[HPforGrownups] Lily's sacrifice for Harry's (was:Whose prophecy? (was Re: Why Harry?))

[Troels Forchhammer]

No: HPFGUIDX 54680

At 22:36 01-04-03 -0800, iluvgahan wrote:
>Kathryn wrote:
>
><Edited>
>But Harry's protection came from Lily giving her life to
>protect him ....There is no suggestion that *James'*
>sacrifice gave Harry any measure of protection even though
>he clearly made a decision to stay and fight rather than
>try and run.
>
><snip>
>Lily offered her life to save Harry. *Lily* is the one
>credited with giving Harry
>the protection so there must be some difference between
>their sacrifices.
><snip>
>
>
>Now me:
>I was thinking about *why* James' sacrifice did not account
>for any protection over Harry (and Lily for that matter)

Because there was no sacrifice - there was simply a death.
James was doomed to die that Hallowe'en - no matter what
he did. His death being inescapable all he could do with
it was buying his family a bit of time.

>but maybe giving Lily a chance to perform acharm over Harry
>to protect him.  Any thoughts or am I way off base?

You may of course choose to disregard Voldemort's
statements (he could be lying) when he says that Lily was
unwitting about the protection she left in Harry, but I
choose to believe him - he has - for an Evil Overlord -
been surprisingly candid with Harry (there's the claim
that Harry's parents died begging for their lifes in PS,
but Harry refutes that and Voldemort immediately tells
the truth - then there's the framing of Hagrid, but this
was by a 16 year old Tom Riddle, so I'm not sure how much
emphasis to put on that - those are the only instances I
can recall where Voldemort is known to have lied to Harry).

Troels