How did Harry survive Voldemort's attack as a baby?

[milz]

No: HPFGUIDX 10307

Keith Fraser wrote:
> What was it that allowed Harry to survive the supposedly 
unstoppable 
> Killing Curse and reflect it back onto the user? In Book 4 
Voldemort 
> seems to believe that Lily's dying for him both stopped and 
deflected 
> the curse. However, as I have seen pointed out in the past, people 
> have probably taken an Avada Kedavra for others before, so there 
may 
> have been something else.
> 
> Also, in Book 2 Harry says something like: "Nobody knows why you 
lost 
> your powers when you attacked me. But I know why you couldn't kill 
> me. Because my mother died to save me." to Young Voldemort (Tom 
> Riddle). I don't know how well-founded Harry's statement was, but 
it 
> suggests the halting and reflection of the curse were separate 
things.
> 
> Fanfic authors (including myself) have put forward various ideas 
> about Harry being some kind of super-wizard. The books haven't yet 
> shown much if any evidence of this (his resistance to the Imperius 
> Curse is a possible clue), and it's impossible to know if that will 
> turn out to be the case, but I support this idea. For one thing, it 
> means Harry might have a chance of defeating Voldemort once his 
> dormant powers emerge, which means the books can end the way 
everyone 
> wants them to - with Kentucky Fried Voldemort.

According to the books, no one really knows how Harry survived the 
curse, though Dumbledore and probably other wizards have theories. So 
far the commonly accepted theory is that Lily's sacrifice deflected 
the curse. But I'm not too sure....

In SS/PS, Mr. Ollivander tells Harry that Lily's wand was good for 
charms work and James' wand was good for transfigurations. This is 
probably a BIG clue. We find out in PoA that James was into 
transfigurations, to the point he was an unregistered animagus. This 
leaves Lily's forte. Was it charms? 

And what exactly were the Potters role during the Voldemort years? 
Could Lily have been working to find charms against Avada Kedavra and 
the Cruciatus Curse? If so, then maybe she charmed Harry with an 
experimental anti-Aveda Kedavra charm, when they went into hiding. In 
PoA, it says that the Potters knew Voldemort was after them. 

Also, about the Avada Kedavra curse, what exactly is it? In GoF, 
Harry sees a green flash of light, then a rushing sound. What is 
causing the rushing sound? Is it a monster or part of the cursor (I 
hesitate to use the word 'soul') rushing toward the victim? If it is 
part of the cursor, then that could explain how Voldemort transferred 
some of himself into Harry (CoS Dumbledore).

Milz