'Clue to his vulnerability' / Harry's powers

[annemehr]

> > Judy wrote:
> > Dumbledore does spend a lot of time during this conversation saying 
> > that Harry is Voldemort's equal.  Still, it's not clear to me that 
> > Dumbledore is talking about magical powers.  Consider this exchange:
> > 
> >      "So, when the prophecy says that I'll have 'power the 
> >       Dark Lord know not', it just means --- love?" asked Harry, 
> >       feeling a little let down. 
> > 
> >       "Yes -- just love," said Dumbledore.
> >
> 
> Neri:
> The words of the prophecy are: "and the Dark Lord will mark him as 
> his equal, but he will have a power the Dark Lord knows not". 
> This "but" doesn't sound to me as if the power-the-Dark-Lord-knows-
> not is what makes Harry equal to Voldy. The *mark* is what makes them 
> equal, and the PTDLNN sounds like an extra, something that makes them 
> *different*. And this is basically what Dumbledore says too.
<snip>
> 
> 
> > Judy wrote:
> > And later, as Neri quoted, Dumbledore says:
> >      "By attempting to kill you, Voldemort himself singled out 
> >       the remarkable person who sits here in front of me, and gave 
> >       him the tools for the job! It is Voldemort's fault 
> >       that you were able to see into his thoughts, his 
> >       ambitions, that you even understand the snakelike
> >       language in which he gives orders."

Anne:
I've been ruminating on this exchange on the lists over the weekend.

I think this is the clue to what makes Harry so special, even though
he is clearly not the most talented wizard out there, nor arguably any
more loving than many others.  I think we can take it literally that
LV gave Harry the tools to vanquish him.

LV is now practicing Occlumency against Harry.  Their wands are dodgy
in battle against each other, and Jo has carefully set it up so that
each would have to submit to having a disadvantage were they to
substitute "another wizard's wand."  It would be the depths of
cheating were she merely to have LV's wand snap (but perfectly kosher
if she does it to Harry).  So how is Harry to battle LV in a way that
no other wizard can?

My thoughts pull together a few different lines of speculation:
~My theory that Possession is one of the powers that Harry received
from LV;
~My feeling that the final battle will echo the confrontation in the
GoF graveyard (or rather, vice-versa);
~The reason "love" will turn out to be such an advantage;
~There's even room for Snape!

Possession is apparently a very rare and powerful tool.  It's like all
three unforgivables rolled into one, and then some -- more complete
and reliable than Imperius, potentially much more excruciating than
Crucio, and apparently lethal to boot (eventually).

A Possession battle between LV and Harry would echo the Priori
Incantatem battle in GoF as a battle of wills (the dominant will
symbolised in GoF by the direction of movement of the beads of light),
and the "love factor" which gives Harry the advantage was symbolised
by the phoenix song in GoF.

A possible resolution might even echo what LV tried to do in OoP. 
"Kill me now, Dumbledore."  Suppose Harry, gaining possession of LV,
said such a thing to Snape (or whoever)?  Your guess as to whether
Harry would have time to vacate LV while the jet of green light
travelled their way.  

(Not that this has much bearing on the theory, but I believe Jo
slipped the subject of possession into HBP.  I think that's exactly
the talent little Tommy Riddle was honing when he lured those orphans
into the cave.)

I think the main magical tools that Harry needs to defeat LV are
indeed the ones that LV handed to him in Godric's Hollow.  Other than
that, he "only" needs to be made of good stuff - decent magical
talent, willfulness, with guts and a determination to oppose LV to the
end - in short, being like a member of the Order of the Phoenix.  In
other words, "better" (as a practical matter) than a Percy, Fudge or
Scrimgeour, but not so out of the ordinary as to be unbelievable.

A drawback to my theory is that, if DD really hoped Occlumency could
prevent LV possessing Harry, then it's something Harry will have to
overcome in LV in order to possess him.  It may happen that LV will be
the one to try to possess Harry again and Harry will merely turn the
tables, or it may be just a matter of wills.  Another drawback, for
what it's worth, is that I had imagined that Harry's defeat of LV
would also echo Lily's partial defeat of him when he murdered her, and
I don't see how this does that -- unless it's to be the fact that
Harry and Lily both love.  Is that too tenuous?  Or complete rubbish?

(If Nagini is really a Horcrux, it may help explain how LV could
possess her without causing her pain or damaging her.)

Anne