TBAY :Lily's Sacrifice was a SOPPY CHARM

[The Real Makarni]

No: HPFGUIDX 47122

Roo was sitting in the Tavern at Theory Bay, celebrating his 
birthday with a quiet night on the town. He wasn't paying much 
attnention- he had eavesdropped on a few of the Snape theories, 
but he didn't find Snape a particularly intriguing character, so he 
was now slowly lulling into a gentle slumber at the bar, trying to 
work out what was so damned appealing about George. . . 

All of a sudden he shot up, as a wave of unbelievable cold swep 
through him. A quick glance around revealed that Amandageist 
had entered the room. Guessing that she'd probably be 
contributing to the Snape theorising, Roo went back to his 
stupour

 "I," Amandageist announced, "have had a Thought. More 
accurately, I had a blinding
 insight where several people's thoughts came together. I was 
browsing over
 on the main list, since nobody seems to want to talk to me here, 
and I read
something that Jodel said. . . "
 She droned on for a while, and Roo didn't bat an eyelid, until
she waved a hand and a large, floating screen appeared. Roo 
loved visual aids in theories. It had several holes
 burned in it. "Ah, yes," Amandageist said. "Sorry about that. 
Sometimes my
irritation with those blinking and pop-up ads overcomes 
me...and the quote
is rather long, sorry."

Roo perked up and began to be interested, until he read what it 
said:

 
 "Message 39315, Love as a Spell Component:

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."

Roo didn't wait to read any more. 
"That's it," he muttered, as he stormed not-so-subtly towards the 
door, "It's about time a ship was built".
He stormed striaght down to the dockyards, and began furiously 
lashing together planks, and scrounging for the appropriate 
cannons.
"Lily, set up a spell to protect to Harry, that involves her death? I 
don't think so." He wasn't really talking to anyone, but he did have 
a reputation for often talking to himself.
"That just contradicts Dumbledore's little speech at the end of 
Book 1, doesn't? What word was used? 'inscrutable' was one, I 
think. . . or at least something similar. The whole point is that 
Voldemort *can't* understand it- if it's a contrived spell, well, he 
could understand it then, couldn't he?
Yes, there couldn't be a constructed spell manipulated by the 
Potters, because that undermines the whole meaning of the first 
book! It shakes the very foundations of PS! Dumbledore's little 
love-speech is a very nice, big cannon, they won't be able to sink 
that one easily. . .How dare they try to undermine the purity of 
Lily's sacrifice? "
Roo pulled up some blankets to prepare to sleep on his new 
ship. As he drifted off, he couldn't help but mutter, "This better not 
have anything to do with Magic Dishwasher. . . "

Roo awoke at dawn the next day, a little hazy as to his exact 
whereabouts. Then he remembered, jumped up and looked 
around. He was standing in the middle of a Viking longboat, with 
one, massive, cannon on one side, with "LOVE" emblazoned 
across it. Instead of the obligatory Dragon-headed prow, he 
noticed his new ship had an exquisitely carved figure of a 
woman clutching a baby, a look of forlorn hope in her terrified 
eyes. "Not bad," he muttered, "although I must say, I do seem to 
have gone a bit over board. How on earth did manage this is one 
night?" 
Then he remembered something else. He snapped his gaze 
upwards, and saw (to his slight embarassment) an acronym- 
SOPPY CHARM (Sacrifice of Purity. Perfect? Yes. Contrived? 
Hardly a Reasoned Move). "A little, ah, soppy", he conceded "but 
at least it gets the job done. Yes, I think I'm quite happy- the 
purity, futility, the LOVE of Lily's sacrifice was enough to protect 
Harry," he reassured himself. "Lily's sacrifice was augmented 
enough because Voldemort, for some reason, was willing to 
spare her life. That's the real question. Why did Voldemort want 
to spare Lily?"
Then he sat back down on the floor of his brand new spanking 
ship, and waited to see what, if any, reaction, Theory Bay would 
have.

Roo, who couldn't resist putting a MD reference in there, even 
though it wasn't relevant