Why did Voldemort have to kill Harry *himself*?

[Danielle]

No: HPFGUIDX 173594

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "marthaforhp" <marthaforhp at ...>
wrote:
>snip***
> 
> And in DH, in Malfoy's Manor, Bellatrix doesn't simply kill Harry and 
> be done with it.
> 
> Yet the original prophecy says nothing about who has to kill whom, 
> only that neither can live if the other survives.
>


Newbie here...thanks for such thoughtful discussion of the books. I'm
really enjoying reading through all the threads. 

As a couple others have intimated, I think Voldy's need to destroy
Harry for himself goes far deeper than the mere satisfaction it would
provide. Rather, the very legitimacy of his power rests upon it.

The only thing that has publicly called LV's power into question is
*the boy who lived*, which is why LV needs to make such an absolute
and public display of his dominance at the end of GoF. He not only
needs to destroy Harry himself, but he needs *witnesses* and lots of
them, particularly among his followers in order to solidify his rule.
He needs a strong, public display of his superior power in order to
lay any questions of his absolute power to rest.

If LV allowed someone else to kill Harry, there would always be the
question of who was more powerful, of whether Voldy was, indeed,
powerful enough to conquer the great Harry Potter. The fact that Harry
survived the killing curse as a baby has become the stuff of legend,
imbuing Harry with an innate power that others in the WW can only
imagine. The fact that Harry has continued to evade and outright
defeat LV as he's grown older only adds to that lore, making Harry
even larger than he is--part of why Harry's so adamant that it's his
wand and not something inside himself that gets Voldy on the flight to
the Tonks' in DH. Harry has taken on mythological status, and that's a
perception he's decidedly uncomfortable with throughout the series
(think back to the beginnings of the DA where he insists a good deal
of his advantage has been pure luck, for instance).

Voldemort must conquer the myth as much as the boy for his power to be
legitimate and absolute in the WW. 

Danielle