Life debts again was Re: [HPforGrownups] Re: A theory regarding the "innocence" of Sirius Black and the Redemption of Peter

[Maria Kirilenko]

No: HPFGUIDX 50941


Tom Wall wrote:

> I think I have to disagree here: the first instance
> of life debt that we hear of is the life debt that
> Pettigrew owes to Harry, right?
> 
> What risk to his own life was Harry facing when
> he told Sirius to show mercy to Pettigrew? 


Irene:
Um, Sirius having a fit and killing him? :-)
Seriously, maybe the definition of "putting your own life
in danger" is not the correct one, but there must be
something else.
We don't have much to go by, Peter's debt to Harry and Snape's debt to 
James. What James and Harry's decisions had in common?
They both choose the right thing over the easy one, didn't they?
It would be easier for Harry to fulfil his immediate desire for revenge. 
If we believe that James had some better reasons than just "getting cold 
feet", then he also rejected the easy choice of doing
nothing.
But the strange thing is that Snape believes both in being indebted to 
James and in James acting purely for selfish reasons, so maybe this 
theory doesn't fly either.

Me:

You know, I've always explained the life-debt bond to myself pretty much the same way Irene does it - "they both chose the right thing over the easy one." Instead of giving in to 'bad' feelings such as hate, selfishness, want of revenge, jealousy, irritation, they do what is right - they are generous, they overcome whatever temptation they might have to let history take its course. 

As for Irene's words about James - what he did actually fits the bill. Instead of letting Snape die, he saved him, even though Snape was an irritating git. 

Harry saved Pettigrew's life, overcoming his feelings of hate towards him.

Snape tried to repay his life-debt to James by saving (?) Harry in PS when Quirrellmort was jinxing Harry's broomstick. Snape did this, even though he hated Harry very much, but put his hate aside and did the right thing.

As for Snape believing James acted out of selfish feelings - well, it's Snape! He wanted to hurt Harry (1), he *really* has a sore spot right there where the Prank is concerned (2), and he also seems to believe that Lupin was "in on the joke." (3) *Come on*! You know, if he believes in that, than any other feelings he has on the subject should be taken into consideration with caution. 

So, yeah. That theory works.

Maria



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