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Harry Potter: How Harry Might Not Be A Horcrux

There is a way that Harry might not be a Horcrux. Hold on to your hat as I explain.....

First the AK spell and the creation of the Horcrux (encasing the torn part of the soul inside an object) look to be separate acts, e,g. spells. Both Slughorn and Dumbledore allude to this in canon:

"There is a spell, do not ask me, I don’t know!" said Slughorn shaking his head like an old elephant bothered by mosquitoes.

IMO, Dumbledore almost exclusively discusses the encasing of the soul - and as we have seen and if Dumbledore is right, an AK itself isn’t necessary: Hepzibah Smith was poisoned. In other words, if Voldemort did create a Horcrux with her death, the spell couldn’t be predicated on an AK due to the poisoning. This leads me to the conclusion that the creation of the Horcrux is predicated on any murdering means, but not exclusively linked or combined at the same time as an AK because it takes a unique spell to encase torn part after killing has been accomplished.

For these reasons, I am not convinced that Harry is a Horcrux, even an accidental one, just because an AK bounced about in GH. I do believe Dumbledore’s statement in CoS that Voldemort accidently gave Harry some his powers the night the scar was created - if we go by the diary as an example, Harry should have been possessed as Ginny was by part of Voldemort’s soul if Harry was a Horcrux. I also wonder about this from OoP:

"The Death Eater had pulled his head out of the bell jar. His appearance was utterly bizarre, his tiny baby’s head bawling loudly while his thick arms flailed dangerously in all directions, narrowly missing Harry, who had ducked. Harry raised his wand but to his amazement Hermione seized his arm.

’You can’t hurt a baby!’"

Ok, so wonder what happens if you *do* try to hurt a baby? Maybe that’s how some of Voldemort’s powers ended up in Harry.....

Technorati Tags: Books, Harry Potter, Dumbledore, Voldemort, Horcrux, Horcruxes

Harry Potter Fandom: All Manners of Wanky Weirdness

I couldn’t help but post my thoughts about some recent revelations via the FanHistory Wiki and a new JournalFen blog by Charlotte Nox. There’s so many links to so many people involved in this "story" that you can spend an entire weekend reading about it and still only touch the surface - and I am not a fanfic participant nor do I like it, but I do respect the rights of others to do what they wish and what makes them happy. That said, someone who is looking to write an thesis for their sociology or pyschology Master’s degree in this case has a plethora of documentation with which to work, and then wonder why the hell they were all so gullible as to believe a virtual individual whom they had never seen, nor had a cup of joe with? What IS it that people on the Internet trust each other in such a blase manner? We teach and repeatedly tell our children who have interaction online to be careful, but we certainly don’t seem to take the same advice as adults.

The saga (which apparently is not a work of fan fiction) centers around a budding fanfic writer who, by all accounts, manipulated her way to the top of the exclusive fan fiction writers circle - people who have not been published by any other means than their own online creations about characters in Harry Potter books. These same want-to-be writers, and their virtual friends/fans, frequent such forums as The Sugar Quill and FictionAlley, among others. Her main obsession? Get close to Cassandra Claire, writer of the Very Secret Diaries, a popular and funny mock set of diaries of the Lord of the Rings characters. Cassandra herself is an enigma - while she attended Nimbus 2003 and apparently got a free ticket to The Witching Hour in 2005, she’s known for her fanfiction and that’s about it. According to her blog, she’s a professional writer now and is about to publish an original work in 2007, albeit not under the pen name of Cassandra Claire; a not too shabby an accomplishment for someone who has written slash about other published authors’ characters. (Slashfiction, BTW, has been around for quite a while and is not limited to just the Harry Potter fandom.) She’s also popular enough that when it was stated by a close inner circle friend that she and her roommates had gotten robbed and her computer stolen, fans contributed to purchase her a replacement laptop. (I’ve been unable to find where they posted a police report for that - I am wary when "donations" of this sort are taken.)

The main antagonist in this real-life online soap opera uses deception, manipulation and the online tools of the day ( instant messaging, blogs, forums, email) to establish bogus online personalities and fans to create controversy (in effect, her interacting with herself) for attention and sheer mayhem. She even resorts to a fake hospitalization and claims of being stalked to gain the sympathy and support for her readers, who soon outnumber the fabricated fans with which she began. Once that’s effectively done, she proceeds to hook up as an admin for a popular forum, and pit that forum and the others against each other with accusations of trolling, spying, and just utter meaness overall. The forum she’s an admin for supported her, and wouldn’t hear anything damaging about her from anyone even though the other admins at the competing forums do discover what she’s doing. Shockingly, this didn’t go on for a month or 2- it went on for what appears to be at least 2, if not 3, solid years! When all starts to be revealed, hell breaks loose - the fandom comments each time a new revelation gets blogged; members of the exclusive fanfic group, fans and supporters of the antagonist offer what can be perceived as half baked and not very sincere apologies. Ultimately, it makes you very happy you never entered that particular virtual world in the first place.

The most astonishing thing is how this has spread throughout the Internet, and the almost vehement reactions from fans and participants alike - thousands of comments, replies and posts. The second most astonishing thing is how completely the antagonist used technology to keep the deception complete for so long. And the third astonishing thing? That anyone believed her in the first place. Anyone can be anybody on the Internet and don’t you forget it.

Technorati Tags: Books, Web, Tech, Blog, Blogging, Cassandra Claire, Laptopgate, CharityGate, MsScribe, Harry Potter, Fan Fiction, Slash Fiction

Harry Potter: Did Snape Really Murder Dumbledore? Or Should We Consider More Than The Act?

I have an entirely different take on this, and I expect people will throw firewhiskey bottles at me for it. Please do not light them on fire this time before throwing - I prefer drinking them, thankyouverymuch. :)

Let’s look at this a different, albeit probably not popular, way: what if Dumbledore didn’t command anything and Snape recognized, either intuitively or by Legilimens, Dumbledore was almost DOA when he got there, or was at that time in for a painful, torturous death or other fate by the potion he drank or for the injury sustained to his hand earlier? I mean, DD himself says that the potion was "no health drink" and that he "came back, after a fashion." It’s a possibility he was doomed, based on his words, regardless of the other considerations about Snape and his motivations.

Perhaps Snape was or wasn’t asked by DD, and I’m not sure that matters if you look at a "bigger" picture. We know that JKR has seen a close family member, her mother, live and die thru a slow, debilitating disease which culminated in death - what person wouldn’t at some time think even fleetingly for that pain and suffering over a long period of time and escalating towards the end to go away for the person they loved? How helpless it is to watch this happen to a loved one and know there’s nothing you can do? It’s not out of the realm of possibility that something as painful and conflicted as this might make its way into her writing.

If you think about it that way, the debate is no longer about about what DD did or didn’t do, or what Snape did. The question and discussion could be if you knew someone was suffering, in pain, and was going to die a terrible death in the short term, would you end their suffering? Would you even for a moment think about it, whether you did it or not? Would it be the right, but not easy, thing to do? And heaven forbid that the person afflicted should ask you to do it? Maybe even demand it? Some may say yes, some may say no, some may not have any answer at all. Some might call it mercy and humane, and others murder and reprehensible. But that’s the point, isn’t it?

None of this is out of the realm of possibility anymore than Snape just simply murdering DD and being a traitor. The problem, understandably, is that in JKR’s desire to keep the mystery in her series until the end, we don’t have enough detail to tell us what happened one way or the other.

I’m already in Snape rehab and ready to catch those bottles with fireproof mitts just in case....

Technorati Tags: Books, Harry Potter, Dumbledore, Snape

Horcrux Twist: Who Got What When?

It’s been speculated that DD has removed his memory of the "why trust Snape" and kept it locked up for safekeeping, therefore he answers Harry the only way he can. Other reasons he’d keep it locked up run the gamut, including such possibilities as Snape and Dumbledore being related. (Ooo, snuck that one in on you all, speculation of course.)

However, I think the "why trust Snape thing" has more to do with Snape feeling his actions provoked Harry as being the orphan left behind. Personally, I think JKR gave major hints in CoS about Harry’s acquisition of Lord Voldemort’s soul inadvertently as opposed to the possession Ginny almost experienced. I don’t think I can ignore these things and not come to the conclusion that like it or not, Harry’s probably got a bit of Dark Lord soul or something in him. But I could be wrong and there’s hope so read on...

So here’s the twist: what if a part of Harry made it into Lord Voldemort that fateful night in GH before all of this happened? I mean, sure, we know some portion according to DD of Voldemort Harry acquired, but really, no one has ever asked if or what Lord Voldemort acquired something from Harry? All we hear is what happened to Harry and what he got; other than Voldemort being stripped of his powers, wouldn’t it stand to reason he might have gotten something from Harry in return? LV’s words:

"Aaah . . . pain beyond pain, my friends; nothing could have prepared me for it. I was ripped from my body, I was less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost. . . but still, I was alive. What I was, even I do not know... "

Dumbledore says in OoP that Voldemort couldn’t possess Harry without enduring "mortal agony" to himself. Sound familiar with the above passage? One could speculate that Harry doesn’t feel any pain when unwittingly inside Voldemort’s head early on in GoF because *he’s already there.* I also keep coming back to the blood Harry unwillingingly gave Voldemort that night in the graveyard:

"My father’s bone, naturally, meant that we would have to come here, where he was buried. But the blood of a foe ... Wormtail would have had me use any wizard, would you not, Wormtail? Any wizard who had hated me ... as so many of them still do. But I knew the one I must use, if I was to rise again, more powerful than I had been when I had fallen. I wanted Harry Potter’s blood. I wanted the blood of the one who had stripped me of power thirteen years ago . . . for the lingering protection his mother once gave him would then reside in my veins too."

So very interesting, this passage. Other than "why would Voldemort the Omnipotent want/need protection?’, we can also speculate that with Harry’s abilities to be inside Voldemort’s head unscathed when the mere Dark Lord’s possession of Harry in OoP leaves Voldemort in agony..... well, something is amiss, isn’t it? And remember, Harry could see inside the Dark Lord’s head before the graveyard and the taking of his blood for Voldemort’s rebirthing.

Where’s the blood come in? Blood itself is long believed to be a strong, religiously or magically powerful thing, even symbolic of the soul throughout the ages. Way back when, soldiers believed (as LV does) that to take the blood of an enemy into yourself meant that you acquired the power of the foe you defeated - however, they also cautioned each other that you could also get the foe’s weaknesses, too. Harry’s fear as defined in PoA explicitly is, as Lupin states, fear of fear itself.

So if we go with all of the aformentioned for argument’s sake, Lord Voldemort is going to not only fear "fear", he’s also going to fear death. Woo. Sounds like He_Who_Must_Not_Be_Named could be He_Who_Doesn’t_Want_To_Leave_The_House.

There’s your gleam of triumph flashing though DD’s eyes, IMO. If there’s part of Harry in Voldemort, one might come to the conclusion that Voldemort underestimated taking Harry’sblood in GoF, thereby strengthening what Voldemort got from Harry in GH and DD suspected such. It could ultimately be a deciding factor in Lord Voldythingy’s downfall.

Technorati Tags: Books, Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort, Dumbledore, Severus Snape, Snape

Harry Potter: Souls, Reality, and Truth

What turned me on to this concept was whilst feeling under the weather and deciding to watch my collection of Babylon 5 DVD’s. Strange the ideas you get when watching a space opera and have an addled slightly baking brain, hm? Probably should be outlawed...

Episode 2 of the first real season is entitled "Soul Hunter, written as all D5 episodes are by J. Michael Straczynski. JMS, as he signs his notes to his fans, felt that this was one of the episodes he hoped would "generate discussions, arguments, even a bar fight or two." One of the races he created which are represented on the station, the Minbari, fear soul hunters, even warning and educating their people from birth actively about them. The Minbari believe that the soul hunter’s method of preservation is true death, for it cuts a soul off from the rest and diminishes the next generation of Minbari.

Soul hunters believe when a person dies, the soul expires into oblivion. However, soul hunters have a prescient attraction to death - if they so choose they can capture and preserve a soul "for the greater good" at the moment it leaves the body. They carry with them a bag full of the souls they have "saved", each in its own glass vessel.

The various other characters on the show take their own stands about this, which of course vary depending on their theological. cultural, and philosophical beliefs about what a soul is. And true to real life, JMS also mentions in his backstory about the episode with fans that he had problems with some members of the production staff having a theological problem with the episode’s content. As he also said, the basic concept goes back to the beginnings of civilization (that your soul can be captured somehow) and includes the issues *behind* the soul...where does it come from, where does it go, does it survive the death of the body, or does it go on. While he admitted the episode was creepy, he was very proud of it nonetheless.

LV at the moment isn’t a harvester of anyone’s soul but his own, but in the present, he views himself as immortal, doesn’t he? Most characters in mythology and literature who believe they achieve or have achieved immortality often begin thinking they are *gods.*

I like seeking what the truth is, from a *philosophical* perspective. This marries with something that DD said in PS/SS when telling Harry that the truth "is a beautiful and terrible thing,and should therefore be treated with great caution." Truth, knowledge and wisdom are all intertwined in philosophy. Many think that applies to just Harry’s related truth’s about why LV tried to *kill* him, and I would submit it applies to everything in the WW society, including the propensity for propaganda displayed by the Ministry through the Daily Prophet. Wouldn’t it be fabulous to have seen those Prophet issues way back when? You know, it was a rumor about all of it - did the Ministry influenced Prophet actually publish anything of substance about GH?

Pandering to what people want to think rather than what really *is* promotes deceiving one’s self about reality - this is a major issue in the HP series. Fudge in GoF is a true representation of this with his obvious self denial of LV’s return: the Dursleys and their denial of magic and Harry are a case study of it. DD also mentions that the WW is in denial about how they treat their fellow magical cousins and creatures, and Harry even has to battle this denial in OoP in physical way overtly when Umbridge has him write the line " I will not tell lies" in his own blood. Ok JKR, I get the message -the WW society has a definite problem with reality. :)

The problem with self deception or the denial of reality is that eventually as that condition progresses, 2 things happen: 1) the condition bleeds to other areas and 2) reality and the truth rears its head until denial is no longer possible. The latter is the progression I think I we’re seeing in the books, particularly with HBP. The reality of LV, if he weren’t a wizard and were present in our world today, is that he is a thief and a sadistic serial murderer, probably afflicted with antisocial personality disorder - he is a criminal. There are members of the DE who are going to figure this out as the DE’s start to be affected *themselves* with those close to them at LV’s direction - the Malfoys are one example and my bet is others will be too. It’s a fact that people only change their thoughts or actions when there’s a direct endangerment or incentive. Regulus Black figured it out, and look how far he went?

What if the Ministry had come out with a dossier to the public on LV, including the fact he’s a half blood and not a pureblood - and that his given name is Tom Riddle? It’s not common knowledge those 2 things, are they? Forget listing who the DE’s are, and focus on dumbing this guy down to what he is: a criminal who must be stopped. Part of the reason that the WW at large doesn’t use his given name is that yes, they fear him, but no real information about Tom Riddle has been provided to them to decrease this fear, has it? It doesn’t even appear that anyone (other than DD) has tried to find out about him at all! Instead, they hide behind calling him HWMNBN or YKW and make him less than human, thereby increasing the fear about him. Futhermore, now the Ministry and the Prophet have seemed to have granted Harry, in the effort to make an "equal" with LV, the same kind of notoriety: The Boy Who Lived now matured to The Chosen One in HBP. Compare that to what Harry did when telling his story to the Quibbler - he provided accurate information that started to "shift" perception of Quibbler readers that LV was back and what he is capable of doing.

I have a very hard time with the media in the US when serial criminals are sensationalized by some catchy names like DC Sniper, BTK, the Hillside Strangler, and the Zodiac. It sensationalizes and dehumanizes a criminal in a subconscious way to the point where the rest of the law abiding public is in a panic - if you’d been in DC during the Sniper episode and got caught in 5 hours of rush hour traffic going home when your normal commute was an hour (and this happened several times over a period of 6 weeks for me), you’d understand just how panicked people and officials were. And how rampant rumor was - good lord, the things we heard.

It has been said that lies become rumor -- given enough time, rumor becomes myth -- myth becomes legend and there is always a fragment of truth in legend. I’m of the mind that we’ll see that legend/myth broken in the next book because I think the full truth known to the public, not just Harry and Company, and LV’s defeat are linked.

Notice that the myth is not fed with "Lily died for her son’ with the general population, just that the Potters were killed and Harry lived. All of it seems to be focused around who lived, not how he lived or the others who died. The WW is very, very shallow in this regard, isn’t it? A society which lives in denial cannot long survive without acceptance of the reality, and ultimately, the realization of the truth.

Technorati Tags: Books, Harry Potter, Voldemort

Lord Voldemort: Where'd He Go and How did Frank Longbottom Know "Something"

So, lots of discussions thus far about Snape (good Snape, bad Snape, just general Snape-itis) - all good and all great points. After looking back through my non Snape notes, I thought I’d ask for patience whilst we explore that seeming unanswerable question, "why did LV choose Harry" to mark as his equal at GH. And who might have known the Dark Smarmy Lord was going to visit and perform the dasterdly deeds he did that fateful night Harry rec’d his car and his first motorcycle ride. ( Yes indeedy, those of us Harley- obsessed are happy to have another convert in our midst.)

We all know what we’ve been able to pick up in the books about this. We also know that Neville Longbottom could have just as been easily chosen as the Other in the prophecy, but wasn’t. And who knew about the Prophecy? Dumbledore did, of course, as apparently did Snape. As DD says in OoP, both the Longbottoms and the Potters were in the Order and I think were alerted to the prophecy or danger at some point. Surely someone in the Ministry knew of the prophecy’s existence. The Potters, we know, chose to go into hiding. What did the Longbottoms do if they knew?

The question this all begets is why *Frank Longbottom* would be tortured for information about LV’s whereabouts after GH? I say Frank first because the way that the Penseive passage is written; it *starts* with Frank being tortured and then his wife when Frank wouldn’t talk - Barty Crouch in DD’s Penseive scene of GoF is what we base our understanding upon.

Would not talk about "what"? How would Frank know anything about where LV went? Couple this with JKR’s statement that the LeStranges weren’t in on the secret of the prophecy - and according to herself, Bella et all were sent directly to the Longbottoms only a few weeks after LV’s disappearance but not to kill Neville. They specifically were the ones the DE’s wanted. (Another question: who the hell *sent them* if LV was MIA? Don’t blame me for asking, blame Rowling for her site’s answer to the question of the choice.)

Wouldn’t that line of thought perhaps lead one to the speculation Frank saw what happened at GH? JKR’s also mentioned before that we maybe haven’t seen the last of the time turners -could it be that Ministry would have allowed a time turner’s use to find out just what happened to the most notorious terrorist in years? In PoA, time isn’t to be meddled with and bad things happen to wizards who do; per Hermoine, noboby but nobody is supposed to change time. Frank could have witnessed the whole thing and since we know Ministry employed DE’s exist, maybe the rumor got out....

The other alternative is one that I feel slightly queasy about, and hate to even mention. What if Gran’s darling Frank did something that might not be so Order-ish - like trying to save his family in lieu of the Potters’ demise.

Hmm. Much to ponder.

Technorati Tags: Books, Harry Potter, Snape, Neville Longbottom, Severus, Death Eaters

Harry Potter: The Gleam, The Blood, and TM Riddle

I started this effort researching the whole "Harry’s got Lily’s eyes and what does THAT mean?" question, but I keep getting drawn back to the gleam in Dumbledore’s eye at His Dark Lordshipness taking and using Harry’s blood for his rebirthing in GoF. Note to all who read: this is only what I think is the case. Feel more than free to have your own view and share, will you, please?

I’m asking myself "how thick could you get?" in relation to why Voldemort would do what he did after reading all that I could about ancient blood rituals. Ancient beliefs about blood were remarkably similiar to what Voldemort did in taking Harry’s blood for his rebirthing - the practice of using the strength of your enemy’s blood to sustain and empower yourself is rampant through ancient times. It is believed the same substance can cleanse or defile, drive men to fury and murder or appease anger and restore life. IMO, Voldemort’s got a problem and a big one: if any of the above is true, he’s now got some, well..... shall we say, "issues." Let’s discuss...

In ancient times, it was believed that you had to extremely careful about taking enemy blood for yourself , because the following could be true:

- The enemy’s soul, life experiences, personality or a combination of all three were in the blood
- You acquired not only the strengths, but could acquire the weaknesses of your opponent, too
- Drinking or using your enemy’s blood constitued a "bond" between you and the person from whom you took the blood.
- Just because you killed your opponent and bested him doesn’t mean that if you take his blood for your own purposes, that your enemy couldn’t best you in the end from *within you.*

Now, on to the guesswork. Trays in the upright position......exits to the left and right....

First, as Dumbledore says, Voldemort’s use of Harry’s blood now allows him to overcome the "particular hurdle" of touching Harry without harm to himself. Protection there nullified, however isn’t there more to Harry’s blood than just the bond of blood protection by his mother’s sacrifice? (Note: Dumbledore says "particular hurdle" which can mean he’s implying there’s more than one for Voldemort associated with Harry’s blood.) If Harry really has a piece of T.M. Riddle in his head, then Voldemort’s use of Harry’s blood might just even that score, too. How?

Seatbelts tightened, please.

Harry is repeatedly told, by Dumbledore, how unusual and unique he is with all he’s endured, specifically that Harry’s soul is "untarnished and whole" whereas Voldemort’s is not:

"You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!" said Dum­bledore loudly. "The only protection that can possibly work against the lure of power like Voldemort’s! In spite of all the temptation you have endured, all the suffering, you remain pure of heart, just as pure as you were at the age of eleven, when you stared into a mir­ror that reflected your heart’s desire, and it showed you only the way to thwart Lord Voldemort, and not immortality or riches." (HBP)

Note this from SS/PS about the blood protection:

"Not a scar, no visible sign... to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin."

And this from Dumbledore in the Ministry of Magic (OoP) during his battle with Voldemort:

’We both know that there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom."

What better way to destroy a man than from within his very self? IMO, the blood Voldemort took from Harry now acts as a permanent medium to introduce all those "weaknesses" Lord Voldemort perceives Harry as having: love, friendship, trust, a complete and untarnished soul along with the protection of a mother, which we know the Dark Lord never had.

Maybe Voldemort can deploy Occulmency against Harry all day long to avoid Harry having access to his thoughts, but it may be another story for the Dark Lord when he’s being peppered with doubts, emotion or confusion from within and perhaps he can’t control it as much as he’d like to. Remember, Harry is described by Dumbledore as being "pure of heart’ which one can
infer means that his blood is pure in this way, too. Those "feelings" or thoughts might not be blocked by Occlumency (which Dumbledore believes that Voldemort is using against Harry at the beginning of HBP) because perhaps they come from *Voldemort’s skin*, just as Harry’s protection is in his skin. And look out, time might make that worse and take the edge off Voldemort’s somewhat considerable power. He certainly didn’t risk a second turn at Dumbledore himself after OoP, preferring instead to plot, plan and scheme and keep his Dark Butt out of the fray.

What was the rebirthing other than a potion/spell combination? And who do we know who is proficient at potions and spells? I think someone is going to give Harry the "clue" about using Voldemort’s mistake to his advantage (and I think it was a HUGE error on Voldemort’s part - one Wormtail tried inadvertently to avoid for him.) . By using Harry’s blood for his restoration, Voldemort left the door open for several situations to occur, however one I am specifically drawn to is putting into play what’s perhaps in Harry, allowing it to spring into action. You know, that mysterious piece of one T.M. Riddle which Harry thought he couldn’t possibly have known as a friend as a younger child, even though the name was familiar to him in that manner.

T.M Riddle might help Harry through Book 7 and the Horcux hunt; here’s what I perceive as T.M Riddle’s influencing Harry to understand innately how to destroy the diary horcrux:

"Then, without thinking, without considering, as though he had meant to do it all along, Harry seized the basilisk fang on the floor next to him and plunged it straight into the heart of the book."

And this interesting description of how Harry reacted after destroying the diary:

"Shaking all over, Harry pulled himself up. His head was spinning as though he’d just traveled miles by Floo powder."

There’s also the mention of Harry’s ability to throw off the Imperius curse in GoF - who is the little voice in Harry’s head? The same voice also appears to encourage Harry in PoA to kill Sirius when he has the chance. Now, let’s travel to the emotion Harry feels at an Easter egg Ginny gives him from Mrs. Weasley in OoP:

"She handed him a handsome chocolate egg decorated with small, iced Snitches and, according to the packaging, containing a bag of Fizzing Whizzbees. Harry looked at it for a moment, then, to his horror, felt a lump rise in his throat.

’Are you OK, Harry?’ Ginny asked quietly.

’Yeah, I’m fine,’ said Harry gruffly. The lump in his throat was painful. He did not understand why an Easter egg should have made him feel like this"

I suspect that T.M. Riddle, if he’s there in Harry, knows now concepts like love, sacrifice, friendship, honor, trust, tolerance, and kindness really *do* exist. He’s had Harry’s untarnished and complete soul as an example. Give that part back to Voldemort while he’s in a skin which was partly produced and perhaps influenced by Harry’s blood - well, there may be a result astonishing to behold.

For Voldemort, such an event may result in knowledge, which begets truth, and with truth, self realization and reality. A life well lived is truly better than a life not lived to the fullest at all and that, my friends, is not something I think any of us want to have at the point of death.

Technorati Tags: Harry Potter, Voldemort, Tom Riddle, Dumbledore

Anderson Cooper tops bestseller list

Anderson Cooper's book tops the NY Times Bestseller List. Now when is Shep gonna put out his life story?

Part of the reason for Cooper's sales bonanza? He's been flogging the book on "AC360" in the context of news stories related to Katrina. It's a trick Jon StewartJon Stewart set the stage for when he promoted (with self-deprecating irony, natch) "America (The Book)" on "The Daily Show."Cooper's demeanor is perfect fodder for the book tour, where a dash of the confessional always helps. More than a thousand fans -- many of them wielding cameras -- lined up to see the anchor and have books signed at a Gotham Barnes & Noble last week.

Link: Variety.com - Inside Move: Cooper writes way to top.