Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory.
Today we’re going to be discussing a HORRIFIC Harry Potter Theory that bears the potential
to completely flip the Harry Potter ending on it’s head.
It involves (you guessed it) our main antagonist Lord Voldemort- and a scenario in which Voldemort…*gasp*..SURVIVES.
Voldemort is defeated (at least markedly) twice in the Harry Potter story.
His first defeat was at the Potter residence in Godric’s Hollow, where his rebounding
curse (thanks to Lily’s loving sacrifice) shot back at him and ripped his soul from
his destroyed body.
This marked the (temporary) end of Voldemort, and the end of the First Wizarding War.
But Voldemort certainly wasn’t done- oh no no.
In 1995 Voldemort made his resurgence, more motivated than ever to take back control of
the Wizarding World and get revenge on the boy who had defeated him.
However, this didn’t work out too well for him either, as shown in his final showdown
with Harry during the Battle of Hogwarts:
“Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the
white hands empty, the snakelike face vacant and unknowing.
Voldemort was dead, killed by his own rebounding curse, and Harry stood with two wands in his
hand, staring down at his enemy's shell.”
And after this final fated duel, it’s generally accepted that Voldemort was dead.
In the films, Voldemort’s body broke off in to thousands of pieces and vanished in
to nothing, and in the books the former dark-lord was reduced to a corpse just like anyone else.
It’s ironic that Voldemort, who also viewed death/dying as pure weakness- a fate reserved
for the unimportant and powerless- would end up as a corpse just like EVERYONE else- thrown
in to a pile of other bodies in a chamber off the great hall.
"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."
Eventually, after all of the dust has settled, Voldemort’s body is moved in to a resting
Chamber within the walls of Hogwarts- something that the films fail to mention altogether.
It’s here- somewhere entirely unspecified within the castle- that Voldemort purportedly
lay for the remainder of eternity.
Or…DID HE?
The theory that I want to put forth today suggests that Voldemort, by way of- you guessed
it- HORCRUXES- was able to survive.
Horcruxes are- as most of you will know- an object in which a dark witch or wizard has
imbued part of their soul.
The purpose of doing this is to make it difficult for the witch or wizard to be completely killed-
achieving, in a sense, some form of immortality.
Each Horcrux ties a piece of the individual’s soul to the mortal realm, grounding it, and
in Voldemort’s case he happened to create many of these life-preserving objects.
By the end of the story, Voldemort’s (presumably) out of Horcruxes, which is why Harry was able
to kill him.
HOWEVER, today we’re going to explore the possibility that Voldemort may have actually
had one last stake in the mortal realm that was overlooked.
Some fans have speculated that the soul of Lord Voldemort was not fully destroyed when
Harry defeated him at the end of the series.
Instead, it is suggested that a piece of Voldemort's soul remained hidden within Harry, waiting
for the opportunity to take over his body and regenerate.
We KNOW that for most of the books and films Harry carried a piece of Voldemort’s soul
with him, that is-until his showdown with Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest.
“Voldemort had raised his wand.
His head was still tilted to one side, like a curious chi*ld, wondering what would happen
if he proceeded.
Harry looked back into the red eyes, and wanted it to happen now, quickly, while he could
still stand, before he lost control, before he betrayed fear--
He saw the mouth move and a flash of green light, and everything was gone.”
At this point Harry wakes up in a sort of limbo where he’s given the option of returning
to the land of the living or ‘moving on’.
The prevailing argument for WHY Harry has this option is because HE wasn’t killed,
but merely the piece of Voldemort inside of him.
Voldemort had foolishly rebuilt his body using Harry Potter’s blood, which meant that both
of them were protected by Lily’s loving sacrifice.
Dumbledore confirms this:
“He took your blood and rebuilt his living body with it!
Your blood in his veins, Harry, Lily’s protection inside both of you!
He tethered you to life while he lives!”
Essentially, because Harry’s soul is now whole and pure – he is given the opportunity
to return to his life as just Harry.
All he has to do at this point is CHOOSE to go back.
However, I have an issue with this.
The method by which Voldemort chose to ‘kill’ Harry was via Avada Kedavra- which many have
speculated kills you by magically ripping the soul from the body’.
At this point soul is separated from body- with your body remaining in the mortal plane
and your soul moving ‘on’.
From here you’ll end up in one of 3 places- back on Earth as a ghost (asssuming you have
unfinished business), LIMBO (where Harry makes his choice to return) or the wizarding afterlife.
The ‘afterlife’ in Harry Potter is never clearly defined, but what IS clear is that
it’s the best place you can go upon dying- an idyllic place akin to a state of ‘Nirvana’.
If you want a full explanation of what happens then check out my video ‘What happens to
wizards when they die?
The wizarding afterlife explained’.
If it was indeed the piece of Voldemort’s soul fragment that was destroyed by his killing
curse, and not Harry’s own soul, then why was Harry’s soul sent to limbo?
By my logic Harry was still protected by the blood that he and Voldemort shared, so it
stands to reason that there’s no rational explanation for why Harry’s soul would have
been sent off to limbo along with the piece of Voldemort’s soul.
The argument that I want to make here is that Voldemort’s soul fragment inside of Harry
was never destroyed.
When hit via Voldemort’s killing curse in the Forbidden forest- the spell had the desired
effect- it ripped HARRY’S soul from his body- but because of him being tied to the
mortal realm via blood, he of course had the option to come back.
Okay- so now you might be asking: but what about the mutilated baby-like creature that
Harry sees in limbo?
Wasn’t that supposed to be representative of Voldemort’s newly destroyed soul fragment?
The same piece that resided in Harry?
“Harry turned slowly on the spot, and his surroundings seemed to invent themselves before
his eyes.
He had spotted the thing that was making the noises.
It had the form of a small, naked ch*ild, curled on the ground, its skin raw and rough,
flayed-looking, and it lay shuddering under a seat where it had been left, unwanted, stuffed
out of sight, struggling for breath”
MOST fans believe that the ‘chi*ld’ on the floor of Kings Cross was in fact the part
of Voldemort’s soul that previously resided within Harry.
After all, Harry carried a piece of Voldemort with him for his entire life, and so it seems
to make sense that- with Harry dying and this soul shard now destroyed- it would follow
him to the afterlife.
However, though this is CLOSE to the answer, it’s actually wrong.
According to JK Rowling the being stuck in limbo with Harry was actually just a representation
of the current state of Voldemort's soul.
“What exactly was the mutilated baby-like creature Harry saw at King's Cross in chapter
35 of 'Hallows'?”
“I’ve been asked this a LOT.
It is the last piece of soul Voldemort possesses.
When Voldemort attacks Harry, they both fall temporarily unconscious, and both their souls
- Harry's undamaged and healthy, Voldemort’s stunted and maimed - appear in the limbo where
Harry meets Dumbledore.”
If both Harry AND Voldemort’s souls are accounted for in limbo- then where is the
soul fragment in Harry that was supposed to have been newly destroyed?
I think it lived on inside of Harry.
Voldemort may have been defeated at the end of the Battle of Hogwarts, but it certainly
wasn’t the first time he had been defeated to such an observable extent, and it absolutely
doesn’t mean that he had necessarily exhausted all options with regards to his return to
the mortal realm.
With Voldemort’s apparent defeat, the Wizarding World was able to finally exercise a collective
sigh of relief.
Hogwarts was rebuilt, The Ministry of Magic was restructured, Diagon Alley returned to
its prosperous former state, and most importantly- Harry was able to grow up and live a ‘normal’
life.
But here’s where it gets…dark.
I think that as Harry grew older and more powerful, the parasitic soul fragment inside
of him lay dormant, biding its time and conserving its energy for the day that it would ‘strike’.
Entirely unknown to Harry, this piece of Voldemort’s soul was still latched on to him-sucking away
undetectable amounts of energy, learning from him, and most importantly plotting its return.
I’m of the impression that on one dark day, the parasite inside of Harry became powerful
enough to control his body- leading to the indirect rebirth of Lord Voldemort THROUGH
Harry- using him as a vessel in the same way that he used Quirrell- just to a greater extent.
This theory, unsettling as it is, challenges the "happy ending" of the Harry Potter series
and poses the idea that the apparent ‘harmony’ in the wizarding world AFTER Voldemort’s
demise is not as permanent as it may have seemed.
According to this theory, darkness and evil may always be lurking in the shadows, waiting
for the opportunity to resurface.
And that’s it for this video!
What do you guys think of this theory?
Is it plausible?
Have I missed something obvious here?
If I have PLEASE let me know.
I will be the first to admit that it’s far-fetched, but it’s always interesting to imagine a
different outcome to the story that we all know and love.
Let me know what you think in the comment section down below, and be sure to LIKE the
video and SUBSCRIBE to the channel to support future content.
Until next time
Remember
It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more