15 November 2010

Horcruxes

While eating lunch today, I read the passage in Order of the Phoenix where Harry sees Arthur Weasley attacked by the snake outside the Department of Mysteries in his dream. The following is an excerpt from the chapter "St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries" (found on page 468):

"How did you see this?" Dumbledore asked quietly, still not looking at Harry.

"Well . . . I don't know," said Harry, rather angrily---what did it matter? "Inside my head, I suppose---"

"You misunderstand me," said Dumbledore, still in the same calm tone. "I mean . . . can you remember---er---where you were positioned as you watched this attack happen? Were you perhaps standing beside the victim, or else looking down on the scene from above?"

This was such a curious question that Harry gaped at Dumbledore; it was almost as though he knew . . .

"I was the snake," he said. "I saw it all from the snake's point of view. . . ."
All the other times I have read this book I assumed that Voldemort was possessing the snake (Nagini) and as Harry had access to his thoughts and feelings, he was also inside the snake. This time, however, I wondered if perhaps, because a bit of Voldemort's soul was in Nagini as well as in Harry, he was accessing Nagini's view of the Department of Mysteries while Voldemort was elsewhere? Perhaps because they were both Horcruxes, somehow Voldemort could communicate with/control Nagini, and Harry could tap into Nagini's mind as well as Voldemort's?

I might be completely wrong, but the Riddle in the diary was able to function on his own as he possessed Ginny Weasley, so perhaps the pieces of Voldemort's soul in the various Horcruxes could connect to each other, particularly the two in living beings.

3 comments:

  1. cool insight! I think you are right...at leats it makes sense to me, and I like it. Let me know what other cool things you figure out too. Only 3 more days!

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  2. All the other times I have read this book I assumed that Voldemort was possessing the snake (Nagini) and as Harry had access to his thoughts and feelings, he was also inside the snake.

    For what it's worth, this is what I always thought, and still do. Your idea is interesting, but I think it's just that Harry can see into Voldemort's mind (because of their connection), not that Harry has any direct connection with Nagini. If he did, wouldn't he (or shouldn't he) have realized it was there in Bathilda Bagshot's house in Godric's Hollow in Hallows?

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  3. Girl, you flew through these books!

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