Fridge / The Power of Seven

• Simultaneous Fridge Brilliance and Fridge Horror: Dumbledore's attempts to talk Hermione out of the ritual. It starts from some reasonable concerns: it's untried, untested, and never before performed soul magic, so there's no telling what the effects might ultimately be. Hermione insists the ritual is the key, being all about love, the "power the Dark Lord knows not." Dumbledore states his belief is that love will compel Harry to sacrifice himself for the people he loves, something Voldemort could never comprehend. Then it hits you: Voldemort's overriding character trait is his utter refusal to accept death. By taking extreme measures to preserve his own life, Harry is thinking more like Voldemort! Dumbledore's reticence suddenly becomes a lot more reasonable.
  • Of course, the difference is that Voldemort explicitly chose to kill others in the name of preserving his own life, whereas in this case Hermione and Ginny are the ones who originally propose this method of preserving Harry's life and talk him into attempting the ritual, where Harry was willing to die to save others but has too many people who care about him for them to accept that option. Reinforcing the theme that it is not the ways in which Harry and Voldemort are alike, it is the ways in which they are not.
    • As Dumbledore himself said, "It's not our abilities that define us, but our choices."
• Word of God affirms that it was at least partially a coincidence, but as observed in Rule of Symbolism, each girl neatly matches up to one of Voldemort's horcruxes; Ginny's history with the diary, Hermione and the diadem represent intellect, the hidden power of Luna and the ring, Demelza's fantasies countering the locket's dark whispers, Susan just as isolated as the cup at first, Katie possessing a strong independence just like Nagini, and Fleur and Harry himself both the unexpected addition to their fellows.