Apparate to Possess

[Barry Arrowsmith]

I've been giving some more thought to Phil's idea that the failed 
possession attempt at GH resulted not only in bits of Voldy being 
stranded in Harry, but also in fragments of Harry residing in Voldy.

On the face of it, it's a neat idea - but I dunno, I have difficulty 
tidying up some loose ends.

Let's recap.
For Possession Theory to hold water certain assumptions need to be made.

1. Possession is possible.
Yep. We know that.

2. The act of possession involves something more than say, Legilimancy. 
It's not just looking, there's a projection of personality/mind/anima 
from one person into the mind of another.
We can tick that box, too.

3. This projection need not be total or irrevocable. The projected mind 
can return to its origin.
Yes. All these three can be deduced from the incident in the Ministry.

4. When possession occurs *and is successful* there is a melding of the 
two minds and whatever powers they contain.
No absolute proof for this one. But what  other purpose would 
possession have?

5. Combining 3 & 4, it could  be possible to enter a mind, combine with 
it, or parts of it, and return the resultant combination to sender.
Or, if so wished, the combination can stay in the recipient.
There's no proof for the first part of this; conversely there's no 
proof it can't be done.
The second part, well, isn't  this more or less the situation that 
Harry found himself in?

Any major disagreements with that lot?

Now to the case in point.
Voldy would have had more interest in Harry than in just killing him.
We can provide a rationale for that - power.
Harry has power - not  *will have* power, it's already there, inbuilt 
if the first line of the Prophecy reads correctly. Voldy is very 
interested in power, he's spent years travelling the world learning 
stuff until (in his mind) he's a contender for top-spot. And here's an 
untrained sprog with sufficient power to be able to challenge him - 
once Harry grows up and gets his act together.

He'd want a look.
He want to know exactly what this power is (is it quantitative or 
qualitative?) and if at all possible subsume it. Legilimancy wouldn't 
do it, that reads thoughts not magical capability.
I doubt he'd be too worried about being knocked off by a 15 month old. 
The  fact that the family was in hiding would offer reassurance that 
the child was not, in and of itself, impervious to Voldy's spells. 
Unexpected protective charms placed by a third party were something 
else and he came a cropper.

But the mere fact that identifiably Voldy attributes were lodged in 
Harry provides strong evidence that an invasion had taken place and was 
partially successful. We have no idea how the protection worked; my bet 
is that it was specifically anti-Voldy. Nobody else. Harry can touch 
DEs, even a hag-ridden Quirrell when Voldy isn't active. Spells work 
against him too - Quirrell again, Crouch!Moody's Imperio, Peter or 
whoever in the graveyard. Two protections -  one was to shut out Voldy, 
  the other, the blood protection, was to give him a safe haven against 
any malicious magic where Lily's blood dwelt.

Phil suggests that there was a reciprocal exchange of mind material at 
the key moment.
I'm not so sure. The doubts are mostly based on inferences rather than 
evidence, so it wouldn't be surprising if others thought I'm talking 
through me chuff.
If Harry donated stuff to Voldy, what would it be? Powers? Very dodgy. 
It's Harry's powers that Voldy was looking for.
If not power, then what?
If part of Harry is in Voldy then Voldy is an amalgam,  a chimera, part 
of which is Harry. How can Harry be protected against something that is 
partly himself? Wasn't the whole palaver of the resurrection spell in 
the graveyard designed to do just this - negate the protection by 
incorporating some of Harry into Voldy? DD  seemed so pleased it had 
happened, too. If Harry was already in there, why the relief?

Hum.
I'd be interested to hear what folk have to say on this one.

Kneasy