Skip to main content

voldemort - Why didn't Harry die in the dark forest?


I know that this question may sound like it has a very obvious answer, and many of you may just say that Harry didn't die because he was the Master of Death, as he had the possession of the three Deathly Hallows.


Couldn't, though, the "Master of Death" be purely a figure of speech, since the owner of the Hallows would be able to kill, resurrect and dodge death?


I know this is a question that is left open in the book, but couldn't Harry have lived because he carried a piece of Voldemort's soul, and Dumbledore gave Harry the choice to really die or just kill the piece of Voldemort's soul, and then Harry could live?


Is there anything in any of the books to support either theory?



Answer



The true Master of Death is that individual who fully accepts mortality and is not afraid to die himself. It's not about possessing or using the Hallows; it's about accepting the inevitability of death, which is something Voldemort was completely unable to do, but Harry was able to accept the concept of the inevitability of death.


I think this is really important: It is not Dumbledore who gives Harry the opportunity to choose life or death while they're in King's Cross in Deathly Hallows -- Harry possesses the discretion to chose his next step all on his own -- in the end, Harry chooses life. Dumbledore doesn't choose it for him.




The realisation of what would happen next settled gradually over Harry in the long minutes, like softly falling snow.

‘I’ve got to go back, haven’t I?’

‘That is up to you.’

‘I’ve got a choice?’

‘Oh yes.’ Dumbledore smiled at him. ‘We are in King’s Cross, you say? I think that if you decided not to go back, you would be able to ... let’s say ... board a train.’

‘And where would it take me?’

‘On,’ said Dumbledore simply.

Deathly Hallows - page 578 - Bloomsbury - chapter 35, King's Cross



Harry could have chosen to go on, but he didn't. He chose to go back, chose to take on Voldemort to try and destroy him, so the people and community he loved so fiercely could live better, safer, and more peaceful lives free from fear.


Because Voldemort took Harry's blood for the resurrection potion in Goblet of Fire, and took in Lily's enchantments, Lily's enchantments in Voldemort's blood kept Harry tethered to life as long as Voldemort was himself alive. Voldemort destroyed the piece of his soul when he cast Avada Kedavra on Harry in the forest (with Lily's protections keeping Harry from being killed); Harry did not kill that piece of Voldemort's soul. The piece of soul didn't protect Harry from death; the fact that both he and Voldemort shared Lily's protective enchantments kept Harry alive.


So, no, the fact that Harry survived Avada Kedavra in the forest does not have to do with possessing a portion of Voldemort's soul. It has to do with Harry being tethered to life through Voldemort and Lily's enchantments, and Harry's choice to no continue down the path of death at King's Cross.


Harry chose life after the piece of Voldemort's soul inside him was destroyed.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...
1 comment
Read more

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...
Post a Comment
Read more

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...
Post a Comment
Read more