Loss of power theory (was Harry's Special Powers)

[Kimberly]

No: HPFGUIDX 10588

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Keith Fraser" <keith.fraser at s...> 
wrote:> 
> Yes, that is very true. I actually realised that after posting my 
> last message (or was it before and I forgot when I was posting? 
Never 
> mind). However, if Harry is your plain ordinary common-or-garden 
> everyday bog-standard wizard, why did Voldemort want to kill him in 
> the first place? 

This is where the self-fulfilling prophecy thing comes in.  Let's say 
there was a prophecy that harry, or a potter man, or whatever, was 
going to cause V's downfall, and so he chose to try to kill him, this 
bringing about his downfall (because of the unicorn theory) and 
fulfilling the prophecy at the same time?  It's such a neat little 
ball of yarn that way - that's why I like it!

I suppose the resistance-to-Avada-Kedavra-spell-in-
> development theory kind of covers that. 

I don't really buy that - I think it's still just the sacrifice of 
his mother that saved his life.

But if Harry is in fact 
> perfectly normal and what saved him at age 1 was something his 
> parents did, it means his fame and veneration has been entirely 
> undeserved...something that could be very messy. 

How do you deserve fame and veneration just for being?  It's not like 
he *did* anything as an infant anyway.  In fact, Harry himself says 
he doesn't deserve fame and veneration.  I can't think where to find 
the quote, but he says it's crazy for him to be famous for something 
that happened when he was a baby and he can't even remember.  What 
makes him deserve it now is who he's become since then.  

<snip> 
> The Lily's-death-saved him theory avoids this problem, but it begs 
> the question of why the same thing never happened before - people 
> must surely have sacrificed themselves to save others in a similar 
> way in the past

But usually Voldemort was rather indiscriminant about his killing.  
He probably killed everyone that was around when he went on the 
average killing spree, not wanting to leave witnesses lying around.  
So if he intended to kill them all anyway, then there would be no way 
for someone to choose to die in someone else's place.  But in this 
case Voldemort seems to have been on a mission specifically to kill 
James and Harry, so maybe he just wanted to be quick about it and was 
going to ignore Lily, but instead he had to kill her to get to Harry.
Maybe.  I think this is my weakest argument in this thread so far, 
but I don't think it's an impossibility yet.

- not to mention why they had to die (James and Harry 
> that is, not Lily it seems from Voldemort's words...the male 
> bloodline thing leads me to suspect some kind of hereditary thing).

Or just a vague prophecy.

Really digging this thread - thanks for the debate, Keith!
Kimberly