And if sharing your soul with someone isn't marking them as being your equal, what the fuck is?

 

And I don't disagree with either of you; I disagreed with the assertion that there is no prophecy child. There is, and it's golem Harry. The existence of the prophecy means that either golem Harry fits the bill, or the prophecy child hasn't arrived yet.

Another theory is that Golem Harry was made in September, and the prophecy was based on the Roman calendar, but that's reaching a bit. I'm not about to get mad at the author for a plot hole that may not exist, since the story is far from over.

 

I'm still sort of confused as to how beings in the Potterverse, and more specifically Harry in this fic can survive with only a tad bit o' soul. I mean, should that not make this Harry ridiculously unemotional? Living a detached, unstable half-life, visibly inhuman?

 

Yes, that's one of my questions as well. While I do not dispute the ability of Harry surviving with the bit of soul, Voldemort survives with just as much, the problem becomes mental. Splitting the soul has terrible consequences on mental stability, Voldemort was borderline insane after all his horcruxes. It's extremely odd that Harry would be as sane as he is with the little bit of soul he has. Also, according to the story so far, Harry doesn't have a soul of his own, the little bit he does have is Voldemort's, so why isn't golem!Harry evil and trying to take over the world?

 

Years of neglect and abuse from fat yuppies?

Nah, that would just give more incentive. You know, if a mostly soulless clone would even give a damn.

Maybe that's it, a motivation issue. Without a soul, how could you not be a lazy, unmotivated drone?

And suddenly, canon Harry makes sense.

 

This plot idea is gonna get assraped by the fangirls for a slashfic soon enough. Thats the bad thing about HP plot originality, in that sooner or later, the fangirls will transform what you have created into an angst filled slash fic with copious amounts of bad writing.

 

There's no reason that Voldemort's soul would make Harry evil. A soul is more like a necessary component of life rather than a sum of experiences. So Harry can have parts of Voldemort's soul, like in canon, and still not have any of his tenancies or memories. While Harry joining Voldemort seems like an interesting idea it falls flat on its face when we realize that Voldemort, who had so little respect for his own soul that he ripped it apart in search for immortality, would have no reason to protect Harry and would more likely use it against him. So far I'm liking the idea and hoping that it continues.

 

By that logic, the diary Horcrux would just be a floating component of life without motivation or memories, and the bit of soul inside wouldn't possess Ginny, or set the basilisk on students, or try to kill Harry again.

 

The diary was special because it was held in a book that detailed Tom Riddle's memories during school. In effect, it gained life by adopting the diary entries as its own experiences, though they kind of were... in a way.

 

Your idea has merit, and I'm not trying to say that it's wrong, but how would this explanation apply to the shriveled baby in King's Cross in DH? While splitting for horcruxes undoubtedly diminished Voldemort's soul, his actions over his lifetime must also have an effect, I don't think splitting alone can justify the sinister appearance of the shriveled baby. By the time Voldemort attacked Godric's Hollow, his soul was already ridiculously unstable, which is why a piece of it broke off so easily when he tried to kill Harry. The soul is the very essence of a person, I refuse to believe that having an unstable, mutilated, and corrupted piece of soul has no effect on Harry's personality.

 

Ok here is my thought as to how this story can go. The Golem Harry has a part of Voldemort's soul, as a receptacle for soul parts he could take more parts on, uniting Voldemort's soul into him, but obviously it wouldn't change him, otherwise he would have been evil to begin with.

No one could dispute he has a soul, body, and the ability to perform magic, seemingly making him a living wizard.

Hell he could even take Voldie's given birth name, and solve the issue of two Harry Potters.

Will the story go this route? Knowing BajaB it is very unlikely but sort of an intriguing way of fulfilling the prophecy.

The Potters...well its hard not to feel indifferent to them right now.

Right now 3.5/5, but more needs to happen to have any real idea.

 

All of the other horcruxes behaved in the same way; they didn't just hold static pieces of soul. Voldemort's horcruxes were all malevolent and evil.

Maybe the piece that became lodged in Harry was a seed for the growth of a full soul by some random magical "golemic" interaction? That's one possible way out of this semi-plothole.

 

Haven't read this yet, so this may be completely off, but having read the discussion in this thread, I have an idea:

Golem!Harry isn't the prophesy child. Rather, he is "the other" in "either must die at the hand of the other". Usually read as one must kill the other, but it could be read as either must die at the hand of a third entity.

So Golem!Harry either kills Voldemort or the prophecy child.

 

Thats what I thought JKR was going to throw into the proverbial 'square circle', or ring, when i first read OotP.

I read this before anyone commented on it here and I really didnt like it. Golem!Harry just seems like one of those plot devices I can't bring myself to read, like corssovers.

 

Your equating a soul with a horrocrux. Harry may have piece of voldemort's soul but he's not a horrocrux. The horrocrux's storied memories of the creator and as far as we know Harry has no memories of voldemort.

 

In DH, Dumbledore says that King's Cross is a perception of Harry's mind about death. Hence Voldemort's soul would be seen from Harry's point of view which is a shriveled baby.

With Golem!Harry he is the prophesied child, he was born when the Potter's found out their child was being targeted and hence created it around that time which could have been "as the seventh month dies".

The issue of "must die at the hand of the other" can be solved by the assumption that by splitting the soul, there exists two seperate entities who are independent of each other. The diary attributes to this, it does not know Voldemort's demise without Ginny's recount as seen in the final scenes of Chamber of Secrets. This can further lead to the nature vs. nurture debate.

I've always thought that the horcruxes were in a sense a "replacement" where by which if one part was destroyed another could be "woken" to continue with the plans of the creator. The Tom Riddle from the diary is a horcrux and he developed a body, hence a full soul isn't needed for a body. In DH and HBP it goes on to say that horcruxes are anchors but this conflicts with the idea that they can gain their own bodies as seen in CS.

To round of the prophecy he (Harry/Golem) was marked as an equal by Voldemort through the sharing of the split soul.

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I still believe this story needs to slow down because the characterisations occur almost instantaneously "With the good looks of his father, and his mother’s startling green eyes, Harry Potter made the girls swoon just by walking past...came across as level headed and friendly, not at all the pampered prince." By putting it in words and not through the actions of the characters it feels shallow.

Similarly with the plot, the movement of the government to essentially segregate Golems has happened rather quickly, it was essentially a knee jerk reaction. With the power Dumbledore wields it should of happened a whole lot slower and with more discussion also there should be groups who call for the extermination of Golems as well slowing down the issues segregation.

 

So basically, horcrux theory is available for enough alteration that BajaB could take this in any number of directions.

 

I haven't even finished reading the second chapter, but I think it's safe to say this is a Harry/Hermione fic.

 

Not a bad second chapter. I think the judges' scoring was a bit too much overkill, and the fact that their scoring was so blatant is a turnoff-- kind of like the figure skating judging in the Olympics a few years back-- the Pairs event in 2002?

 

Uhh... there was no Olympics in 2002. Australia in 2000, Greece in 2004, China in 2008.