green eyes and the killing curse

[slgazit]

No: HPFGUIDX 79509

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Wanda Sherratt" 
<wsherratt3338 at r...> wrote:
> I'm not perfectly convinced that Lily's sacrifice is the reason 
why 
> Harry survived AK.  I think it did *something*, but I'm not sure 
it 
> did that.

Well, it has been hinted in several places, beginning with book 1
that she was very good at charms. I think she performed a charm that
required her to sacrifice her life for it to work, probably based
on that same ancient blood magic that Dumbledore mentions.

>  Why didn't James's sacrifice protect 
> Lily, in that case?

Because he did not sacrifice his life for her. Voldemort tells Harry
in SS (pp 294, American edition):
"I killed your father first, and he put up a couragous fight...
but your mother needn't have died... she was trying to protect you"

In other words, Voldemort came there intending to kill James,
but he did not want to kill Lily (why we don't know yet). I think
it was the fact that she chose to die to protect her son, when
she could save her life if she did not resist, that made
the charm she performed work. James had no such choice. Recall
that when Voldemort decided to kill someone he always succeeded
(with the exception of HP of course, and perhaps Dumbledore).

Salit