Re Apparate to Possess

[Lyn J. Mangiameli]

Ah, so much in just a short period of time. Mixing several sections of posts into the 
comments below:

First, Kneasy's Possession Theory Assumption #4 from post 1158 :

>4. When possession occurs *and is successful* there is a melding of the two minds and 
whatever powers they contain.<

I think the important thing here is that it is not an equal melding of the two minds. Not 
only must one be able to maintain one's old body (at least when one has one) while 
entering successfully and disentwining successfully from another, but one must remain 
the dominant mind/soul in the both bodies during the entire process. This is surely why 
the act of possession is titled such as it is, and why only the most skilled and powerful of 
wizards/witches would be able to master it. Thus, one reason why LV would seek to 
possess his potential adversaries as early in their life as possible. 


Back to Kneasy:
>Voldy is very interested in power, he's spent years traveling 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.>


Yes, I think this is exactly the primary motivation. Voldemorte has spent his life 
attempting to be the most powerful wizard in existence, so it is simply in character to seek 
to know and obtain (rather than just eliminate the source of) this power. 

Back to Kneasy Again:
>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. 

 
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.<

Yes again. There was protection was against possession and there was protection against 
death. Only the protection against possession was invoked that night, though we see the 
protection against death/harm displayed at the end of SS/PS. 

Both DD and the Potters surely knew LV might attempt possession. This would go a long 
ways towards explaining the "Take Me" line of Lilly's at GH, and offers an alternative 
explanation for her statement "Not Harry," and is why LV calls Lilly a silly girl. He did not 
necessarily think her silly for trying to protect her child, but surely found her silly for 
thinking he might be interesting in possessing her rather than the repository of the 
"power," i.e., Harry.

Such a scenario may be why Lilly found fleeing to be futile. While she might have covered 
enough ground to shield against an AK bolt, she was unlikely to cover enough ground to 
prevent possession, now that Harry was no longer hidden. 

Now to Kneasy in post 1162:

>I don't believe Voldy tried to AK Harry.

Harry remembers just *one* green flash - and that killed Lily. The possession attempt was 
after this, failed and Voldy discorporated. The scar, plus the embedded bits, is what 
remains of the possession attempt.<

I am in total agreement here. LV never tried to kill HP, except perhaps in the sense that he 
might have wished to so totally possess him that the original mind/soul would be sucked 
dry and incorporated into Voldy. But no AK was attempted on or intended for Harry.

It was the introjection of LV's mind/soul via attempted possession that was the assault, 
and it was that assault which (at least some of) the protections were intended to repel. 
What DD didn't count on was that the violence of the rejection would result in LV having a 
portion of his mind/soul torn from him, as well as his body.  Speaking of body, what more 
vulnerable time to lose one's body than when all or a portion of one's mind/soul is already 
split between two. Makes one kind of wonder (as I know others have previously) if there 
was a mindless/soul-less Riddle body left behind and if so, what become of it (might its 
disintegration been the actual source of the explosion of the GH house).

Confusingly so comments in post 1164:
 
>Just prior to the challenge, OoP page 719 UK, the actual Possession:-
 'Then Harry's scar ***burst open*** and he knew he was dead: it was pain beyond 
imagining, pain past endurance - He was gone from the hall, he was locked in the coils of 
a creature  with red eyes, so tightly bound that Harry did not know where his body ended 
and the creature's began: they were fused together, bound by pain, and there was no 
escape-And when the creature spoke, it used Harry's mouth, so that in his agony he felt 
his jaw move...'

 1. The scar bursts open as LV Possesses Harry. I think LV was using the same entry/exit 
point as in GH.

 2. "Harry did not know where his body ended and the creature's began: they were fused 
together, ". Does this line support my understanding of 'Possession', ie total body of 
Possessor involved, not solely mind control ?<

Me (Lyn) again:
I very much agree on the first point, the scar does mark the exit point from the first 
possession, and both the entry and exit point of the second (by which I mean MOM) 
possession. It was likely formed by the first possession going wrong, and then remained 
the point of easiest future entry and exit. Interesting that DD didn't wish to remove it (if he 
could), and makes one wonder if DD didn't anticipate it becoming a means for LV to enter 
Harry again in the future and that it would be in the mind/soul of HP that LV would finally 
be vanquished.  


Now to Kneasy in 1166:

>As for not being able to tell where one ends and the other begins,could be either of two 
explanations to my way of thinking.Either yes, the bodies join, or one brain is processing 
sensations from two bodies. Could it differentiate instantaneously?
 We have some neuro experts among the members, what do they think?<

Oh lord, Kneasy, I have generated enough fuss here without know dragging 
neuropshysiology and cognitive psychology into it the fray!!

That said, I must state that my reading of Harry's MOM possession is not one where his 
body was transformed, but where his independent perception of the world, and his own 
motor actions were temporarily subordinated to the perceptions and will of another mind 
(soul).  What broke the possession in my view, is that the subordinated Harry still existed 
and the strength of Harry's emotions with respect to Sirius made him temporarily the more 
powerful mind/soul in the melding. I would suggest that LV did not abandon Harry 
because of his distaste for the emotion, but because Harry at that moment of experience 
became the dominating force, and just like in the Graveyard scene, could have used that 
power to move back along their connection and overwhelm the mind/soul of the new LV 
entity. That is why LV hightailed it out of there immediately. We now have two instances 
where the "power" (be it will, emotion, whatever) has exceeded LV's and this scares the 
hell out of him (him possibly being SS rather than TR).

And finally (for 1166) from Kneasy,
>So for the time being I'll stick with it being an invasion not an exchange.<

Yep, me too, with the invader having a few things left behind, as well as destroyed in his 
defeat.
Lyn