamil responded:
> I agree it's circular, but I think there are ways out. If, as for
example, Harry houses the last of the Horcruxes (but Voldemort doesn't
know they are down to the last one) and then Harry drags Voldemort
though the Veil with him then Harry will have killed the last of the
Horcrux pieces (with his own death) and will have destroyed Voldemort
at the same time. Or shortly afterwards, as I'm sure they'll fight it
out behind the Veil.
<snip>
> 
> Possession and/or Parseltongue can't be the "power he knows not", as
Voldemort knows both of those powers quite well indeed. But a
willingness to face death to ensure triumph for others could easily be
the power the Dark Lord knows not because never in a million years
would Voldemort be willing to sacrifice himself just to kill Harry, so
he will not be able to imagine that Harry, or anyone, would be willing
to do the reverse.

Carol again:

I can see that my second paragraph (even with the ambiguous pronouns
clarified) wasn't very clear. There's a jump from why I think Harry
isn't a Horcrux (and doesn't have to die) to my alternative theory
relating to the powers he possesses that will help him defeat
Voldemort (without the circularity involved in being himself one of
the objects he has to destroy to kill or otherwise permanently
vanquish Voldemort).

I know, of course, that possession isn't and can't be "the power that
the Dark Lord knows not." That, of course, is Love. But Harry is
hardly the only person in the WW who has the capacity to love or the
capacity for Agape Love or botherly love or sacrificial love or
whatever sort of love is behind the locked door in the MoM. Certainly,
he'll have to acquire that capacity (by, IMO, forgiving Snape), but
that alone is not sufficient to distinguish him from everyone else in
the Potterverse. Voldemort marked Harry "as his equal," and he
certainly didn't do so by giving him the power of Love. That power, in
so far as he has it without any conscious realization or effort on his
own part, results from his mother's sacrifice and relates, so far, to
Harry's protection from LV (it saved him from the AK and from being
possessed by LV in the MoM). The power of Love is intolerable to LV;
he can't bear being in close contact with it any more than Quirrell
could bear the touch of Harry's hands in SS/PS.

But how can Harry use the power of Love offensively, as a weapon
against LV? Not, heaven forfend, by loving him. Not by forgiving him,
as unlike the very human Snape, the barely human Voldemort would only
sneer at his folly. Something else is needed, IMO, beyond compassion
for the WW and for Voldemort's victims (including even Snape), beyond
a willingness to sacrifice himself as Lily did without defeating
Voldemort. According to Dumbledore, Voldemort unwillingly (and no
doubt unwittingly) passed some of his powers (*not* Love, which is
antithetical to LV) to Harry. So far, we've seen only one of those
powers, Parseltongue, which may help in defeating Nagini but seems
unlikely to be of much use against Voldie himself. (I'm not counting
the scar connection as a "power," primarily because I think that
Harry's ability to enter LV's mind, a kind of unconscious Legilimency,
has been blocked by LV's Occlumency.) That leaves the one power that
remained to LV when he lost his powers at Godric's Hollow, possession.
He can't use it against Harry, but suppose that Harry could use it
against him? Suppose Harry, standing with Voldie on the dais of the
Veil in the Death Room, could enter Voldemort's mind and fill it with
the burning power of Love so that the pain of it tormented him as the
Silmaril burned Maedhros' hand and he leaps through the Veil to rid
himself of the pain.

That's my theory of what will happen. It would make Sirius Black's
death significant not only by introducing us to the Veil but when
Black offers Harry a chance to "take my body back"--Sirius's soul
would stay behind the Veil, as would Voldemort's because they would
both be dead. But Harry, whose body would lie outside the Veil, would
be a superfluous soul who is not really dead and could "borrow" Sirius
Black's (dead) body to reenter the WW. (Christ figure alert: We'd have
a symbolic death and resurrection, foreshadowed by all the underground
passages Harry has entered and emerged from in all the other books.
And no, that would not make him Christ or an allegory of Christ. It
would only be a symbol of his Christlike willingness to sacrifice
himself for others.)

It's just an idea that I prefer to Harry!Horcrux. I think that Harry
acquired some of Voldie's *powers* rather than part of his soul at
Godric's Hollow. I'm trying to figure out what makes Harry, a much
less loving figure than, say, Luna, "the one with the power to
vanquish the Dark Lord," and I'm also trying to bring in "mark him as
his equal" and tie it in with what DD has said about DD giving Harry
powers. Harry protests that he doesn't have the power of possession,
but Harry, as we know, has been wrong before.

Carol, not equating possession with demonic possession, just thinking
of it as the power to invade someone else's mind on a grand scale, in
this case used as a weapon of last resort to defeat evil