Very good discussion question

[babelfisherperson]

No: HPFGUIDX 33690

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "marybear82" <mandm at d...> wrote:
> "In The GoF, we learn that when V killed Harry's parents, Harry 
> survived the attack due to his mother's loving sacrifice.  V
> explains that in 'His mother died in the attempt to save him - and
> unwittingly provided him with a protection I had not forseen...I
> could not touch the boy (p652). As a result of surviving that
> attack, Harry is labeled a great wizard, but has Harry truly earned
> that title?  To what extent would you say that Harry is not so
> much 'great' as lucky?  In all that Harry does, how much is he
> acting of his own free will, and how much is he simply living out
> what from birth has been his destiny?"

Actually, this was brought up far earlier than GoF. Doesn't 
Dumbledore first mention it in PS?

But regardless, I maintain that Lily's protection couldn't possibly 
have been the only reason Harry survived Voldemort's attack. It's 
made clear that Voldemort kill a great many people before that. He's 
mentioned as having wiped out other families. Surely there would've 
been other people who died trying to protect someone they loved from 
Voldemort. Yet Voldemort succeeded in killing every person he 
targetted, until he went after Harry. Thus, I conclude that there 
must've been something special about Harry even before Lily 
sacrificed herself to protect him. This conclusion would be supported 
by the fact that Voldemort considered killing the one-year-old Harry 
worth his time to begin with.

Red XIV