Is Harry Potter really Lord Voldemort ?

This suggestion is not mine. I'm currently reading Christopher Wrigley's The Return of the Hero, which I mentioned back in February and which I picked up from the library yesterday.

In the opening chapter, Wrigley suggests that Harry's "guard" in the opening of The Order of the Phoenix (Ch. 23) are not protecting him "from a resurgent Voldemort, but from himself - from the possible consequences of his own anger." (p. 26) Wrigley then notes that it's "tempting to go further and surmise that he is, or rather was Lord Voldemort. Dumbledore, it is said, is a man who gives people second chances (Goblet of Fire, Chs 24, 26), and it may be that time, as in The Prisoner [of Azkaban] but more drastically, is being rerun so that Harry may redeem himself. His years with the Dursleys can be seen as his penance and Hogwarts as his place of trial." (p. 27, emphasis mine)

To me this suggestion is quite astonishing; the idea that at some point Dumbledore offered Voldemort the chance of reforming and persuaded him to become a child again via the use of a Time Turner. It would explain just why Harry looks so much like Tom Riddle (The Chamber of Secrets, Ch. 17). But whilst it's an ingenious theory, I can't see it proving true. For instance, everyone always comments on how much Harry looks like James Potter, except for having Lily's eyes (most recently Slughorn in The Half Blood Prince, Ch. 4). I suppose it might be possible for Harry to take a Polyjuice Potion that allowed him to look like James apart from his eyes (a Potion that somehow combined something of James' and something of Lily's to give Harry his mother's eyes.) But Harry would have had to take it regularly all through his childhood without anyone except (presumably) Dumbledore knowing - and whilst living in a Muggle home. Then there's the fact that Dumbledore would have needed to persuade at least James and Lily Potter to agree to the plan - and if Harry is not their child, why did they die to save him from the older Voldemort (and why did the older Voldemort attack himself, even if he didn't know who he was attacking ?). And if Voldemort didn't attack himself, how did Harry get the lightning bolt scar, and where are James and Lily Potter, if Voldemort didn't kill them ? It seems to me that such a plot would be stupendously complicated - and Voldemort has yet to show himself worthy of being offered a second chance that would involve such a plot.

Personally, I think Voldemort is Harry's "Shadow Self", to borrow a Jungian term, hence they have a few similarities (dark hair, half-blood heritage, ability to speak Parseltongue), but rather more differences, such as his capacity to love, his loyalty, kindness, generosity - in other words his essential goodness. Whilst it may not be possible for Harry to overcome Voldemort except at the cost of his own life (as Rowling has hinted), it's possible that Harry, like Ged (in A Wizard of Earthsea) will be able to "embrace" his Shadow Self, without needing to destroy it.

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