My take on the Forest scene (also posted on Movie)

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 191165



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "zanooda2" <zanooda2 at ...> wrote:
 
Geoff: 
> > There is obviously the section in the chapter where Dumbledore 
> > tells Harry he has the option to go on. This seems to suggest that 
> > he has gone to some sort of limbo but – and this is a big but – 
> > can go back which is not granted when people die.
 
zanooda: 
> I thought it was something like clinical death: for all practical purposes a person is dead, but he/she still *can* be revived. Harry could have "gone on", but he was able to come back to life thanks to the blood he shared with LV.

Geoff: 
> > When Voldemort cast the spell in the forest, I believe that 
> > Lily's power of love was still latent in Harry and forced 
> > the spell onto the Horcrux fragment in him.

zanooda: 
> But it's impossible to destroy a piece of soul without destroying the object in which it is concealed (the Horcrux). By definition, a Horcrux is an object that contains a piece of soul, and it's this object that must be destroyed, not the bit of soul itself. As long as the object/vessel is functional, the piece of soul in it lives. 

> In our case the object (the Horcrux) is Harry, and it's him who needed to be destroyed (killed) in order to end with the piece of LV's soul inside him. I've always thought it was exactly what happened in the Forest: Harry died (kind of :-), it was clinical death), and, as the object (Harry) was destroyed (died), the piece of LV's soul ceased to exist. 
 
> Harry's own soul also left his lifeless body and went to the limbo, which is, according to the author, some place between life and death. The soul had two options, either to return to the body, or to "go on". If Harry chose not to return, his death would have become irreversible.

> That's how I see it, although I have no idea if it's right or wrong :-). I know there are different theories, and they all have their merits.

Geoff:
I take your point. However, I feel that a different and perhaps unique set of 
circumstances apply here.

When attempts were made in the story to destroy a Horcrux, the methods 
didn't always work. However, what did not happen in these attempts was for 
someone to try an Avada Kedavra spell, possibly because they were 
contemplating the destruction of an object.

This, combined with the existing power of Lily's love, diverted the power of 
the spell not to the container (Harry) but to the contents (Voldemort's soul
fragment).

Personally, I stand by Dumbledore's comments that Harry was not dead 
and also that no one can be recalled from death.There is obviously lots of 
space here for people to theorise and disagree (or agree).

That is the fun of it.
:-))