Love as a spell component (was the ludicrous Snape is an honest nasty DISLOYAL person)

[Amanda Geist]

No: HPFGUIDX 39315

My beloved, Jan, is a long ponderer and came to me today with a Harry Potter
thought (as he calls them). He has braided several threads together and
presented me with several novel takes on things, which I will now proceed to
share.

There has been general dissatisfaction with the idea that Lily's dying for
Harry was what saved him from Voldemort. Plenty of people must have flung
themselves in front of others in Voldemort's long career as a Bad Wizard;
why should this one time be special or different?

We are told the Potters knew Voldemort was after them. Jan suggests that the
Potters did more than hide. He suggested that Dumbledore worked with Lily,
who was very good at charms, far in advance to set a spell on Harry that
would be activated in a worst-case scenario when there was no other way to
protect him. A shield or protection that required Lily to do what she did,
integrating her love into the rest of the spell and completing it.

I mentioned the thread of Stoned!Harry and all the alchemical symbolism to
him, and he said this fits, as Lily's love was transmuted into a protection.
The achievement of the Stone is via transmutation, and the process of
achieving it is intended not to get a Stone, but to transmute the alchemist
himself to a higher state of being. It is a process of self-perfection, not
a way to obtain gold or live forever, which is presumably why all the many
would-be's who tried it for the latter goals all failed. But I digress.

This thought of Jan's nicely reduced the aggravation factor of Lily's
Sacrifice, as it added the extra edge I thought must be required. I
mentioned to Jan that the (accurate) distinction had been made that Lily's
love was not, after all, identified as what kept off Voldemort, but as what
kept off *Quirrell.* Nor have I understood why Voldemort's spell
*rebounded,* rather than just not working. Jan's theory also adds reason for
Lily to refuse to move aside; in addition to mother love, she was willingly
providing the key element to the last-line and strongest parts of Harry's
protection. We already know Dumbledore has set up other parts (the ancient
magic that protects him at the Dursleys, and probably more). Dumbledore is a
very powerful wizard, and was very involved with the Potters, which is why
we figured he helped Lily work this out.

Okay. That was good. I was happy. But Jan continued. Flamel. Flamel was to
set his affairs in order and then he would die. Ah, but here we are talking
about the achiever of the Stone, the one who has achieved the higher state
of being. Here is one who is also dying willingly for a noble cause. Has his
love or purity of purpose, I wonder, been transmuted into any other type of
protective spell? A very good thought by Jan.

And now here comes Cindy with this ludicrous disloyalty idea about Snape.
But the reason she gives--that Dumbledore has to die, and being betrayed is
the only way--hmmm. Dumbledore has to die, eh? Yeah, I agree, he probably
will. But if Jan is right, and there is a charm or spell that can transmute
a willing and loving death into a powerful protection, I can see another way
Dumbledore could exit. A very likely way.

So, what do you all think? I love the way that man's mind works.

--Amanda