Harry's Protection (was Re: Questions)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 119286


Snow wrote:
> <snip> According to the prophecy, Harry was born with the `power' to 
> vanquish the dark lord. Harry already had this power but it may have 
> become reinforced with his mother's protection. As Harry grows and 
> questions his own behavior, after the fact, he may learn how to 
> control this power to its eventual necessity to defeat Voldemort. <snip>

Carol responds:
"The one with the power approaches" doesn't necessarily suggest that
Harry is born with the power. Granted, Harry has not been born yet,
but we don't know how far in the future the "approach" is. As I read
it, the Prophecy can apply to either Harry or Neville until Voldemort
"marks {Harry} as his equal." So the power may well have entered Harry
with the combination of his mother's sacrifice and the rebounded AK.
(I still think there's more to it, and that his mother placed a charm
on him that enabled him to survive the SK in the first place and
allowed Dumbledore to extend the blood protection to Privet Drive
through Petunia, but I won't get into that.)

At any rate, I don't think we can exclude the possibility that Harry
was just an ordinary wizard baby with whatever powers and talents he
inherited from his parents until the events at Godric's Hollow turned
him into "the Boy Who Lived" and moved the Prophecy one step closer to
fulfillment.

If the power is Love or Sacrificial Love, he certainly wasn't born
with it. If it's Immortality or the Life Force (whatever that may
mean), he wasn't born with that either. The only trait he seems to
have been born with (other than being sufficiently magical to attend
Hogwarts and a talent for flying and Quidditch inherited from James)
is courage. I don't think *that's* a trait acquired from Voldemort at
Godric's Hollow. But Neville has courage, too, and also seems to have
been born with it.

So I have no idea what the power that will enable Harry to defeat
Voldemort is, but whatever it is, I don't think we can safely assume
that he was born with it.

Aside from surviving an AK and acquiring the dubious gift of
Parseltongue, he probably acquired other powers (resistance to
Imperios? Legilimency?) when the AK bounced off him onto Voldemort (or
when Voldemort's body disintegrated), and it may well be that the
mysterious power that can destroy Voldemort was acquired then. Or it
may "just" be the power of Lily's sacrificial love, which again he
wasn't born with, but is in a sense her dying gift or legacy.

Carol, with apologies for a seeming quibble that nevertheless may turn
out to be important