CHAPDISC: DH35, KING'S CROSS

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 185159

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "cubfanbudwoman" 
<susiequsie23 at ...> wrote:
Potioncat:
> > DD says there's nothing they can do about the baby, and he's 
> > probably right. (nothing 'they' can do) Harry is feeling 
> > compassion for this ugly baby, contrasting to the revulsion he 
> > felt for the same ugly baby in life. It seems Harry has grown. In 
> > the next chapter, Harry makes one last effort to help Tom Riddle 
> > mend his soul. It was Riddle's choice to ignore the help.
 
SSSusan:
> Yes, I agree, there wasn't anything DD or Harry could do about the 
> baby.  Like you said, it was Voldy's own choices that caused his 
> soul to be in that condition.  Still, JKR inserted that bit into 
> the story and there has to be a *reason* for her doing so and for 
> the imagery she chose.  Again, why show the mangled Voldy soul as a 
> *baby*?  Why show the suffering and misery of it?  What message is 
> being shared in that?  Or was the message more in the fact that, in 
> spite of DD's saying there wasn't anything they could do, Harry 
> *did* still try one more time when he went back?  Is JKR trying to 
> tell us that it's always worth trying one more time to show someone 
> the right path?

> I obviously have a lot of questions here. :)
> 
> Siriusly Snapey Susan

Geoff:
Susan, I'm away from home for a couple of days in Cardiff,
without my trusty HP volumes so if I get anything wrong 
from memory, ignore it!

Back in GOF, when Wormtail brought the remnants of Voldemort 
to the cauldron in the graveyard to be restored, the 
description made me personally think of a foetus or something 
similar - out in the open, grotesque, rather unpleasant to 
view and effectively helpless.

The "baby" at King's Cross railway station produces the same 
reactions in me. This is not really a baby; it is a soul that 
because of its own actions has reduced itself to the status 
of an unborn child. It (he?) is unable to help itself, it 
cannot see or have an existence outside the limited senses 
it has retained. Voldemort has returned himself to where he 
was as an unborn child and can do nothing to help himself. 
An interesting speculation is how much of this the "baby" can 
understand if it has been reduced to the state of an unborn 
or newly-born infant.

Like you, I have problems as a Christian deciding what happens 
to the unsaved soul and it seems that this may be a facet 
of JKR's thoughts on the same topic.