What Happened to Voldemort's Body?

An original editorial by Chloé Morrison.

In regards to the lower sections of this editorial by Maline Freden, Wormtail appears to be the only adult witness of the murdering of the Potters and the downfall of Voldemort. In this theory, Wormtail would have collected Voldemort's wand after his master was vanquished. Though the matter of his wand has been discussed, I don't think the matter of Voldemort's "corpse" has yet been.

We know for a fact that Voldemort was left as a spirit after his attack on Harry; Voldemort's essence was removed from his body. Two theories can come from this: 1) either his body died upon being hit with the Avada Kedavra curse, or 2) his spirit was that which the curse touched, making it unfit for its former container. If either theory is true, a body should still have remained. Since we know that a person cursed with Avada Kedavra dies instantly, and that the body remains unspoiled (ie. Cedric Diggory, the spider, the Riddles), Voldemort's body must have remained. If it hadn't, it would mean the ancient magic that Lily conjured to protect Harry had modified the inner effect of the curse, thereby making the body of the person touched by the curse, say, "blow up"... Blowing up a body probably leaves some marks over the place, but not so many as to destroy a whole house.

But then, if the body wasn't there, why would anyone have believed Voldemort dead? As Hagrid said in the PS, "some say he died", but "some say he's still out there, biding his time". No one really knows for sure what happened to him. Even after 5 books we still know very little about that night in Godric's Hollow. Dumbledore, who appears to be all-knowing to a certain degree, should have been the first to appear on the 'crime scene'. But Hagrid said that Dumbledore ordered him to get baby Harry from the ruins of his parents' house. This implies a few things: Dumbledore never went to the remnants of the Potter's house. How did he know then that the Potters had been killed? How did he know Harry was still alive? How did the story of Harry's survival spread so fast around the wizarding community? And if Dumbledore actually went to Godric's Hollow, why on earth would he have left a one year-old baby alone in the ruins of a house with the corpses of his murdered parents? So, if Hagrid was the first and only person to reach Godric's Hollow before anything had been moved, he should have been a bit more definite about what happened to Voldemort.

I still don't have the beginnings of an answer to what happened to the body. Nevertheless, I have the feeling that knowing what happened to it would tell us why Voldemort didn't die in the first place - and we'd all like to know THAT.

9/28/04

Posted by: Nicole

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