TBAY :Lily's Sacrifice was a SOPPY CHARM

[Indigo]

No: HPFGUIDX 47156

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "The Real Makarni" <pat_mahony at h...> wrote:
> 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

A little purple dinghy boat floats into the Bay, just in time for its 
single occupant to hear and see the situation getting Roo all worked 
up, and the creation of the SOPPY CHARM ship, with its single immense 
cannon.  

"Lily's love being a waste?" said the woman softly, shaking her 
head.  She wore a robe of purple, with a Gryffindor scarf 'round her 
neck and a Hufflepuff sweater-vest over her T-shirt.  Inside the 
robes, perhaps inspired by Lockhart, were patches, but only the 
Sirius Apologist and Sociopath! Stomper ones were visible as she 
popped out of her dinghy and knocked on the hull of the SOPPY CHARM.  

With her wand, she wrote,  "I believe I have a theory that may sort 
of agree with both sides." 

She unlooped the scarf and shook it out.  From the end streamed a 
banner with a new acronym on the end of it:

ABSOLUTE PUTRID SNITCH 
[Altruistic, Besieged Sacrifice of Love Unique To Evans!  Pettigrew's 
Unforgivable Transgression Resulted In Dire Situation Necessitating 
Immediate Transference Charming Harry!]

"Which is to say," Indigo continued, "That if Peter hadn't betrayed 
the family as Secret-Keeper, Lily's love might not have been enough 
to spare Harry -- since Voldemort was all too sure of himself when he 
came fo the boy, and regardless of whether Voldemort wanted to spare 
Lily, could not understand why she would do so -- when obviously the 
jig was up and they'd been sold out.  But Peter's soul was tainted, 
and Lily's soul was pure.  

"The two balanced each other out, and Lily's facility with charms 
tipped the scales and is what made it possible to manage where other 
sacrifices of love did not necessarily have the same force or 
strength to protect a life. Harry's life force was protected because 
Lily's stood in front of it.  Literally like taking a muggle bullet.  

"Like most megalomaniacs,"  Indigo concluded, "Voldemort thinks the 
rest of the world far less clever than himself, and never bothers to 
consider the powers of good have just as much clout in their way as 
evil does." 

Indigo tucked her wand away and let the words trail her into the 
Tavern, where she ordered a butterbeer to chase the chill.  "Maybe it 
is soppy," she said to herself, "But the power of love has defeated 
evil, and performed miracles for centuries in literature."  


--Indigo
[who finally comprehends TBAY]