Limbo



Limbo is a state of being that exists between life and death. Its appearance is different for each person who visits it.

History
In May of 1998, Harry Potter allowed himself to be struck by a Killing Curse cast by Lord Voldemort in an attempt to protect his friends and loved ones and to destroy the piece of Voldemort's soul that resided within him. What neither he nor Voldemort realised, however, was that when Voldemort used Harry's blood in his resurrection in 1995, he unwittingly took Lily Potter's magical protection of Harry into himself as well, thereby tethering Harry's life to his own.

Harry awoke to find himself lying naked in a formless mist. As he adjusted to his surroundings, he wished to himself that he were clothed, and as this wish came to him a short ways away a pile of clean fresh clothes appeared. After putting the clothes on, the mist began to take shape into a copy of King's Cross Station, Harry saw a stunted, whimpering child-like form lying on the ground, for which he felt both pity and revulsion. He also saw Albus Dumbledore, his deceased mentor, and the two had a long talk in which Dumbledore answered many of Harry's questions and told him that he was not actually dead. As a soul that was whole and complete, Harry was given the choice to return to the world of the living to finally stop Voldemort, or to board a train and "go on". Harry chose to return, and when he stood against Voldemort in Hogwart's Great Hall, Harry warned him that he had seen what fate awaited Riddle when he finally died, unless he were to attempt to mend his broken soul through remorse.

With the destruction of all of his Horcruxes, when Voldemort's Killing Curse rebounded and finally ended his life once and for all, his broken and mangled soul was forced to exist in the stunted form Harry saw in King's Cross, unable to move on or return as a ghost.

Etymology
In Dante Alighieri's Inferno, Limbo is the first circle of Hell. It is where pagans who were good people go, because they did not believe in the Judeo-Christian God. The word itself derives from the Latin word, limbus, meaning "edge, border". So Latin "in limbo" came to mean "in a condition of neglect or oblivion". The word is entirely unrelated to the Muggle dancing game, limbo, which derives from West Indian roots (same as "limber").

Behind the scenes

 * It is not specified if all souls of the dead pass through Limbo before moving on, or if Harry's visit there was due to the unique circumstances that tethered both Voldemort and himself to life.
 * When Graham Montague was trapped in the broken Vanishing Cabinet, he was described as being in limbo. However, that term does not refer to this place, but rather being stuck between Hogwarts Castle and Borgin and Burkes, unable to pass into either.
 * In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Harry wakes up in limbo in his clothes (different clothes, however, to the ones he was wearing in the Forbidden Forest) rather than being naked like in the book. This was likely done for censorship reasons.
 * It is unknown if the mangled form of Voldemort's soul was a standard fate that all Horcrux creators were given at death, or it was unique in Voldemort's case, given the nature of his many crimes over his lifetime and the creation of more Horcruxes than anyone else:
 * Chamber of Secrets
 * Murder of the Riddle family
 * Unforgivable Curses
 * Horcruxes
 * Attack at Godric's Hollow
 * Return of Tom Riddle
 * First Wizarding War
 * Second Wizarding War
 * It is interesting to note that Voldemort's soul in Limbo greatly resembles the rudimentary body that Voldemort used during the period from 1994-1995. Whether this is a coincidence or intentional on J.K. Rowling's part is unknown.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (video game)
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7