Why Didn't Dumbledore Kill Voldemort?, In the Ministry of Magic Battle

A Dementor sucking out V's soul would die from food poisoning.

If JKR hadn't explicitely told us to wonder, I wouldn't wonder why DD didn't kill V. I mean, DD knows that Harry is "the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord". So why should he even try himself?

Ok, let me try to sort out a few thoughts that just suddenly occurred to me.

We know that Voldemort took a great many steps to prevent his death, and as far as he's concerned, he's been successful. He had the Avadra curse blasted back at him, and he still lived, so in his mind he's safe. BUT! What if Dumbledore knows that Voldemort can be killed, but doesn't want Voldemort to know it? I know, it seems silly...why not just kill the guy and get it over with, besides the fact that only Harry can do that. Perhaps Dumbledore knows that if Harry is going to 'vanquish' Voldemort, then maybe he should let Voldemort go on believing that he is invincible...that would be a great weakness, I think, on his part.

I still think there are some holes in this idea, but like I said it just sorta popped in my head just two minutes ago, so I haven't had time to think it through much.

It doesn't make sense to me that Dumbledore didn't kill Voldermort because he didn't want him to know he could, because if Dumbledore had killed Voldermort it wouldn't have mattered how much Voldermort knew. On the other hand Dumbledore's remark is carefully judged to conceal information from Voldermort - his stated reason is something Voldermort would believe and he probably wants to conceal the real reason.

It also occurs to me that Dumbledore's choice of spells (and we don't know what all of them are) might have been chosen because they were better than the killing curse in the circumstances. For example they might have been more likely to disable Voldermort than a killing curse (maybe a killing curse is easier to dodge), or alternatively the spells he chose to cast are actually necessary to the ultimate defeat of Voldermort - maybe it is only possible to kill Voldermort after you have cast certain spells to negate Voldermort's protection from death.

I think that's an interesting idea. Like with alchemy, perhaps there are steps to killing LV.

I thought of an amusing reason as to why DD didn't kill LV in the Ministry, because then the series would end with book five Hehe.. And technically it would have been "Dumbledore and the Atrium" or something.

But seriously, perhaps he does want LV to think he is invincible- especially now that he feels so ammune to Lily's blood. (Or so he seemed in the graveyard).

Underestimating your opponent can often lead to downfall.

LOL! Does LV even have a soul? I

Ok well the biggest reason I can see why is because Sirius had not had his name cleared but it mattered less I then realised because Sirius had just been killed. However Sirius's name being cleared I would still count as an issue-especially as if Voldemort was defeated again it would be virtually impossible to track down the rest of his supporters as ppl didn't even realise at that stage that he was back.
I think I get what you're saying Mercurystar - DD didn't try to kill him because it is Harry that is meant to and even though DD knows how, if he had tried it, it may not have worked-that make sense?(prob not) and then he would know and taken steps to prevent that means of destruction

Is JK referring to the very obvious connection that if Voldemort was killed then so would Harry be-I'd be very suprised if she was as it is quite a blatent conclusion but I really cannot see any other way-what does Dumbledore know that we don't!?!?!?!

Apparently, quite a lot!

Hmmm, it's hard for me to come up with an answer to this question that doesn't involve either the terms of the prophecy (Dumbledore knows that only Harry can kill Voldemort, so it's pointless for him to even try) or the idea of Voldemort's death causing Harry's. I thought for awhile that it was obviously the first one, that Dumbledore knows that only Harry can kill Voldemort, but I really don't think this is true anymore. If Dumbledore was purposefully trying to avoid killing Voldemort because of the prophecy, it would make the prophecy somewhat untrue (by my interpretation): the prophecy says that "the one with the power to destroy the Dark Lord approaches", with 'one' indicating that only one person CAN vanquish him. I would think that under normal circumstances Dumbledore would be perfectly capable of bringing about Voldemort's destruction, but he's choosing not to in this case. And that's the key - he's making a choice. He COULD vanquish Voldemort, but he WON'T, not CAN'T, and it's for some other reason than merely knowing the terms of the prophecy (besides, I don't like prophecies being fulfilled because someone knows about it). Does that make any sense?

So, if we conclude that this isn't the reason Dumbledore wasn't trying to kill Voldemort (and please feel free to argue this!), then why wasn't he trying to kill him? I hypothesized before that it is perhaps that Dumbledore is unable to do it because he cares too much for Harry (this goes along with the idea of Harry's death being necessary for Voldemort's ultimate destruction), just like he doesn't tell Harry about the prophecy because he cares too much. Thus he'd be fulfilling the terms of the prophecy without it being merely because he knows about it - any sacrifice necessary on Harry's part would have to be his decision, Dumbledore can't make himself sacrifice Harry in order to destroy Voldemort.

I don't want Harry to be killed/destroyed, of course, but what other reasons are there? Maybe Dumbledore thinks Voldemort will merely become vapor like before, and decide to posess Harry? I really can't think of anything else - any thoughts?

Interesting. Surely the prophecy says two things about this, out of order:
-Either MUST die at the hand of the other
-The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches

VM's killing curse wasn't even strong enough to kill himself. Whatever protections he has are pretty good. And I believe it is Harry that must kill him.

As for DD, three clues in my head are:
SS/PS: Ah! You did do the thing right.
GoF: [DD almost looked pleased when he heard that VM used Harry's blood]
OotP: Naturally! [The bit about the two intertwined snakes and the seperate, but the same]

There's no question that DD knows that Harry is on the path for the Pheonix, having studied alchemy with Nicholas Flamel. So, perhaps he knows that Harry must complete all the tasks, just as he did in SS/PS.