Of Hxs and parasites

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> wrote
  in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/4367>:

<< I think [Horcruxes}'ve been there all along, or at any rate since
Book Two, when we learned that Sally left. The school survived when it
should have died, but  in a weakened, fragmented state, unable to heal
itself. || Sound familiar? >>

Do you mean the idea of Horcruxes was there metaphorically in terms of
something that should have died but remained in "a half-life, a cursed
life"? In which case, the idea was there in PS/SS, where Firenze
explained what happens to one who drinks unicorn blood.

Or do you mean it literally, that when we wondered how Tom could have
left himself as a memory in a diary, and when we saw that Salazar had
put the Chamber of Secrets in Hogwarts, we should have figured out
that Tom had put a piece of his soul into the diary and Salazar had
put a piece of his soul into the Chamber? But canon has stated that
Tom put the memory into the diary long before he put a piece of his
soul into it, and canon has not yet stated that Salazar made any
Horcrux at all.

The idea that there is a piece of Salazar's soul in the Chamber of
Secrets inspired me to digress on Possession Theory, but I had better
insert the rest of this thought *before* the digression:

The only evidence I see that the school SHOULD have died when Salazar
left is The Sorting Hat's New Song (in OoP, long after CoS): 
"The houses that, like pillars four,
Had once held up our school,
...
And never since the founders four
Were whittled down to three
Have the houses been united
As they once were meant to be."
And I see the school left on three pillars as weakened, in danger of
collapsing, but not dead.

But if there is something that says the school can't live without its
Four Founders, not just its Four Houses, then either the other three
also left Horcruxes there (and therefore were evil enough to make
Horcruxes; are Filch and Pince and Pomfrey really Godric and Rowena
and Helga in disguise?) or the school should have died eight or nine
centuries ago of 'natural causes'. 

I really, really, really *like* Possession Theory (that there is one
Dark Lord, either a memory+soul piece of Salazar or a parasite that
came into the school on Salazar, which lurks in the Chamber of Secrets
and seduces one exceptionally talented student every 50 to 150 years
into being its host, so the host can use the parasite's strong magic
powers but gradually has its mind/personality/self/soul eaten by the
parasite) but I don't think it's true.

Possession theory suggests that the wizarding culture wouldn't keep
producing Dark Lords on its own, despite good discussion in past years
of the cultural traits (e.g. great admiration for power regardless of
what is done with that power) that produce Dark Lords. I think *human
nature* keeps producing Dark Lords on its own, and I'm always a bit
surprised that Kneasy, of all people, supports a theory which offers
to let human nature off the hook. 

It also suggests that Salazar was already evil when the school was
founded or at least became evil due to the parasite before he left the
school.  I *like* the idea that Salazar was already evil when the
others invited him to help found the school, them thinking that he was
less dangerous inside their team than outside it, but that contradicts
the Sorting Hat's statement that Godric and Salazar were best friends
before they quarrelled and the current conventional wisdom that
Salazar's image is the victim of the winning side's propaganda.

<< And we don't know *why* Sally up and quit the place, do we. I'd 
bet there's a death at the heart of it all,>> 

Why a death? (Why not a chicken?) I don't think you've come around to
my story of the Fifth Founder, Tavish Tartanwool, who was a much
lesser wizard than 'the four greatest wizards and witches of their
era' but provided the location for the school on his family's
hereditary territory but he was murdered and memory of him was
suppressed. For me, Salazar, already evil and not at all Godric's bet
friend, murdered him and the other three were displeased but covered
it up because they didn't want to expel Salazar.

<< a death for which Sally alone was blamed, when in truth none were
innocent and all were responsible. >>

That's a good expression of the current conventional wisdom to which I
referred, above.

<< We all know Salazar left something of himself behind. The question
we should be asking, IMO, is, What did he take with him? Return that
to the school and the Houses can exist in harmony once more. >>