I run into this argument a lot, and I think a lot of people are failing to grasp one or two points that, to be fair, aren't obvious on first reading.
We can pretty much rest assured, canonically, that Voldemort never WANTED to make Harry into a horcrux. Dumbledore tells us that he doesn't like to depend on other people for his immortality. The idea of turning a living thing into a horcrux didn't occur to him until he made Nagini at the start of book four (which does prove, however, that the "mewling weak thing" could indeed kill and create horcruxes in his weakened state).
We also have strong indications (Dumbledore's calculations) that Voldemort went to the Potter house in 1981 intending to use Harry's death to make the final horcrux. So he was set up to make a horcrux on a night when he killed two people and intended to kill a third.
Now, my theory is that part of the process of making a horcrux is that one must be fascinated and obsessed with the object which is to contain one's soul-part. All the objects Tom used were of massive, disproportionate importance to him. Voldemort may have been obsessed with an object that night, but I can assure you that if he knew Harry was going to grow up to be his greatest nemesis, as the prophecy said, then he was wildly obsessed with Harry as well.
It is not unreasonable to conjecture, therefore, that he got a little ahead of himself and in the process of killing Lily, turned Harry into a horcrux. Naturally then, when he tried to kill Harry, the bit of Voldemort in Harry rejected this -- it would be similar to the body feeling pain when you attempt to injure yourself.
We do have some weak canonical evidence for this, as well, from book two:
"You can speak Parseltongue, Harry," said Dumbledore calmly, "because Lord Voldemort -- who is the last remaining descendant of Salazar Slytherin -- can speak Parseltongue. Unless I'm much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar. Not something he intended to do, I'm sure ...."
"Voldemort put a bit of himself in me?" Harry said, thunderstruck.
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We can pretty much rest assured, canonically, that Voldemort never WANTED to make Harry into a horcrux. Dumbledore tells us that he doesn't like to depend on other people for his immortality. The idea of turning a living thing into a horcrux didn't occur to him until he made Nagini at the start of book four (which does prove, however, that the "mewling weak thing" could indeed kill and create horcruxes in his weakened state).
We also have strong indications (Dumbledore's calculations) that Voldemort went to the Potter house in 1981 intending to use Harry's death to make the final horcrux. So he was set up to make a horcrux on a night when he killed two people and intended to kill a third.
Now, my theory is that part of the process of making a horcrux is that one must be fascinated and obsessed with the object which is to contain one's soul-part. All the objects Tom used were of massive, disproportionate importance to him. Voldemort may have been obsessed with an object that night, but I can assure you that if he knew Harry was going to grow up to be his greatest nemesis, as the prophecy said, then he was wildly obsessed with Harry as well.
It is not unreasonable to conjecture, therefore, that he got a little ahead of himself and in the process of killing Lily, turned Harry into a horcrux. Naturally then, when he tried to kill Harry, the bit of Voldemort in Harry rejected this -- it would be similar to the body feeling pain when you attempt to injure yourself.
We do have some weak canonical evidence for this, as well, from book two:
"You can speak Parseltongue, Harry," said Dumbledore calmly, "because Lord Voldemort -- who is the last remaining descendant of Salazar Slytherin -- can speak Parseltongue. Unless I'm much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar. Not something he intended to do, I'm sure ...."
"Voldemort put a bit of himself in me?" Harry said, thunderstruck.
"It certainly seems so."