It's more of a logic issue than anything else, really, as I was resigned to the good guys winning in the end. 

Y'see, from fifth book onwards I was kind of hoping Harry would die in the process of killing Voldy. I didn't see any way for him to survive that kind of a fight (it was the Dumbly vs. Voldy duel that did it for me, incidentally, not the prophecy). I thought maybe JKR would have Voldy and Harry kill each other at the same time or something like that. I didn't think she would be one of those authors who makes use of a deus ex machina *coughsmeyercough* to save her characters in the end.

What I did not expect was for JKR to kill Harry before he managed to kill Voldy. My immediate thought process after having read that Harry had died was that someone else - Ron, anyone? - would step in to save the day and revenge his friend.

But having Harry come back made no sense at all. Sure, Voldy killed a bit of his own soul along with Harry. But both the piece of soul and Harry were dead. That was made absolutely clear. Therefore I don't see how Harry could have come back to life if Voldy's piece of soul couldn't. JKR might have been trying to set this up a little earlier in the book when Hermione was talking about Horcruxes - a soul survives if a body dies, but a piece of soul is obliterated when its vessel (the Horcrux) is destroyed. However, if that is so then why did the piece of soul not immediately vanish when Harry was killed? Even if he didn't really die, the piece of Voldy's soul was ripped from its vessel - in this case, Harry. Therefore, when Harry was talking to Dumbledore he should not have been able to see Voldy's piece of soul (the crying baby thing), because, according to what Hermione said about Horcruxes, it would simply have ceased to exist when Harry, its vessel, was killed.

So logically if Harry were both able to see the piece of Voldy's soul and come back to life, the Horcrux was still intact when Voldy's curse rebounded a second time. If this were the case, though, Voldy wouldn't have died, because he would still have had one Horcrux left. But Voldy died, just dead.

And yes, before you ask, I have way too much time on my hands to nitpick with. *nodnod* 

But, according to Dumbledore, prophecies are not set in stone. Heck, most prophecies occur because the person overhears them and tries to avoid the prophecy. Also, it never stated that Harry would kill Voldy - just that one would kill the other. Ambiguity!

Someone-up-there? Deus ex machina (literally), anyone?

The protection was still working but it was working for both Voldy and Harry. Imagine... A bubble. You can't penetrate it from the outside, but if you can get in you can attack anyone who's also inside the bubble with you. Voldy would still have been able to kill Harry, except that Harry did what his mother did - sacrificed himself. This caused a second "bubble" to be thrown up around him but not Voldy at the last minute. I think this is why he could come back.

That's all very well and good. The matter of the Horcrux is what throws the wrench in the works, however. As I've said before, the protection around Harry - if indeed it is like my bubble explanation - would also have inadvertently protected the bit of Voldy's soul inside Harry - and therefore in the bubble of protection as well. We know that possession is still effected by the protection because the protection was activated when Voldy tried to posess Harry at the end of book 5. We also know that the Horcrux continued to survive because it was still visible to Harry and Dumbledore after Harry died. Hermione earlier on had mentioned that a bit of soul is obliterated - destroyed - when its vessel is destroyed. This would mean that the baby thing would not have existed if the Horcrux was truly gone.

I don't have a problem with Harry coming back - I have a problem with Voldy's soul not coming back with him.

Meh, Voldy and Bella live on in my fanfiction anyway. 

Voldy's Horcruxes = Voldy's soul. :)

Re: Harry not dead - it was the same function as Harry's mother's protection, but it was created when Harry died, not when Harry's mother died:

"'But I should have died - I didn't defend myself! I meant to let him kill me!'

'And that,' said Dumbledore, ;will, I think, have made all the difference.'"

Implying that Harry had done the same thing his mother had done, and accidentally saved himself. That combined with the sharing of his mother's protection with Voldy to keep him alive, despite the fact that the killing curse should have destroyed him.

Also, given that Harry was still alive partially because his life was tethered to Voldy's, then Voldy should still have been alive because his life was tethered to Harry's (they still shared blood).

Voldy's soul/Horcrux/the baby thing:

I was given to understand that it was the Horcrux, mainly from this passage here:

"'So the part of his soul that was in me... ...has it gone?'

'Oh yes!' said Dumbledore. 'Yes, he destroyed it. Your soul is whole, and completely your own, Harry.'

'But then...'

Harry glanced over his shoulder to where teh small, maimed creature trembled under the chair.

'What is that, Professor?'

'Something that is beyond either of our help.'"

And here:

"'You were the seventh Horcrux, Harry, the Horcrux he never intended to make...'"

What I get from that is that the baby-thing wasn't Voldy himself - or at least, not the bit of his soul that he still had inside of him - but the Horcrux that had been inside Harry. Which brings me back to my previous posts.

Meh. I search obsessively for loopholes that will enable my favorite characters to not really be dead. Unfortunately there isn't one for Bellatrix, except that we never actually see that she is dead - who says Molly's curse was a killer? That argument is weak, of course. Very weak.