Chapter 35 -- King's Cross

[gehayi]

In which Harry is mostly dead, Voldemort's soul is ignored for no particular reason, and Albus Dumbledore Lies About It All To You.

Note: This is from the British edition. Readers of the American edition may notice some differences in the text.

Chapter Thirty-Five -- King’s Cross

Comments

The pitiful soul-fragment

[terri_testing]

For those of you who, unlike Dumbledore, can't blithely ignore a flayed baby in torment, presumably for eternity, I would mention that Bujold, in Paladin of Souls, handily explains how a great-hearted soul can let itself be engulfed by a mutilated fragment (demon) and ensoul it. Okay, so there are no great-hearted souls in the Potterverse unless Snape gets volunteered AGAIN, but hey--any one of us can cross over and take care of things at our death. Anyone in this exchange would qualify better than someone inculcated in the values of the Potterverse...

[smurasaki]

Descartes! Harry: "Cubito ergo sum. I lie down often. Therefore, I am."

*laughs* Perfect.

I don't understand why Harry was afraid of the flayed baby soul. Repulsed, I can understand, or horrified, but afraid? Are we supposed to believe he senses it's Voldie's soul? (Though, if Voldie's soul is in that state, it makes him seem pitiable, not frightening. Furthermore, shouldn't having your soul in that state have some affect on you? I really don't get souls in the Wizarding World.)

It's not really a case of "giving his life to save others" if the mortal hero suddenly acquires a "get out of death free" card.

Good point. How is it that his temporary mostly-maybe-death worked to protect people? He didn't actually die for them, both in the sense that he didn't, you know, actually die, and in the sense that his focus was on carrying out Dumbles' plans for him, not protecting his comrades. Besides, if just being willing to die for others is good enough to protect them, why aren't a hell of a lot of people protected in any given

[smurasaki]

Yeah. And why exactly was it his mother's death? I mean, both his parents died trying to save him (well, okay, mostly they died from dropping the brain cell they shared between them, but we'll skip over that). It seems like Voldie should have risked decorporation whenever he faced a parent and children, a couple, or any two (or more) people who loved one another.
Think about it. If JKR had actually considered the ramifications of a magic system that included protection from death any time one person risked their life saving (or trying to save) another, she could have had a very interesting world. Granted, there'd be a lot more casualties like Neville's parents, since it would be safer to torture your enemy than try to kill them, but that would actually fit her "there are worse things than death" idea better.

[jodel_from_aol]

Because he made a promise (to Snape) *not* to kill Lily. And broke it. So far as I can see, he didn't blow himself up from killing her, he did it by not keeping his word.

Which renders the whole thing *even more stupid*.

Lily didn't have *any* reason to believe that he would spare her if she stepped aside. Nobody filled her in on Tom's promises to his followers. So where does the "sacrifice" come in?

My head hurts.

[dracasadiablo]

"it came to him that he must exist,must be more than disembodied thought, because he was lying, definitely lying, on some surface

[shyfoxling]

And then, of course, Voldemort kills them both anyway, since he's the evil one without scruples, so more tragedy there. Not to mention that Lily would probably go insane and start wishing for death, which Voldemort would withold and cackle at her suffering, until he just got bored of the sound of her.

[shyfoxling]

"Hey, I exist!"

"Oooh, I'm naked!"

"Hmm, the possibilities are intriguing."

...LOL. XD

(Not our fault, LJ! Take it up with the author!)

Wait, I have a brilliant idea! I shall OPEN them. And if I can open them and I can see, then I have eyes!"

And then maybe he will have a tail, and name the ground, and... oh, wait, we did that icon back when he was falling off an enchanted motorbike, didn't we?

If he can't present himself as being kind, he'll claim to be wise, and [if] he can't be wise, he'll put on a great act of being humble.

...

Wow. I think you've really got Dumbledore's number there.

If Dumbledore knows that the Stone can create Inferi, why does he say later that Voldemort didn't know what the Stone was? He certainly created Inferi. A whole lake of them.

I suppose there's more than one way to do that, some scary Dark spell or potion. This bit annoys me in a different way, like what smurasaki said. I wouldn't describe the effect that occurs when Harry uses the Stone, nor how it's described in Beedle, as being anything like the

[smurasaki]

Never mind the added stupidity of being able to beat the wand's "owner" even when they're not using, or even in possession of the wand. I mean, did Draco even ever touch the Elder Wand? So, not only is it an unbeatible wand that changes ownership when someone beats the owner, but ownership can be transfered without the new or old owner even knowing they were the owners. Yay. The stupid that is the Elder Wand really didn't need that extra icing of WTF.

[gehayi]

It's a wand that, when you use it, you can't be beaten. And it's won over to your possession when you beat the previous owner.

And this is another concept that could have worked, if she had just obeyed her own rules. Say that the Elder Wand will defeat anyone in direct battle. So the idea, therefore, is to get the wand away from its owner.

Not by theft. If stolen, it should still belong to its rightful owner. A thief should not be able to make it work. But if the owner was tricked out of the Elder Wand, or if he gave it, willingly, to another...then, I think, the wand could work for another owner. And it would be the only wand in the world that would act like this.

That would have fit the fairy tale origins of the wand, and it would not have gone against anything that we already knew.

But no, we had to get a ton of contradictory wandlore instead.

THE STUPID, IT BURNS.

[shyfoxling]

Or hey, what if you killed them in a more conventional way, say by stabbing them, or dropping a piano on their head?