Skip to main content

Was Voldemort properly present during the MoM encounter after trying to possess Harry?


In the fifth instalment of the Harry Potter series, was Voldemort present as a being once finishing possessing Harry Potter? There is a brief period of time where Voldemort attempts to possess Harry Potter (which some may argue was successful), and my question revolves around the events after this. After taking over Harry's body, is Voldemort present as a normal being, with the abilities that come with that? For an example, is he able to use a wand? It would seem so as Cornelius and other Ministry officials spot him before leaving.


The reason I ask this is because I'd like to know if he had the ability to further attack Harry Potter whilst he was wandless and on the ground. Of course, he may have been pressed for time as the officials showed up, and as Dumbledore was actively present in the entire event. If he could further attack Harry Potter, why didn't he attempt to kill him? To my knowledge, he did not know of the blood that tethered Harry to life, so I see no reason in him not trying.


A video to further help you understand this scene can be found here.



Answer



He certainly was.


From this summary of the relevant part of the books:



Suddenly, Dumbledore and Voldemort arrive, and duel each other, with Harry and Lestrange restrained by moving statues charmed out of the Fountain of Magical Brethren. Voldemort then tries to possess Harry, and flees when Harry's love for Sirius chases him out of Harry's mind. As Voldemort returns physically to free Bellatrix, Cornelius Fudge and a number of Aurors, summoned by Dumbledore, arrive and see him.




Re. your second paragraph, recall that Dumbledore was still present and able to fight Voldemort if he tried any sort of ordinary wand-attack on Harry. The only way Voldemort could think of to attack Harry without Dumbledore being able to defend him was to get inside his mind, into a place Dumbledore wouldn't be able to attack him. As @CandiedMango suggests, he may also have been exhausted and/or in pain from Harry's emotions, which had after all been powerful enough to force him out of possession.


If Voldemort had tried to attack Harry physically (rather than via possession) at that point, Dumbledore would presumably have defended Harry in exactly the same way as before, by duelling with Voldemort. And since he'd been unsuccessful in the first duel, and the Ministry officials were arriving to outnumber him, he accepted that "discretion is the better part of valour" and departed.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.
Post a Comment
Read more