Stupid question about Horscrux!Harry

[Jen Reese]

> Neri:
> A hard sell? But you've apparently already bought Voldemort's
> powers (or some of them at least) passing to baby Harry, which I
> had *a lot* of difficulty buying until HBP. Why, oh why would a 
> rebounded AK  result in the transfer of powers??? In six books JKR
> has never supplied us with any possible mechanism for transferring
> powers from one wizard to another, not because of a rebounded AK
> and not because of any other reason. What she *did* supply us with
> is a mechanism for transferring *soul parts*, and then she went
> and told us that Voldy is the world greatest expert in this
> particular mechanism and that he was going to use baby Harry for
> it. 
 
Jen: About Voldemort's intentions at GH: Dumbledore explained his 
belief Voldemort makes Horcruxes after significant deaths, and that 
he 'was intending to make his final Horcrux with your death.' Not 
with baby Harry himself, but Harry's death, is how I read that. And 
most critically, Dumbledore stated 'he failed'. 

Also, neither Dumbledore nor Slughorn said a Horcrux can be 
concealed in a human being. Slughorn states it's concealed in an 
object, and Dumbledore answers Harry's question of "you can use 
animals as Horcruxes?" with the statement, "Well, it is inadvisable 
to do so...because to confide a part of your soul to something that 
can think and move for itself is obviously a very risky business." 
(chap. 23, p. 506, US). He specifically says 'something', and not 
something or someone. I do think Voldemort is the Horcrux expert and 
it's possible he may know something Dumbledore doesn't, though.

But about the diary. Here we do have evidence a part of Voldemort's 
soul passed into Ginny, but it 'possesses' her. We've seen evidence 
of possession on several occasions, with Quirrell, with Ginny and 
once with Harry. We don't know what was going on inside Quirrell, 
but we do know Ginny spoke of big blank periods in her memory when 
possessed by the soul sliver and Harry descibed possession by full-
bodied Voldemort as pain beyond anything he'd imagined or endured. 
How could Harry have a soul portion encased inside himself and not 
be affected or possessed by it? Nagini is the only other living 
thing who might be encasing a soul portion and she is also described 
as being posssessed by Voldemort, like on the night Arthur was 
bitten. Taken over, used, manipulated. We haven't seen any evidence 
of this in Harry.
 
Neri:
> And remember, we also have to explain why the rebounded AK "forged
> a connection" between Harry and Voldy. A connection which is so
> strong that they leak emotions and perceptions to one another
> through it. 
 
Jen: This process doesn't sound like possession, though. Both can 
perceive things about each other, but possession is a one-sided 
situation. The stronger saps the strength of the weaker. We're not 
seeing evidence either Voldemort's evil or Harry's love is causing 
the other to waste away. ....Oh no...that's a compelling thought, 
isn't it? Reminds me of the Priori Incantatem scene, one grows 
stronger as the other grows weaker, 'neither can live while the 
other survives'...
 
Oh, pfffft. Here's the deal. Horcrux!Harry could explain many 
things, I can't deny. I can argue the subtleties of possession, but 
JKR could turn around and say, "Oh well, it was different in Harry's 
case because of his mother's protection. The soul sliver resided in 
Harry but was unable to actually possess him as a small child." With 
one sweeping statement she can erase all the information we have on 
possession. Neither possessed the other because they have equal 
powers or something of the like.

Just as easily she can erase the Harry!Horcrux with "no chance a 
piece of Voldemort's soul entered Harry after his mother's 
sacrifice, he was protected from that. The transfer of powers had 
never been seen before because we've never seen a failed AK before. 
No one knew that would happen."

So what's a theorizer to do? Make hay while the sun shines? 
 
The most persuading factor to me at this point is that Dumbledore 
doesn't suspect Harry is a Horcrux. He understands more about 
Horcruxes than anyone else besides Voldemort, and he appears to 
understand what happened at Godric's Hollow better than anyone else. 
If he didn't put these two together, and JKR said "his guesses are 
never wide from the mark"....well, I'm going to stick to my hope 
that Harry isn't a Horcrux for now, no matter how convincing you 
are, Neri <g>. Of course, Dumbledore's giant oversight could be 
explained away as the 'flaw in the plan'--he loved Harry too much to 
put two and two together. But it did seem like OOTP was the 
beginning of the end for letting his 'flaw' take the upper hand, he 
knows Harry has to face the future and in HBP Dumbledore seemed to 
be arming Harry for defeating Voldemort. Harry-HC would be a 
critical bit to consider if Dumbledore even *suspected* the 
possibility!
 
Neri:
> But we do know a lose soul part was flying around in GH, we do know
> there was a magical wound in Harry's forehead, and we do know the
> protection allowed powers and apparently also memories to go
> through it. 
 
Jen: I read the links you posted and wonder about the two soul 
pieces flying around GH idea. Voldemort did just commit a double 
murder and therefore his soul was ripped from it, but the pieces 
weren't extracted. So when he lost his body, wouldn't the vapor part 
be the remaining soul, albeit with a few rips in it? I mean, there 
wouldn't actually be a piece taken out until sealing a Horcrux. But 
the idea of an unintentional HC makes anything possible of course, 
because, like the failed AK, we and the WW apparently have no 
infomation about it so all bets are off. 

Actually, that's a good point to make right here. You mentioned 
never understanding how the powers got into Harry, that JKR never 
provided a mechanism for it. I *did* accept the provisional 
explanation we have, that the failed AK was unimaginable and 
therefore caused certain things no one understood. The unintentional 
Horcrux is equally hard for me to grasp, because we know nothing 
about actually extracting the soul piece and sealing it in a 
Horcrux. I imagine it as a ritual that had to take place after a 
murder and therefore, couldn't have been completed at GH. But 
unintentional power transfers or unintentional horcruxes? JKR can 
explain either of those away. 

You know, another thought here: We don't know for sure Voldemort 
killed Harry immediately after Lily. I wonder if the plot twist at 
GH is that he used a Gryffindor item to form his Horcrux from the 
double murder of James and Lily, before killing Harry. It's not what 
he intended, but perhaps with the adults gone he noticed a 'trophy' 
and felt obsessed to complete the process. But then, I suspect Harry 
was screaming and he wanted to shut him up pretty quick, heh.
 
> Neri:
> Voldemort certainly wouldn't guess Lily would rather die – he
> can't understand that there are things worse than death, remember?
 
Jen: "I acted exactly as Voldemort expects we fools who love to 
act."  

I think you're probably right. Everything we learned of Voldemort's 
obsessions and tactics indicates he can't ever wrap his mind around 
the idea of something worse than death. 

As a total aside, I really liked the information on how Riddle's 
obsession with defeating death started. That comment he made about 
his mom, 'she couldn't have been magical if she died'--whew! A 
pretty large assumption to make about what magic can do, then to 
find out Merope was a witch, and still didn't do anything to save 
herself.... Also, that scene where Hepzibah showed him the locket 
and said "Burke bought it, apparently, from a ragged-looking woman 
who seemed to have stolen it, but had no idea of his true value--." 
(chap, 20, p. 437) It was at that moment Voldemort's eyes 'flashed 
scarlet' and I wasn't sure what to make of it. Did he just realize 
Burke 'stole' what was rightfully his? Or was he making the 
connection that if Merope was selling heirlooms she wasn't using 
magic to help herself? The first seems more likely, but I'd love to 
see another connection in the series between Merope and Lily, and 
that his mom had something to do with Voldemort giving Lily the 
choice to step aside. But that's wishful thinking *sigh*. The only 
possible canon for it is that Memory!Tom never lambasts his mom, and 
in fact defends her, in his speech denouncing his father. 

Jen, debating with herself today.