Life Debt - Problem

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 82948

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sachmet96" <sachmet96 at y...> 
wrote:
> Thinking about it the whole concept of life debts is kind of 
> impractical. Everytime someone saves your life you owe a debt. What 
> about healers then? They constantly save lifes or Aurors?
> Or what about Postion Masters (not only Snape) when they create 
> healing potions?


Jen: All we really know about the debt is: "Pettigrew owes his life 
to you...When one wizard saves another wizard's life, it creates a 
certain bond between them.." (POA, US, chap. 22, p.427). Like sachmet 
said, it would be incredibly complicated to keep up with all the life 
debts in the WW if a bond is created in every instance! 

The only two canon incidents we know for sure inspired life debts 
are: 1)James stopping Snape from entering the tunnel and 2)Harry 
stopping Lupin/Sirius from killing Wormtail.  Both are acts of mercy 
*granted* to an enemy. I wonder if there's more to the life debt than 
DD elaborated on at the time. He calls it "magic at its deepest, most 
impenetrable" later on, which indicates the debt probably doesn't 
happen everyday.

Perhaps it has something to do with risking your own life to save 
someone, whether they are an enemy or not. It just seems like there's 
more to it.