the whimpering boy/thing? kings cross

[keeron_man_boy]

in the chapter kings cross... who was the person crying/moaning on the floor??

 

[Sir Cadogan]

I've only just realized that this is in the general section, not the "expect loads of spoilers" section.
So if you haven't finished the book, don't read on.
Maybe one of the Unspeakables can move this post to there?


###===--- Spoiler Warning - Proceed at your own discretion ---===###

in the chapter kings cross... who was the person crying/moaning on the floor??

I'm pretty certain that it is what remains of Lord Voldemort when he's left the realm of the living.
In the forest, when Harry offers himself to be killed by LV, both of them (Harry and LV) pass out ... and they both have a near-death experience: Harry has his conversation with Dumbledore, LV just lies there helplessly and beyond help (if DD is right).
The strange thing is that LV should turn up in Harry's mind. But it must be the case, because otherwise it wouldn't make sense what Harry tells LV in the duel at Hogwarts:

But before you try to kill me, I'd advise you think what you've done . . . . Think, and try for some remorse, Riddle. . . ."
"What is this?"
Of all the things that Harry had said to him, beyond any revelation or taunt, nothing had shocked Voldemort like this. Harry saw is pupils contract to thin slits, saw the skin around his eyes whiten.
"It's your one last chance," said Harry, "it's all you've got left. . . . I've seen what you'll be otherwise. . . .

The only possible interpretation (that I can think of) is that Harry knows LV to have been the helpless bundle of flesh that he saw in his vision.

 

[Fortescue]

I took that writhing thing on the floor to be the bit of soul that came out of Harry when Voldemort shot the AK at him and took out the bit of soul housed within Harry. Dumbledore said something to the effect, "Don't mind that, you can't help it!" I took that to mean that was the piece of soul that had come out of Harry.

But . . . since Voldemort himself was knocked out at the same time he shot the spell at Harry, maybe the writhing bit of grotesqueness was actually the bit of soul left in Voldemort in his body and he was the same place as Harry and Dumbledore before he regained consciousness. Either way, it was a bit of Voldemort's soul and Dumbledore's words were quite cute!!!

 

[Dr Winterbourne]

Yeah, I took it that Voldemort went to the same place when he was unconscious, and that made him a bit more nervous when he faced Harry later.

 

[Sirius Potter Fan]

It works either way, The part of Voldemort's soul that Harry had would actualy be more than the bit that Voldemort had left himself since Nagini was made a Horcrux later, as Voldemort was growing in strength. We saw the destructive effects of making horcruxes as Dumbledore saw the changes in Voldemort/Riddle's physical apearance, and then we saw a physical representation of the destruction of the soul in that writhing lump, clearly in pain. I think you can say that Dumbledore was indeed right . . . there are worse things than "meer death" - Dying with a soul that mutilated for eternity . . . not a pretty picture. But . . . He had a chance of redemption . . . showing true remorse, but as Hermionie had predicted, he would not choose that path.

 

[Horntail88]

This should confirm it.

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2007/7/30/j-k-rowling-web-chat-transcript

Jon: Since voldemort was afraid of death, did he choose to be a ghost if so where does he haunt or is this not possible due to his horcruxes

J.K. Rowling: No, he is not a ghost. He is forced to exist in the stunted form we witnessed in King’s Cross.