Neither Harry nor his Scar is a Horcrux (Was Re: Voldemort's Age)

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 170361


> Pippin:
> "No," said Snape softly. "I mean the one concerning a man kneeling
> in the middle of a darkened room..." [...]
> "How do that man and that room come to be inside your head,
> Potter?" -OOP ch 26
> 
> The room in question is the one Harry dreamed of earlier in the 
> chapter: "a dark curtained room lit by a branch of candles" 
> with "a dark velvet chair" "a door" and "a cracked, age-spotted 
> mirror." Clearly Snape recognized it, so it has been used more 
> than once. 
> 

Neri:
I see here evidence that Voldy chose to hold conference in some room
rather than under open sky, and that Snape was in that room too, but I
still don't see any official mystery of where the DEs HQ is, if they
even have one (as opposed to just any place Voldemort uses as his
hideout at any given time).

If that room held any special importance for the plot I'd expect JKR
to describe it in a much more memorable way. A "branch of candles", a
"dark velvet chair", a "cracked mirror" (which is only there so Harry
can look in it and see the reflection of Voldemort) and "a door"???
And this is to be our first glimpse of the fabled DEs HQ that is
supposed to be the greatest secret in the series, hidden in
Voldemort's very soul that passed accidentally to Harry in GH? Nah,
JKR has a much better sense of drama than that, and she's much better
at descriptions. 


> Pippin:
> Also, from the story-telling point of view, JKR needs to make
> it plausible that Harry has to go after Voldemort alone, not
> with an army of aurors for backup. 
> 

Neri:
It doesn't seem plausible to me. If the soul bit has now become a part
of Harry, then Harry is a SK and he can tell anyone where the
(hypothetical) HQ is. If the soul is separate from Harry's soul, why
would it divulge the secret to Harry when it has been so good at
concealing even its own very existence? If the soul bit is separate
but chooses to divulge the secret to Harry of its free will, then it
can also divulge the secrets to anybody else through Harry (we have
canon of another of Voldemort's soul bits using Harry's mouth to talk,
and yet another using Ginny's mouth to speak parseltongue in order to
open the Chamber of Secrets). If the soul bit is malicious and
discovers the location of the HQ only to Harry in order to lead him to
a trap alone, then why do the plot even requires this soul bit at all?
Voldemort himself could do that. 

As a whole I don't see a secret inside the Voldemort soul bit used in
this way. The more plausible scenario would be that this is the most
important secret of the series, so it's probably has something to do
with the horcruxes, which Harry is already hiding from the Aurors so
no additional plot reason is required.  


> Pippin:
> I don't think that's how it works. Flitwick's example is that even if
> Voldemort had his nose against their drawing room window, he
> wouldn't be able to see the Potters. He wouldn't have his nose
> against their window in the first place  if he didn't suspect they 
> were there.

Neri:
I thought he had his nose against their window for the purpose of
Flitwick's example <g>.


> Pippin:
> I don't think SK stops you from guessing, it just
> keeps you from knowing that your guess is correct and keeps
> anyone who does know the secret from telling you your guess
> is correct.
> 

Neri:
In that case the Fidelius doesn't seem to be very effective after all.
It was enough for Sirius to merely suspect Lupin in order to hide the
critical information about the SK switch from him. So Dumbledore too
would only have to suspect ESE!Lupin and this would be enough to
exclude him from anything important and effectively render him useless
as a spy. You hardly need an accidental soul transfer for that.


> Pippin:  
> My guess is that Snape *knew* that Lupin was the spy, but
> he was unable to tell Dumbledore this, and all of the proofs were
> likewise protected by Secret Keeper. That was why he was so strongly
> against Lupin from the beginning of his tenure, IMO.  It
> explains Snape's glee when he thinks he has independent proof 
> of Lupin's perfidy. It also explains why he accused Lupin of
> everything *but* spying for Voldemort <snip>

Neri:
Then it was rather stupid of him to insist so vehemently that Sirius
was the one who betrayed the Potters.


Neri