Rebounding curses (WAS Re:replies to 1000 posts)

[Matt]

No: HPFGUIDX 173962

Bex:
>> I believe that Moldy Shorts felt that Horcrux being 
>> destroyed (Harry's piece of Voldy soul) - I think the reason 
>> he felt it is that he did it to himself.


doug rogers <dougsamu at ...>:
> Reasonable enough, but why would Voldemort's AK in the woods  
> necessarily kill the 'horcrux' soul and not Harry's? I believe
> it is  the 'death' of the container which allows the separation 
> and passing on

> 
> 
so does Avada Kadavra expel the soul rather than the life 
> force?  Seemingly, in this instance.
> 
> 
de-horcruxing requires the destruction, or 'death' of the  
> container... so Harry must have died (?) or was destroyed in
> some way  (?).
> 
> There is just too much deux ex machina.

Matt:

As I read it, Harry wasn't exactly a horcrux, although Dumbledore ex
machina (if you'll pardon my play on your words) calls him one.  

In making a horcrux, a wizard intentionally detaches a bit of his
soul, which has been rended by committing murder, and performs a
specific magical act in order to embed that bit of soul into the
object that is to become a horcrux.  The events that led a piece of
Voldemort's soul to enter Harry, according to what the live Dumbledore
told Snape, were quite different.  The fragment of Voldemort's soul
was detached not by an intentional act, but by the rebounding killing
curse, and it "latched itself onto" Harry not only without Voldemort
using the horcrux spells, but without him even knowing what had
happened.  And Voldemort certainly never used on Harry the "strong
enchantments" that Hermione says are used to protect a horcrux from
destruction by ordinary means.

Since the soul fragment in Harry was not protected in the usual
manner, it would not necessarily require extraordinary magic to
eradicate it.  Avada Kedavra, which typically has the effect of
separating souls from bodies, would seem likely to do the trick.  

And of course it was not by chance that Harry survived, even though
Voldemort's soul fragment did not.  As Dumbledream says, Voldemort had
tied Harry to him when he used Harry's blood in his resurrection
ritual, so his curse *couldn't* kill Harry.  The same connection
explains why Voldemort himself was shaken by the unsuccessful curse --
he did not realize that he was trying to blast away a life that was in
a sense tethered to his own body.

-- Matt