That ugly baby thing.

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 173595

Sandra: "From what I've read of the many many many enjoyable, varied
and informative posts regarding a wide raft of subjects to do with the
book, is how Voldermort was meant to be an ugly baby under a bench. I
don't understand the symbolism or maybe the reality?"

I took it like this: Harry and Voldemort are both at the border
between this world and the next - the "on." The symbolism of King's
Cross as a station is good, especially since King's Cross already acts
as a gateway between one world and the next for Hogwarts students. The
dead, such as Dumbledore, can come back that far but no farther. 

Harry's soul is normal, whole, complete - he doesn't even need his
glasses. The little soul Voldemort has left is a hideously damaged
fragment that reminds me of the deformed thing that Wormtail dropped
into the vat in the graveyard at the end of GoF. Harry chooses not to
go "on" but to return, as Gandalf once returned. How Voldemort goes
back we're not sure. What if Harry had gone on?

Jim Ferer