World's Greatest Predictions
| Lily's Eyes are anti-Occlumentic |
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Lily's welcoming green eyes are the antithesis of Snape's "cold and empty" Occlumentic black eyes. To a semi-talented Legilimens, like Horace Slughron or young Severus, the eyes are irresistable.
But the advantage doesn't go to the Legilimens. It goes to Lily. With only a few kind thoughts, like "Professor Slughorn is so nice," or "Severus is so clever yet misunderstood," the acquisition of information (via Legilimency) becomes secondary. The likes of Slughorn and Snape would react to the basic human need for approval, shaping their behavior to please Lily. Just as Lily's eyes are easier to get into, they are harder to get out of. Now we can guess why Voldemort, the World's Greatest Legilimens, was surprised by Lily's offer to die in place of Harry. Voldemort avoided her eyes because he'd been forewarned. Harry, too, has demonstrated this attribute: Slughorn gave a great shudder, but he did not seem able to tear his horrified gaze away from Harry's face. Harry looked steadily into Slughorn's tear-filled eyes. The Potions master seemed unable to look away. Perhaps the most unfortunate victim of this trap was Crouch Jr., the imposter Moody. Remember that Harry liked him, thinking he was the real Mad-eye Moody. When Crouch was steeling himself to kill Harry, he couldn't tear his eyes away: [Moody's] magical eye was upon Harry....At this point, Harry is thinking the situation is impossible, that Moody is a great guy who would never hurt him. So the imposter is getting bombarded with these thoughts emotions. They cause such a disjunctive contradiction to his own thoughts that he goes temporarily insane. Harry hasn't demonstrated this quality as much as Lily for a simple reason: his glasses interfere. So look for those to come off during the final encounter with Voldemort. |
| Harry Gets an Advantage in the Final Battle - with Eye Contact |
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The previous section on Harry the Horcrux showed how Harry's connection with Voldemort was "wired". Now imagine what happens if Voldemort reads Harry (using Legilimency) while Harry is getting thoughts and emotions from Voldemort.
You get a feedback loop. It's like holding a microphone up to a speaker -- but instead of noise, you get pain. This has already happened, at the climax of Harry's duel with Bellatrix in the Ministry Atrium: "Well, you're going to have to kill me, because it's gone!" Harry roared -- and as he shouted it, pain seared across his forehead. His scar was on fire again, and he felt a surge of fury that was quite unconnected with his own rage. "And he knows!"Voldemort can only know the prophecy sphere is destroyed by having just Legilmensed Harry. Thus there is a feedback loop, and the pain in Harry's forehead built up "so badly he thought his skull might burst". And this doesn't even involve eye contact! While OotP gives us a valuable tutorial, there is heavy foreshadowing from the Harry/Voldemort encounters in books one and four. Both times, Voldemort initiated some kind of contact (he instructed Quirrell to grab Harry in PS/SS; he engaged Harry in a duel in GoF). Both times, it resulted in Harry and Voldemort being locked in a very difficult struggle. These patterns will recur in their final encounter. At some point, Voldemort will want to know what's on Harry's mind. He'll look into Harry's eyes (without the glasses, somehow) and go a bit too deep. In an effort to break free and/or avoid the confusing torrent of mixed thoughts, Voldemort will open the sluice gate on his own vile thoughts and stop using Occlumency. He'll be hoping to shock Harry with his hatred, and perhaps debilitate Harry with pain (as Voldemort did successfully in Little Hangleton). But Voldemort will be trapped, just as he was trapped by the Priori Incantatem effect. To be sure, this will be a trying experience for both parties. But Harry has the whole soul and the power of love, which Voldemort cannot endure. So Harry will hold the connection as long as necessary to get an advantage over Voldemort. Then things will get really weird. |
