Ancient Magic

[alhewison]

No: HPFGUIDX 42317

> > BBOY_MN wrote:- Why does it need to be anything more that the 
pure power of the pure essense of love? Isn't the power of a selfless 
act of love enough to give Harry the protection he needs? You have to 
admit that love is powerful force; people live for it, they die for 
it, they kill for it, kings and queens give up the throne for love, 
people are healed by love, spirits are renewed, tormented souls are 
made whole again.

 If you are of Christian belief, then the sins of the entire world 
for all time were redeemed by a single selfless act of love. You're 
more  than welcome to your theory, but as far as I'm concerned, to be 
marked by such pure powerful selfless love if more than enough power  
to save Harry. 
> 
Grey Wolf responds:-
> Why does it have to be "just love" as you put it? Nothing in canon 
> points towards it, and there is no way to explain why, if the love 
> shield is as simple as love, isn't it extremely common. I'd say 
that people *have* loved their children before. You won't accept a 
spell, even when the whole books are built around the spells, but you 
give no reasons execpt metathinking "nah, it's not literary enbough". 
>
Snip
> On the same line, he identifies the ancient magic used by 
Dumbledore to  protect Harry at the Dursley's as "invoked", 
indicating that ancient  magic requires invocation, and thus it's 
controlled by a spell. It does  *not* give any hint of being a primal 
force channeled through love or  any other sentiment.
> 
> Dumbledore does *not* speak of the love shield in the first book. 
He  explains how the combined Quirrellmort could not touch him, but 
he does  not tell Harry how he survived the AK. We are told at that 
point that what *burns* Quirrellmort is the love of Lily for Harry, 
but Dumbledore tiptoes around how that love got to permeate Harry. He 
does mention  that lily "died to save [Harry]", which gives weight to 
the *sacrifice  is a important part of the love shield* idea, though. 
Then too, in GoF Dumbledore describes that when Voldemort took 
Harry's blood he had  "surpassed that barrier", which indeed tells us 
that the love shield is in his blood.

<Snip>
, but that love cannot be simply the result of  having loving 
parents, or Voldemort wouldn't be able to touch a single person. And 
what is more, if that protection was present in almost  every wizard, 
Voldemort would not have aimed Harry exclusively but, as  Peter 
suggested, any witch or wizard would have served equally.

I sit on the fence a bit, but basically agree with BBOY:-

Firstly, I agree with many of the posters who think that the 
protections surrounding Harry WILL amount to more than the "Love 
Shield". I seem to remember Hermione mentioning some kind of "Power 
Enhancing" Spells which she'd come across in practice OWL Papers - 
>From memory, I think that was in GoF. If these existed, I'm sure that 
Lily knowing that her [son] was in danger would have cast them to 
bolster up his defences. 

However, I disagree that Lily's refusal to step aside and stop 
shielding Harry - and thereby sacrifising herself is necessarily 
inconsistent with the idea of invoking "Ancient Magic". Lily knows 
that by continuing to shield Harry she will die, her refusal to stop, 
and her panicky pleas may be sufficient to invoke the Ancient Magic, 
we simply don't know. It is possible that it is a combination of this 
Ancient Magic combined with other forces and spells already at work 
within Harry that lead to the AK being repelled, but I don't think we 
should underestimate the power of Love - Voldemort did, and look what 
happened to him!

The idea of Self Sacrifice through Love is a strong theme running 
through our culture: "Greater Love hath no man than this, that he lay 
down his life for a friend". Take this concept further. Is there any 
bond closer than that of mother and baby? Whilst Sirius thinks that 
Pettigrew should have been prepared to resist Voldemort by dying - as 
the other Marauders would have done for him, this sacrifice belongs 
perhaps more to the "Wizard Warrior ethos". Lily's love is 
unconstrained by such cultural expectations and is perhaps purer and 
stronger because of that. Her immediate Choice is between life and 
death. Whether her life expectations would have been minutes or years 
is perhaps immaterial to the sacrifice. Her love chooses to protect 
Harry. There is no greater love, and perhaps no greater magic? Why 
must they be mutually exclusive?

Thus, it is not simply Lily's love for Harry that saves him, but the 
love that leads to her sacrifice - this marks Harry out over and 
above the average wizard who will as you say have been loved by 
parents.

Ali