Voldemort achieved a form of temporary immortality until his horcruxes were destroyed.

I believe that is the only canon way to achieve immortality.

But Dumbledore seemed to know Voldemort was not gone forever, and as of year one, knew for sure he wasn’t.

So, do we have any other paths to immortality hinted at in the books?

Or failing that, what do you think would be an interesting in universes route to immortality aside from Horcruxes.

The fact that Dumbledore didn’t default to that right away, makes me think there are at least a few theoretical ways.

 

The Philosopher's Stone granted immortality to Flamel I believe.

 

True, I was thinking of the movies where is is pretty old and decrepit, which is technically immortal but sucky. But that’s not canon.

 

The long term effect of Horcruxes would be an incredibly old person who can't die I think. They might even get some form of dementia and forget where they put the damn thing. The solution to that might be creating a new body like Voldemort did, I don't know.

The philosopher's stone produces the elixir of youth, which sounds like it might keep somebody looking and feeling young forever, but we don't know what it actually does.

There's also unicorn blood which is meant to keep even the sickest or most injured person alive in a sort of 'half life' but that's not really defined, and we don't know if it will just heal wounds or grant some form of actual immortality in the long run.

In terms of my headcanon, given how good wizarding medicine is at quickly closing wounds and regenerating bones, it would be entirely possible to come up with a potion that boosts cell regeneration rates and makes the user functionally immune to a lot of the effects of aging. I don't think that something like that would make immortal in the long run, but it could easily increase the user's lifespan by a good 20 or 30 percent. I've read about trials where older mice live for longer when infused with spinal fluid from younger mice, causing their cells regeneration rates to slow down, so I'd assume that a similar effect could be achieved with magic.

 

There's vampirism, too, if you don't mind the side-effects (not sure if they're explained in HP canon, though).

Considering how magic makes people live (and stay young) longer, I could see some crazy deciding that more magic = longer life, and sacrificing some people to lengthen their own life. Especially someone Muggle-raised who can notice the different life expectancy.

Maybe something to do with time magic, too. The weird bell in the Department of Mysteries made the Death Eater's head turn back into a baby, there might be a controlled way to do the same for the whole body.

 

I think we can split "Immortal" into three different camps:

1 - Undying
This would be something that could still be killed, but won't die unless acted upon. Presumably Nicolas Flamel, literary vampires, etc

2 - Unkillable
The inverse of 1, these would be beings that can't be killed, but will eventually die of natural causes. Maybe Captain America, or other comic book characters with some form of regeneration

3 - "True Immortal"
Both undying and unkillable, this person would live forever, recovering from (or immune to) any form of death. Think memetic Deadpool, or Alucard when full of souls.


(As a side note, the only difference between 1 and 3 is that something hasn't YET worked on #3)
We can also split each of these into "unending", such that you just continue to get older and older (like Flamel in Fantastic Beasts), or stay the same age/youthful forever (Highlander).
As another split, we have ongoing and done. Based on canon, needing repeated doses of Elixir of Life, the Philosopher's Stone is an ongoing solution. Horcruxes, seeming to need no maintenance, are a 'done' solution.

I think Voldemort would be most interested in 3, then 1. He wants to live forever, and is possibly scared someone else will do him in, but is also relatively proud of his power, so I can see a peak-power Voldemort not really spending much effort on being 'unkillable', unless it would protect him during the attempt to gain either of the others, he knows death is coming if he can't prevent it. We see something similar with the Unicorn blood - he's willing to go for a cursed half-life, as a stepping stone to full immortality.


Vampirism feels like it could be a solution, but there's also very little information given about them in canon (IIRC), and they're also seen as 'lesser' than wizards, so I'm not sure whether Voldemort would go for it. On the other hand, young Riddle was probably at least vaguely aware of Dracula (published in 1897), and if we have school-era Tom Riddle run off to be converted, that might fit?

The Philosopher's Stone allows immortality, but if it ends with movie!Flamel, I can't see it being hugely desired. Flamel was essentially a walking corpse, and Voldemort's vain. Also, the fact that there's only one, and V has no idea how to make it seems like an incredible weak point, unless it's a one-and-done treatment (based on what we see, it is not).

Seeing the Diary take over Ginny, admittedly slowly, reminds me of a knockoffSCP-963. Some form of cursed item that overtakes the wielder, subsuming them into Voldemort, wouldn't feel entirely out of nowhere. The reliance on being an artefact seems a stretch, but if a clever V places interesting spells and curses on the medallion (portkey to Diagon Alley if not in skin contact with any living being, indestructable charms, muggle repelling charms, fidelius on it existing, etc) I could maybe see this going on.

Another direction, albeit again an 'enhancement' on canon, is becoming a magical painting, and pouring more of yourself into it. The subjects of magical paintings don't seem to have to stay in their frames, so you could possibly survive the destruction of the original, so long as you weren't there. Much like the above though, whether it would feel like V is remaining 'in charge' or 'in power', I don't think he'd go for it.

A third thought, one that I had years ago, was 'excising oneself from mortality'. Based mostly on narrativium, a caster kills all living ancestors and descendants (And must have at least one of both), and rejects all sustenance. Plopping them outside the 'circle of life'. I know I read a short a few years ago where Luna and Harry trick Voldemort into eating shit for this, which could well have been partly the inspiration, but the idea of someone almost emancipating themselves from mortality, meaning they don't get the benefits of life, but they don't die.
I'd envisaged this kind of like some of what the ghosts describe - muted feelings, muted sensations, perhaps a propensity to settle into the same grooves, or stay static

 

It's the question I often thought about before writing close-to-canon fics as I hate having horcruxes around because of the oh so dreary prospect of having write the hunt for them so the best course of action is to get rid of them completely.

The not so very imaginative answer I've come up with is a sort of travesty of philosopher stone. It would be a potion that uses unicorn blood and does the same as the stone but kind of twisted. As long as you drink it you remain young - or as young as you were when you first made it - but the drawback is something along the lines miss a second of supposed dose, and you age a decade.

The unicorn blood works imo because it's hard to get by, and it's doomed to get investigated if the dead unicorns keep popping up, and the canon description is sort of close.

That's as far as I got.

 

Well, what none of us seem to be considering is that no method that would allow him to live through anything would have worked canonically. Even if he barely escaped with his life after killing the Potters, he would not have announced his own demise; there would have been no reason. In DH, Dumbledore states that Voldemort 'left more than his body behind'. If he knows that there was a body, the death would have been confirmed; he didn't fake his death or come back to life in the same body.
My thinking is that it was literally just a gut feeling, a guess, with the caveat that his guesses have always been quite good. He knew the world of magic was too big not to have something in it that Voldemort could have used to hang on from beyond the grave. Anything that would have worked, old Riddle would have made it his first priority.

 

It doesn't seem contradictory to canon that a lot of dark rituals exist which could save someone's life when injured for example. Likewise there could be rituals that pro-actively save someone temporarily from dying. Horcruxes being the natural progression of those lesser dark rituals.

 

Between animated portraits and Horcruxes, something similar to the Picture of Dorian Gray could have happened, or could happen, in-universe. EDIT: Just read Thaumatologist's post. Missed it the first time, because I was looking for that name specifically.

It's also important to branch outside of traditional European wand-wizards, given the existence of other magical schools and traditions. While Rowling seemed to go out of her way to avoid the standard trope of turning every single cryptid and myth into ones that exist in the Wizarding World--with two unique creatures like lethifolds or krups for every common one like a phoenix or dragon--there are undoubtedly those that evaded the Statute of Secrecy and made it into the Muggle eye at some point or another.

So you could have things like African shamans who had bound their life force to a long-living tree, gaining a measure of immortality in exchange for being unable to leave its presence for too long, or whatever sort of proto-necromancy the ancient Egyptians and/or Aztecs had going on.

Generally I'd imagine that there is always some sort of heavy drawback to such things, and/or that they tend to have flaws to some degree or another. Hence the (relative) fame of Nicolas Flamel, and how desperately Voldemort went about finding a method of immortality that suited him...though on retrospect, the Diary indicates that he settled on Horcruxes early on if he was capable of making one at 16.

 

This splits the immortal category into one obviously appealing and one truly hellish pair of possibilities.

Ageless and Unkillable: You can't be killed, and you're always at the peak of your vitality.
Undying and Unkillable: You can't be killed, and you continue to age.

In one, you become an aged, decrepit, husk whose existence neither time nor misfortune can erase. This seems like the kind of hell reserved for people who foolishly dabbled where they shouldn't have, or really pissed off the wrong divine power.

In the other, you are ageless and unkillable, forever preserved at the peak of your vitality, and unable to be killed. Definitely preferable to the alternative... unless, in the other, your brain becomes so enfeebled that you can no longer perceive your own suffering. In that case, I suppose your continued existence just serves as some sort of cosmic warning to others, rather than truly punishing you... after your mind has been worn away by the sands of time, that is. In that case, someone who is unkillable and ageless may eventually come to envy their brainless counterpart.

Spoiler

It doesn't really have anything to do with Harry Potter, but I could envision a type of immortality where your own body is subject to aging, violence, disease, and so on, but your soul does not move on and you can inhabit other bodies at will. Unlike Voldemort, though, this would allow one to fully possess another against their will, and move on to another host whenever they want. No second heads poking out of body parts, and potentially no degradation of the host body.

An evil type would definitely use this ability to take over positions of power, use up their victim's bodies by living fast and hard, commit terrible crimes, and then move on to a body that is healthy and not on the most wanted list.

A more neutral spirit would possibly make deals with people, exchanging the temporary use of someone's body for the spirit using their knowledge and wisdom to improve the life of their host in some lasting way. That could mean teaching them how to attract the opposite sex, playing the stock market for them, or just being the one in control while they're trying to kick a drug habit.

How one would end up in this state is a question for the individual author, I suppose.

 

I would guess that a horcrux wouldn't let a user die of old age, leaving them in the second category so long as they have their original body, though obviously someone with a horcrux can still be killed.

 

I came up with a form of immortality that has yet to be implemented in my never to be published fics beyond references.

A soul transfer ritual form the far east, basically perfect for a feudal warlord who would have had a ton of loyal warriors who were at his beck and call. I like the idea of a warlord who would take his most able bodied warrior, name him his heir and then steal his body in a ritual of soul switching.

 

I always thought a D&D clone spell can be achieved in the HP universe.

These are speculation of canon elements:


1. Normally, death is absolute in the HP universe. Wizards cannot achieve true immortality by trying to overcome it (Cadmus Pevrell). The only way to achieve a semblance of immortality is to cheat it (Ignotus Pevrell - hiding from death is presented as a good option, while the guy did not seem to live very long).

In this regard, the name Voldemort makes sense. People in fanfiction often mock Voldemort that his name means to flee from death, but it is quite possible that Voldemort knew fleeing/cheating was the only way to achieve (flawed) immortality. The name has meaning in the HP universe (there are naming seers), and Tom Riddle the master of Dark Arts changed his name to Lord Voldemort.


So, cheating is the way to go, not overcoming death (ex. becoming something like the Master of Death or gods of old)


2. Unlike death, aging is not unbeatable.

Technically, Elixer of Life does not make people directly cheat Death (compared to horcrux), but it reverses/alleviates the effect of physical aging.


3. Aging is not a process related to the soul. Wizards can use a younger body.

Aging is a process that makes the physical body vulnerable, not the soul vulnerable.

Voldemort possessed Homunculus and other bodies (Quirell/HP), but those did not instantly age to Voldemort's true age.


4. Wizards can gain greater control over their bodies/souls.

In Ootp, even after Voldemort gained his body, he could transfer his soul to HP, trying to possess him.


5. Technically, magical beings can at least control another living thing's soul at least a bit.

Dementors can force other creatures' souls to leave their bodies. It is unknown how far their control reaches though.


So, canon shows us that wizards can technically gain quite a lot of control over their own souls and they can use a younger body if they can force their souls to remain in the mortal realm after their soul is separated from their body.

Similar to the D&D clone spell, maybe Wizards can theoretically achieve the feat of (somehow) forcing their souls to remain mortal realm and transfer their souls to a younger body. It can be considered cheating, not trying to beat the death to immediately transfer the Wizards' soul from their body to a new container right after the death of the original body. Wizards' souls can be transferred after they are killed by their enemy or committed suicide.

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There was a witch in an original fic I read who clones her body by using her womb (technically giving birth but her daughters are all clones). She uses them as a soldier. They are also spare bodies for her to possess if needed (pseudo immortality).

The idea seems viable in the HP universe.

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From here, more headcanon area.

To research the way to control other people's souls, wizards need Dementors (the only known creatures to force other person's souls to do something - in this case, at least leaving their body), a prison to contain test subjects, secluded and well-protected area to hide from prying eyes...... = Azkavan?

Maybe there were methods to destroy/harm other person's soul, which can counter Horcrux's creation, but destroyed/forgotten/only shared in a secret necromancer society. It is more hideous knowledge than Horcrux (Split their own soul vs control/harm other's soul).

 

Obviously one has to use the resurrection stone & dementors in a ritual to liberate their soul so it can move freely in any body. Making a new body afterwards seems trivial.

 

jbern's Turn Me Loose: A Harry Potter Adventure had an interesting idea:

Baba Yaga says metamorphmaguses can eat souls to stay young. It's a pretty cool idea.

She says the stories about eating children are untrue but that would also make for a cool horror focused immortality - cooking the flesh of wizard children into potions of youth.

 

One idea I recall seeing in a story was something similar to Dorian Gray. The person wanting immortality would bind another person (the victim) to their life. Then, all harm the person would receive is "transferred" to the victim until the victim dies, granting a sort of temporary immortality. They could then replace/dispose of the victim every so often.

 

Worth noting that in Deathy Hallows it was revealed that Harry has been immortal since the end of Goblet of Fire. As his life was bound to Voldemort, when the latter infused himself with the blood carrying Lily's sacrifice. So as long as Voldemort lived, Harry was able to survive even a killing curse.

This does open up the possibility of making something like that intentionally. Like by the end of the end of Deathy Hallows all defenders of Hogwarts were protected by the maigc of Harry's sacrifice, which any of them could theoretically be used to create another body(maybe a homunculus) that remains and tethers them to life like a horcrux.

 

I do wonder whether that makes Harry Voldemortproof, or immortal in general. I was always of the mindset that if Harry had been hit with a second killing curse that night he would have died. A killing curse can only kill one soul at a time, so it had to be the Horcrux or Harry. The blood protection let him choose somehow, but it doesn't act like a Horcrux for Harry. He could still theoretically have fallen down the stairs and died, or have been hit with some other lethal curse that doesn't directly target the soul like sectumsempra and died.

Another form of quasi immortality is prophecy. If a prophecy fortells your death at the hands of a specific person, or in a specific set of circumstances, then you know that you won't die until that day. I don't think that the prophecy literally protects the person, but they can know with an absolute certainty that they will only die in such a way that fulfils the prophecy.

 

Dumebldore is fairly clear that this was a general thing by saying "! He tethered you to life while he lives!”, it's not implied to be a Voldemort specific thing.

There is no reason that would be the case. Voldemort's body still lived on with the magic of lily's sacrifice in its blood. So the circumstance that allows for Harry to come back still exists.

Yeah, thats fanon. Nothing indicates that it can only 'kill one soul at a time", hell there isn't even anything implying the killing curse affects souls. It just kills, being killed destroys the soul piece, but Harry still had the method of coming back from the dead because of Voldemort.

By the description we get in the book, it seems to explicitly do.