Feeble child-thing in train station (From Deathly Hallows)

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 173975

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Maeg <chaomath at ...> wrote:
>
> aquilalorelei wrote:
> 
> > Nothing spoilery in the title, nosirree.
> > Just wondering what we think the flayed piteous child-thing is in the
> > limbo!King's Cross station.
> > I really have no idea, especially with why Dumbledore so specifically
> > forbids Harry to aid it (him? her?)
> 
> I read the previous thread about what the thing is, and agree with  
> the assessment that it is Voldemort (not the part of his soul that  
> was in Harry, but what's left of him).
> 
> But I still don't understand Dumbledore's insistence that Harry not  
> help him. To me, it was more than just "you can't help him";  
> Dumbledore seemed to order Harry not to help. That seemed cruel --  
> but perhaps that is the point? From what we now know of Dumbledore,  
> he's awfully cruel at times, even if JKR wants us to think he's on  
> the "good" side.
> 

Ken:

I'm not sure that I have ever seen Dumbledore do anything cruel. It is
cruel to cause pain for no reason. It is not cruel to cause or allow
pain if there is a reason to do so. After reading all the other
responses and thinking about it previously myself, my opinion is this:
the thing in the station is neither what is left of Riddle's soul nor
the piece that was in Harry. It is a vision of what Riddle will be if
he passes to the next life in the state that he is presently in. I
think the reason that Dumbledore and Harry cannot help it is twofold.
One is that it is only a vision, not Riddle's actual soul. The second
is that if the vision is allowed to become reality it is permanent.
Riddle made his choices in life without regard to the eternal state of
his soul and once he passes through death his state is fixed. There is
neither help nor comfort for him.

Harry sees this vision precisely so that he can give Riddle the final
warning about trying for remorse. I'm going beyond canon a bit but I
think that the pitiful state of ugly-baby-mort was only partly caused
by the missing soul pieces that were destroyed as horcruxes were
destroyed. Part of the stunting, perhaps most of it, was due to the
horrid state of the remaining part of Riddle's soul in his regenerated
body. He commits several murders during DH and the part of his soul
still left in his body must have been shredded beyond recognition.
Some have previously called it a confetti soul and I think that
description is apt. Harry tells the Tom Riddle that stands before him
in the final showdown that remorse can still save him from this fate
even though all the horcruxes are gone. Remorse would allow Riddle's
shredded soul to heal as much as it was able. I think that Harry was
being both honest and correct. Remorse at that stage could still have
saved Riddle from the ugly-baby eternity even though by canon it could
not have restored the soul pieces lost to the destroyed horcruxes.
Remorse would have given him a significantly better eternal state,
though without the soul bits lost to horcruxes probably not the best
one he could have attained had he lived a decent life.

This makes it all the more important that Harry not kill Riddle. In
the end Harry only tries to disarm him, Riddle dies with murder on his
lips and in his soul, at his own hand. He seals his own fate and Harry
did everything he could to save Riddle in the only realm in which that
salvation could be affected -- this present life.

For those who were hoping or expecting to see a powerful Christian
message in the conclusion it would be hard to imagine a more powerful
one than this.

Ken