Lord Voldemort is the second most powerful wizard the world has ever seen, and that entails being able to do a lot of impressive things, the most terrifying of which is his ability to possess.

We’re first introduced to this concept in the very first novel, in the form of poor Professor Quirrell. Failing to obtain the Philosopher’s Stone on his own, the Dark Lord possesses him. At this time, Voldemort is what the fandom loves to call “Vapormort” or as Voldy himself describes it: “less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost” (GOF, p. 566, UK). What we can glean from this is that he was an incorporeal or nonphysical being. One might go so far as to say he was purely a soul confined to the physical realm.

Here, his ability to possess Quirrell or any other living thing is easily understood; as a soul or pseudo-spirit, he would merely enter a body and take over it. This fits the stereotypical understanding of possession found in media.

Next let us look at Chamber of Secrets, and Ginny Weasley’s possession:

This example of possession is much more interesting, because we have a fragment of Voldemort’s soul in a horcrux (the diary). This soul fragment, however, is still very powerful and clearly has his power of possession…but is it the same? Remember, Riddle was only able to possess Ginny once she had poured her heart out to him and become emotionally attached to the diary, whereas Quirrell and the animals mentioned in Goblet of Fire are easily possessed. Furthermore, Quirrell was conscious of the possession, while Ginny was not.

The last example of possession is when Voldemort possesses Harry in the Ministry of Magic. What makes this case curious is that Voldemort is no longer an incorporeal being; his soul has been restored to his body. This means his soul has been ‘re-chained’ to a body, so to speak, and so does not have the freedom of his disembodied state to possess people. How then was Voldemort able to transfer his soul to Harry, and again why was this a conscious possession?

Having laid out the groundwork, it’s your turn fans. How do you think possession works? What is the difference between possessing someone as a spirit and when one’s soul is still attached to a body? Why are some victims conscious, while others have no recollection?

According to BBC News, an extremely rare Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone book receives amazingly high bid at auction.

A first edition print of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone that had 43 pages covered with illustrations from author J.K. Rowling sold at Sotheby's for 150,000 GBP (or close to $300,000 USD). It was a bidding war between two buyers as the auction raised a total of 439,200 GBP for English PEN, which campaigns for freedom of expression.

A sleeping baby Harry on the Dursleys' doorstep is
one of 22 original illustrations by JK Rowling

Rowling's 22 original illustrations include drawings of an Albus Dumbledore chocolate frog card, an image of Severus Snape brooding about, Norbert, and Quirreldemort. There are also annotations that include references to the entire series as a whole and the film adaptations.

Is this a book that you would love to have in your collection if you could afford it? Let us know in the comments below.

What if the trio had decided to train a little bit more for their role in The Final Battle against Voldemort? What if they enlisted the help of someone like, say... Arnold Schwarzenegger? What would Arnie have to say about our Wizarding friends' plight? Well, you tell us! YOU write the caption!

As with last week's contest, this month we are mashing up Harry Potter with other popular media in our caption contest images, and will continue to do so through the duration of Maniacal May. This monthly feature is not a new thing - in fact, there are 14 entire "maniacal" months archived in our caption contest archive! This week, we have placed the trio into the latest Schwarzenegger flick, 'The Last Stand.'

Head on over to the Caption Contest Main Page and click on "Entry Form" to submit your entry for this week's contest. Alternately you can view FAQ's, read last week's winners, and check out past winners (of all time) through the archive. Happy captioning!