Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re going
to be discussing the dark lord- he-who-must-not-be-named- LORD VOLDEMORT, and what actually happened
to his body after he died in the Deathly Hallows Pt 2- after he was defeated at the battle
of hogwarts.
One thing that I want to mention right away is that this video is mainly going to be focusing
on the BOOKS- as in the films Voldemort’s body simply disintegrates in to nothing- an
outcome entirely inconsistent with the events of the book.
Not long before his death, Voldemort and Harry shared the following exchange in The Great
Hall:
Harry Potter: "I know things you don't know, Tom Riddle. I know lots of important things
that you don't. Want to hear some, before you make another big mistake?"
Lord Voldemort: "Is it love again? Dumbledore's favourite solution, love, which he claimed
conquered death …? So what will stop you dying now when I strike?… If it is not love
that will save you this time, you must believe that you have magic that I do not, or else
a weapon more powerful than mine?"
Harry Potter: "I believe both."
And after Harry and Voldemort’s long-awaited final skirmish, when Voldemort is finally
defeated by Harry, his corporeal form doesn’t break off in to pieces and vanish in to nothing,
in fact- nothing special happens, Voldemort is reduced to a corpse just like anyone else.
Voldemort always saw death/dying as pure weakness- a fate reserved for the unimportant and powerless.
I think that how his death is portrayed in the book is quite interesting, because it
was so well..commonplace.
"They moved Voldemort's body and laid it in a chamber off the Hall, away from the bodies
of Fred, Tonks, Lupin, Colin Creevey, and fifty others who died fighting him."
So after being moved, what came of Voldemort’s corpse? Where did it go? Well, something that
the films failed to mention altogether was the resting chamber of Lord Voldemort- a secret
chamber located inside of Hogwarts where his body was kept. No information was released
regarding the chambers location other than that it was ‘outside of the Great Hall’.
One important distinction to make here, however, is that when Voldemort died his soul and his
body- his corporeal form, suffered very different fates. While Voldemort’s physical body may
have appeared to be at peace and laid to rest, his soul was destined for torment. Voldemort
had sacrificed his soul on countless occasions, doing anything and everything he could to
achieve his goal of immortality. During his lifetime, Voldemort committed atrocity after
atrocity, murdering people to create horcruxes, and even killing and drinking the blood of
a unicorn- an act so vile that the drinker is destined to have a cursed existence. So
you see, Voldemort’s soul could never have been at rest, and for the life that he chose
to live, he had to pay the ultimate price- an existence in limbo. For those that aren’t
aware, limbo is a state in which one is neither dead or alive, a place where no one can truly
be at rest. Limbo is often perceived as a ‘forgotten or ignored place’ - a place
that interestingly enough would have been a stark reminder of Voldemort’s formative
years when he was left at Wool’s Orphanage as a baby.
Many different religions/cultures view limbo differently, however- one aspect of limbo
is consistent across all of them - it’s not somewhere that you want to be. Some speculate
that limbo is the place that a recently deceased person can make a choice: move on to the afterlife
or return to the world as a ghost- however, JK Rowling confirmed in an interview that
because Voldemort had destroyed his soul with horcruxes, he would be permanently stuck there.
One thing is for certain: Voldemort paid the ultimate price for his crimes- a half-life
in eternal torment.
And that’s it for this video!
Did you guys know what happened to Voldemort after his death? Did you ever think about
it? For those that only saw the films- I bet some of this was surprising to you.
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Until next time
Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that
it is not real?