Lily's sacrifice may not be what we think it is... (very long)

[Ma-Dee]

No: HPFGUIDX 95689

Arianna wrote:

> 	Yes, without a doubt, Lily would choose to die to save Harry's 
> life.   She even may have been aware of the possibility that *both* 
> she and Voldemort would die if he cast the AK on her.  That 
> would have still been one heck of a sacrifice.  She still would 
> have died to save her child.   
>  
> 	I can't help but wonder, as Lily was very powerful, if she had had 
> her wand that evening, might Lily Potter have been known as The 
> Woman Who Lived?

Maddy writes:

While I believe there are many things about Lily that are mysterious, I don't think this 
sacrifice of her's is one of them, so much.

I think the magic that happened when she died to save Harry was wandless, and 
unconscious (in that she didn't purposefully cast a spell/charm on Harry, although she 
died trying to save him and was only afraid for her son's life, rather than her own.)  I don't 
think that Dumbledore or Lily knew about or thought of the magic that saved Harry, nor 
do I think they planned what happened.

Rather, I think that merely the act of dying as she did, trying to save her son, is supposed 
to be what protected Harry.  But if that's true, why, as you put it, wasn't Lily the Woman 
Who Lived? You would think that James died trying to save his wife and child as well? Why 
didn't that save both Lily and Harry? 

Perhaps it was because Voldemort gave Lily a choice: the choice to stand aside and let 
Voldemort kill Harry, or the choice to try and save Harry and possibly die in the process.  
Maybe Voldemort didn't give James that choice.  If that is true, the question is, why did he 
give Lily the choice, but not James?

=)
Maddy