[HPforGrownups] Lily's sacrifice

[Barbara Purdom]

No: HPFGUIDX 19407


--- Vicky Ra <andromache815 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Speaking of Lily's sacrifice, now that Voldy's got
> some of Harry's blood, does this entitle him to the
> same protection Lily afforded Harry?
> 
> Vicky
> 

I believe Voldemort says as much in GoF.  And it's not
that Harry isn't special in his own right; it may have
been his mother's sacrifice that saved him as a baby,
but there was a reason for Voldemort to come after him
to begin with.  Harry asks Dumbledore about it near
the end of the first book, but Dumbledore tells him
he's not ready to know yet.  I assume that's one of
those things that JKR will keep quiet about until
something like the last page of Book Seven.

Since someone already brought up hero cycles (read
Joseph Campbell's HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES) what
happens to many heroes is that they are a part of a
prophecy which someone powerful is aware of; usually
it's a prophecy that involves the infant hero growing
up to vanquish the powerful person in question, so
they attempt to kill the potential hero as a baby when
he is presumably vulnerable.  This of course
backfires.  

Examples of this include:

1. Pharoah killing the Jewish babies when a seer of
his basically predicts Moses (who is then saved and
raised by his own daughter)

2. Oedipus' father finding out that his own son will
kill him, exposing the baby on a mountain to die, the
baby is rescued and raised elsewhere and because he
doesn't know who is father is, (in part, anyway) he
kills his father and marries his mother

3.Herod hearing of a prophecy concerning the King of
the Jews (which he thought was his title) and then
killing all of those infants in his own country in
order to kill the would-be future king.   

Tom Riddle is still in school and may not yet have
come across whatever prophecy predicted the birth of
his nemesis, Harry Potter.  So he is understandably
confused about Harry's specialness.

Voldemort in GoF seems intent on proving to the Death
Eaters that he is more powerful than Harry, as though
someone were arguing about it.  Terrible inferiority
complex.  (And yet, Harry's imposter syndrome is
somehow endearing.)  Why does he need an audience? 
Because he's Herod, he's Oedipus' father, he's
Pharoah, he's every insecure bigwig who's ever been
afraid that people will think something better's
coming down the pike.




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