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

[David Burgess]

No: HPFGUIDX 54716

>
> This whole idea has bugged me since I read SS the first time, and this
> is the best suggestion yet, I think, that explains why James' sacrifice
> doesn't get any credit. Anything else just doesn't make sense to me.
> What also goes along with this theory is other parents must have died
> trying to protect their children from Voldemort, yet the children don't
> survive. If they didn't know the Charm and Llily does, or if it only
> works on Harry because of his lineage, then there you go. Carrie

I think that this view (that Lily cast a charm that would have destroyed
Voldemort if he hadn't take some precautions) seems to be consistent with
canon.  Voldemort's description of it as Ancient Magic in GoF makes sense
in this context, as do most of the activities leading up to Voldemort's
attempt on Harry's life.  Whether it was just good research on Lily's part
or heritage on Harry's is something that we will have to wait to see.

While love is a powerful force in RL and HP both, I doubt that JKR would
make it THAT powerful.  Remember her situation at the time she was writing
this: divorced, on assitance, "living on a rooftop in the dead of winter
in a tent made of tissue paper, rats for dinner every night, ..." :-)

Sorry - got carried away.  Anyway, Harry's being an orphan was compelling
and pivotal to the larger development of the story.  This arc of the story
ended with the recorporalization of Voldemort.  The second arc of the book
is clearly about the battle of Voldemort and the forces of evil against
Harry, Dumbledore, etal, and the forces of good.

How Harry became an orphan (the mechanics, not the actions) may well have
been a simple "Magic Happens Here" thing for JKR.  There is certainly a
huge amount of canon that appears to argue against it, but what if she
didn't realize the message she has presented us.  Of course, it would have
been shortsighted of her to not know how seriously we'd take all of this.

/don asbestos suit

-- 
Dave Burgess