The Harry Potter Alliance

By Andrew Slack

February 22, 2009

The Lessons from Voldemort's Last Quest

In Voldemort’s mind, Harry Potter HAD to be killed before he could publicly announce himself as dictator.

After all, Harry represented a symbol of hope for the “anti-Voldemort movement” as Order of the Phoenix member Hestia Smith calls it. After all, “The Boy Who Lived,” had survived not one, but several encounters with Lord Voldemort. Having the so-called “Chosen One” killed would be synonymous with killing the lifeblood of the “anti-Voldemort movement.”

And indeed, once Harry is finally “dead” Voldemort comes forward and announces to the Wizarding World from here on out, all would be Death Eaters, all would be Slytherins, and all would live under his command in a new world that they would build “together.” A world where Magic is Might and where all Muggles would be crushed.

But for Voldemort, it was not simply a matter of destroying the morale of the movement that opposed him. More to the point, it was about destroying his last shred of doubt around his invincibility. Those of us who have read the books know that Voldemort was tireless in his quest to prevent himself from dying. Harry Potter who as a “mere” baby both survived Voldemort’s killing curse and removed Voldemort’s soul from his body, represented the notion that perhaps the prophecy was true. Perhaps there was someone out there who could kill Lord Voldemort. It was, to be sure, unlikely: Voldemort had horcruxes in secret places, incredible dueling skills including the ability to fly – not to mention an army of Death Eaters at his beckon call. But still, for Voldemort the matter of life and death was not something to gamble with. He needed to be sure. To be entirely sure that he could not be killed.

Often Harry’s escape from Voldemort’s grip had something to do with an inexplicable power in Harry’s wand. And so begins Voldemort’s last obsessive quest: to procure a wand with more power than Harry’s could ever dream of; the Wand of Elder. And procure it, he did.

However, there was a “flaw in the plan: the Elder Wand, the Death Stick, the Wand of Destiny – this most sought after instrument of power and death and invincibility, Voldemort was not the master of it. The true master was Harry Potter. And so Voldemort’s last quest was an international journey to find Gregorivitch help him find Grindewald who would help him find Dumbledore’s grave that would give him to the Wand of Destiny. And then Voldemort takes this wand and practically hand delivers it its true Master, the one he had intended to destroy.

Harry, for his part, did not realize that he was the Master of the Elder Wand until he died. It was not until Harry did the thing that Voldemort most feared: crossing the a barrier that, like the Barrier at Nine and Three Quarters at King’s Cross station, most would think could not be crossed. But cross it Harry does. And when he does, not only does he find himself in King’s Cross station – a home of trains ready to take this young man with a well organized mind on his next adventure – he finds out that he, Harry, has become what Voldemort is not. The Master of Death. The Master of each Hallow: the Cloak, the Stone, and yes, the Elder Wand. In doing what Voldemort could never do: die for love, Harry not only becomes the Master of Death, he becomes the Master of Life.

And so Tom Riddle becomes nothing more than an errand boy sent to hand deliver the Wand of Destiny that Harry had won on his journey.

Now there is much to learn from Voldemort’s failure. There’s the obvious morale notion that Voldemort is “bad.” But that doesn’t truly get at a fuller understanding of Voldemort’s failure and what we can learn from it in our lives and in our world. To truly articulate the lessons that we can learn from Voldemort’s failure, I believe it necessary to have a better understanding of Lord Voldemort himself. And to have a better understanding of Lord Voldemort himself, I believe it also necessary to start, not with Voldemort, but with Dumbledore, the only one Voldemort ever feared. And for us to start with Dumbledore, I believe it necessary to go back to Dumbledore’s greatest pupil: Harry Potter who from a deep place of intuition associated Dumbledore with Phoenix Song. And that is where we shall begin: with Phoenix Song.

At its essence Phoenix Song is at the center of the epic tale of Harry Potter. Both Phoenix Song itself and our resistance to hearing it, both individually and collectively, will help us get to the heart of this fantastical carnival of myth that is Harry Potter–and point us toward becoming “masters” in our own right.

Stay tuned for more.