The Stone and the Diary

[entropymail]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, Barry Arrowsmith
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:
> I'm not very impressed with DD in the Horcrux chapter. Some of his  
> explanations leave a lot to be desired <snip>
> Stone first.Voldy is immortal, or as near as makes no odds. He
> wouldn't rely on the Stone, according to DD,something about
> hating having to rely on something/somebody apart from himself -
> hence his squirreling away of bits of himself in various
> knick-knacks. Yet when blasted he has enormous difficulty forming a
> body, he's lost most of his powers - despite his cunning plan of
> soul-splitting for safety. Yet the Stone wouldn't give him a body, >
nor would it increase his powers, he'd still be stuck in Quirrell.

Entropy:

I suspect that when Voldie came upon his Horcrux-immortality scheme,
the idea was that whatever bit of his soul that was left in his
original body would be killed, but there would be many others out
there just waiting to be re-activated by his faithful minions. I don't
think he anticipated being left in his post-Godric's Hollow state, a
sub-living soul which had the unfortunate predicament of being
bodiless while at the same time retaining consciousness.

This may have left him with an unforeseen set of circumstances.
Instead of idly waiting for old Lucius to figure it all out and
reactivate Diary!Tom, his still-aware post-GH self was compelled to do
something beyond twiddling its non-existent thumbs. Thus his foray
into Sorcerer's Stone experimentation and unicorn blood drinking, as
well as that bit of ill-advised face-to-back-of-head grafting. What I
mean is, rather than being "most sincerely dead", as he had
anticipated, this bit of his soul which was still in it's original
packaging was still viable, though damaged, and it's simply not like
Voldement to sit by when there's immortality experimentation to be done. 

> Possible explanations:
> 1. The splitting occurred post PS/SS - which conflicts with canon.

Entropy:
Nyet, obviously.

> 2. Each Hearsekiss is capable of independent development into a new  
> Voldy, but not capable of resurrecting another soul fragment, nor
the Voldy original if it gets zapped. If so, then the fragments are  
> probably permanently separated. Immortality by cloning. 

Entropy:
Permanently separated, but retaining some *psychic* connection after
the soul/body has been reactivated? This had interesting implications,
as there could, conceivably be as many as seven Voldies running around
at once; all perpetrating various evil deeds, yet communicating in a
Harry-through-Nagini's-eyes kinda way.

And I don't believe "resurrecting" would be the proper term. Once the
soul is dead, it's probably dead and gone for good. The Horshacks seem
to be in a dormant state, locked in their teeny cells until
reactivated by, as in Diary!Tom's case, another's life-force.

> 3. The Horsecuts don't contain any powers apart from the tamper- 
> proofing spells, just bits of soul. If this is the case they don't  
> really need to be destroyed. Slinging 'em through the Veil should be
quite enough.

Entropy:
Good point, but unlikely, I think.  From what we know about the
mythology of the veil, it is possible to return back through it. 
Slinging the HorseFluxes through whole would simply hide them from the
population at large, but they would still continue to protect the soul
within. And who's to say someone "over there" won't decide to toss it
back to our side?

> 4. His magic (or research) is over-rated.

Entropy:
Ne-vah!

> 5. DD is lying or up to his old tricks of indulging in mushroom  
> management techniques.

Entropy:
Quite possibly.

> 6. Jo has dropped a bollock.

Entropy:
Ne-vah! (Oh, okay, maybe.)

:: Entropy ::