My MAJOR Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows question?

Question

WARNING SPOILERS

When Harry "died" in the forest after Voldemort used the Killing Spell why was he able to return. My last question has left many of me and my friends in a debate

1) Some state he was able to return because he was the master of death

2) Others state he was able to come back because Harry's blood still runs in Voldemorts veins. Voldemort made the mistake of using Harry's blood in the 4th book to re-generate him self there for Lily's protection still lives on.

3) Others state that Voldemort really didn't kill Harry but only the Horcrux in him.

4) Others state it was simply his sacrafice and love that allowed him to come back.

My theory is 2 and 3. He was able to come back due to the protection that his mother gave him, which still flows in Voldemort's veins. The curse hit the Horcrux in Harry and not him so he was able to come back. But these contradict b/c then he came back due to the curse hitting the Horcrux and not Harry.

Or was the blood the reason for his revival. If it is his blood in Lord Voldemort that allowed for his survival then wouldn't he just keep coming back to life if he kept dieing? HYPOTHETICALLY if LV hit him with the curse again could he come back to life because of the blood?

Also this all has to do with Harry dieing in the forest and coming back, nothing to do with the duel between them in Hogwarts.

Answer 1

Dumbledore explains it in the next chapter. Voldemort did something really stupid by insisting he had to take Harry's blood to regain a physical body. In effect he made himself akin to a horcrux for Harry. Though not a true horcrux, he still became an anchor to allow Harry to return to life should he be killed. Harry had the choice, he could have died or he could return, and he'd always have that choice as long as Voldemort lived in that particular body.

The problem with a living horcrux is that it doesn't have to physically be destroyed in some manner in order to be of no use as a horcrux. Should it die, either through being killed or through some other means it destroys the piece of the soul within it. Harry was an unintentional horcrux, that is to say that Voldemort never planned to make him a horcrux and he didn't realize he had done so the night he tried killing him as a baby. So he had to die in order for the part of him that was the horcrux to be "destroyed."

But he didn't truely die, rather he was very near to death when he met Dumbledore at what looked like King's Cross Station. I've seen this as suggesting King's Cross is more than just a place where muggles and witches and wizard's catch a train, it's also a place where the near dead and those who have crossed over to the spirit realm can meet and talk. Which is exactly what was happening between him and Dumbledore. And Dumbledore told him he had the choice. He could choose to board a train, meaning he could choose to truely die and finally be with his parents again, or he could return to the world of the living. Fully alive rather than being a ghost. Harry chose the latter, but the piece of Voldemort's spirit he'd brought with him could do so. It would forever be stuck between the two plains of exsistence.

Had someone destroyed Voldemort's physical form before all his horcruxes had been destroyed and he'd been reborn without using Harry's blood to do so, then Harry's sacrificing himself would have truely meant he would have died.

Now when I said earlier that Voldemort was akin to a horcrux for Harry, I was not saying he had a part of Harry's soul in himself. Harry's soul was not shattered in order to make a horcrux, but a part of him flowed through Voldemort's veins. A part of him would always be alive as long as Voldemort's physical form remained as it was the night he returned. And it was that that made him akin to a horcrux for Harry. As long as he had Harry's blood in him, Harry could return from the dead.

Answer 2

I think that it's a combination of things. The fact that Harry and Voldemort shared the same blood since Book 4 played a part in it, because now both were sharing the blood and the charm that Lily placed on Harry that night when they were killed. Also, since Harry accepted the fact that he had to die and chose to do it allowed him to come back, Dumbledore said in Harry's "limbo" place that anyone truly accepting this is the true Master of Death. I don't think the fact that Harry was a Horcrux had anything to do with the fact that he came back, but the Killing Curse that placed on Harry killed the piece of Voldemort, that's certain.

Answer 3

he was the master of death, as he possessed all the hallows. dumbledore also said in king's cross that he was the master of death because he accepted death and willingly embraced it.

he was also able to return because voldemort had used his blood, which i believe dumbledore also said.

i think voldemort really did kill harry, that he just came back and left the horcrux behind. the writhing child was definatly the horcrux.

his sacrifice and love for other people was part of it too, which is also the reason nobody died after harry came back, because of his sacrifice.

it also could be that harry did not die but rather had a dream, and that the elder wand would not kill it's master, which is the same thing that happened at the end.

all the theories work, which is why they are that, only theories! pick the one you like best and use it, especially if you are one of those people that needs to justify everything, even fiction.

Answer 4

I think all four theories are correct. He was able to return because he was not afraid to die, thus he has conquered Death. The Elder Wand would not kill its own Master, so only Voldemort's soul in Harry was destroyed. He still has Lily's protection in his blood and the fact that he was willing to sacrifice his life to save others, as Dumbledore said, made all the difference.

As for your final theory on whether he would keep coming back to life everytime he dies, I think Lily's protection would have applied only against Voldemort since it was from him that Lily was protecting Harry that night. When Voldemort died I guess the protection would have ended also. Remember when he said that if he died a natural death the Elder Wand's powers would end? So I think that after Voldemort's defeat, Harry was as normal as any other wizard (though that doesn't mean he was ordinary, he was anything but!)

Answer 5

I suspect that both options one and four can be eliminated right now:

1.) The master of death -as it is known- was to control all three of the hallows. However, after Harry took the ring off he dropped it into the forest, also Voldemort still had the elder wand. Therefore, Harry only possessed ONE of the Deathly Hallows and could not yet be the "master of death."

4.) The fourth option can be eliminated by assessing the death of Lily Potter; when Voldemort came to Godric Hollow in his attempt to kill the infant Harry, she made a sacrifice with her love. Her sacrifice was just that, she suffered and Harry lived. Though Harry did sacrifice himself -by dying- he only protected everybody else from Voldemort and was still vulnerable in the end. Had he not come back to life, the protection of his love would still exist for his friends.
Lily's death set the precedent, and therefore Harry's suffering and love were irrelevant to his own revival.

That said, it still leaves options two and three as valid possibilities; I agree with you that it is a combination of both of these theories:

When Voldemort killed Harry Potter, he destroyed the sixth Horcrux, leaving only Nighini and his own body to be destroyed. Inside of Harry was a part of Voldemort -until that point-, similarly inside of Voldemort was a part of Harry -the blood; if we assume that these connections are so alike, to the point where we accept Harry's blood as an 'untainted' Horcrux for his own soul, then his revival can easily be explained.

When Voldemort used the killing curse on Harry, his own unintentional Horcrux acted like a shield. Harry was now divided between the afterlife and the mortal world, and like Voldemort's Horcrux's worked for the dark lord, kept Harry tied to this world. He could therefore NOT DIE and was forced to return to this world.

Answer 6

It was made clear in the "King's Cross" chapter:

1. Voldemort's curse killed the part of his soul that had attached itself to Harry's soul the first time Voldemort tried to kill Harry. This is also indicated in the next chapter where we find that Voldemort was stunned or knocked unconscious by the curse too.

2. The reason that the curse did not kill Harry too was that Harry's blood as part of Voldemort's reconstructed body "tethered" Harry to life so long as Voldemort also lived.

Harry's willingness to sacrifice himself gave the defenders of Hogwarts the same protection his mother's sacrifie gave him.

Finally, it is mentioned that Dumbledore considers Harry the master of death due to his lack of fear of dying and that he was willing to embrace death.

wl

Answer 7

Harry was NOT the master of death, he never possessed all the items at once. Voldemort had hold of the wand, Harry never touched it. The most hallows Harry ever held at once were 2. Obviously the cloak, and then the stone which he dropped in the woods never to look for again. Reasons 2 and 3 are the most accurate.

Answer 8

if i remember correctly to destroy a horcrux u need to make sure that its not fixable by magic. maybe dumbledore knew that harry wasn't really going to die when the time came for him to get killed in the forest when he faced voldemort. its just a guess though.in other words im going with the third theory

Answer 9

I think it's a mixture of 1, 2, and 3. I'm probably wrong. but three is pretty accurate, because the thing in Kings Cross was the little bit of LV that was in Harry when he was 'killed'.

Answer 10

While he was "dead" he was talking to Dumbledor. Remember he told him that he wasn't dead and explained to him about the horcrux and that is why he wasn't really dead. I agree also that it was for the readon of how is mom died for him. You would think that since LV had some of his blood that that would be his protection, but since he doesn't have the ability to feel love or any type of emotion but hate then he can't be protected by Lily's love.