Harry's Protection (was Re: Questions)

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 119264


> Carolyn:
> Sorry, Neri, I don't agree it had anything to do with dying for 'what 
> is Right', or that it had anything to do with consciously trying to 
> take Voldy with him.
> 
> Harry wished Dumbledore would kill him and Voldy purely and simply 
> because at that point he was in unendurable pain, no more, no less. 
> In this extremis, he (quite sensibly) just wanted to die, and the 
> desire carried with it the added bonus, to him, that at least he 
> would be with Sirius. There are no false heroics involved.
>

Neri:
It could be Harry's willingness to die that did the job, or it could
be his thought about seeing Sirius again, or it could be both. It is
hard to tell. However, DD saying "that power took you to save Sirius
tonight" suggests that heroics (or at any rate something more
altruistic than just the will to live) is involved. 
 
> If you like, it is a version of the euthanasia argument - the 
> individual's right to choose to die if life seems not worth living. 
> For reasons we don't yet fully understand (but Dumbledore probably 
> does), Voldy can't tolerate the effect of someone gratefully 
> embracing the idea of death, and it drives him away. 

Neri:
Yes, this was my point. The power is more about "gratefully embracing
the idea of death" than "Life". 

However, if there is someone in the books who embraces the idea of
death, it is DD, who views death as "the next great adventure". So why
can't DD bit Voldy by himself? Why is Harry "The One"?

An answer might be that DD has lived 150 years and has reached that
phase when death is merely an adventure. He won't be sacrificing much
by dying. Harry is a youngster with his future well before him, so for
him dying is much more of a sacrifice, and therefore perhaps much more
powerful.

Which leads us to the question: what is the relation between this
power and Lily's Ancient Magic?  

> 
> Personally, I find it a tediously contrived moment. Surely numerous 
> people/creatures that Voldemort has possessed have wished they could 
> die than go on enduring the pain of his presence? Just like many 
> people have probably sacrificed themselves for love, as Lily did to 
> protect Harry. 
> 
> It creaks as a plot device, and leads me to think that there is 
> something a lot more mechanical going on. According to JKR herself 
> (Edinburgh chat), Dumbledore certainly knows a lot more than he's 
> telling.
> 

Neri:
Yes, I personally believe (and wrote here several times) that this
power is a mechanical plot device. But it also symbolizes something.
The "death room" contains a magical device that symbolizes Death. IMO
the locked room contains a magical power that symbolizes X. I suspect
that X is something that opposes "Death", but it doesn't look like it
is simply "Life".  

Neri