The Power of a Life-debt(was Agency in the Shrieking Shack)

[Risti <pretty_feet51@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52209

Shauna wrote:
> As co-creator of SUNLIGHT ULTRA and a MD supporter, I feel 
> compelled to step in here.
> 
> First, before I address the issues you raised, let me just point 
> out that what we know of lifedebts isn't enough to come to *any* 
> certain conclusion.  Let's listen to Dumbledore as he explains 
> the lifedebt to Harry (PoA, US Hardcover, p. 27):
> 
> "Pettigrew owes his life to you.  You have sent Voldemort a 
> deputy who is in your debt... when one wizard saves another 
> wizard's life, it creates a certain bond between them... and I'm 
> much mistaken if Voldemort wants his servant in the debt of 
> Harry Potter."
> 
> Despite the fact that Dumbledore has just learned of the true, 
> desipicable nature of Peter Pettigrew, he seems confident that 
> the lifedebt will come in useful.  It doesn't sound as though he 
> expects that a lifedebt *can* be subverted, or overcome.  
> According to what he's saying, lifedebts don't count on the moral 
> character of the indebted, but rather something else, something 
> magical...
> 
> And a few lines later:
> 
> "This is magic at its deepest, its most impenetrable, Harry."
> 
> Whatever we think we know about lifedebts, we can't be sure that 
> we're right.

Adding on to what Shauna wrote here with a point that I meant to add 
last night, but seem to have forgotten about(that's what I get for 
writing replies at 2 am).  We do have precedence within the HP series 
for saving someone's life to have strong *magical* affects.  Lily 
Potter saved Harry's life by sacrificing her own, and this created a 
protection so heavy around Harry that it was still in affect eleven 
years later.  In the Graveyard scene, we see that because Voldemort 
now has Harry's blood in him, he is able to bypass this protection.

IMHO, the life debt magic works along the same way. As Shauna said, 
we don't know exactly what life debts do, but I'd be willing to bet 
that there is some type of magical component to the bond created.

~Risti, who also believes that part of the reason Dumbledore is 
feared by Voldemort is because Dumbledore once saved the life a boy 
named Tom Riddle from the evil Wizard Grindlewald...