Harry Potter and the Thestrals (Re: Did Harry See Lily Die?)

[elfundeb2]

No: HPFGUIDX 89873

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "makemeatree" <joi_foley at h...> 
wrote:
> We know that Harry saw something of his mother's death because we 
> know from the very first book that he has memories of a green 
light 
> and screaming. It's right there in the first book. He saw 
> *something*. He was there, and it is firmly embedded in his 
memory. 

He does have those memories, and the paragraph states that he 
supposed that was the memory of his parents' death, but I believe 
it's a memory of Voldemort's attempt on Harry's life and not Lily's 
death.  The key is that the memory is of "a blinding flash of green 
light and a burning pain on his forehead."  The pain in his forehead 
was inflicted by the AK that rebounded off Harry.

And, I agree with Steve's assumption that Harry was likely in his 
bed/crib/cradle at the time and did not have a direct view of Lily.

> Why then couldn't he see the thestrals? The answer also lies in 
the 
> first book: Harry thought for all those years that his parents 
died 
> in a car crash. If he completely remembered his mother's death, he 
> wouldn't have believed for all that time that she had died in a 
car 
> crash. 

But the same would be true if he didn't see the death at all.  
They're just alternative explanations of the same set of facts.  

The other examples of people who can see thestrals- Harry 
> post cedric, Luna, and Neville- weren't babies when they saw the 
> deaths they claim give them the ability to see the thestrals. I 
may 
> be wrong on that, since I don't have OotP, but if I recall, Luna 
> mentions the age she was when he mother died, and it was young, 
but 
> not a baby. I don't believe Neville gives an age, but, judging by 
the 
> way he talks about it, as well as who it was (his grandfather), he 
> couldn't have been a baby, either.

There's no evidence at all to tell us how old Neville was when his 
grandfather died.  There's no reason he couldn't have been a baby, 
and in fact the original speculation that he might have been killed 
by DEs either before Voldemort was vaporized or during the attack on 
Neville's parents, started because Neville hesitated before 
revealing that he'd seen his grandfather die, almost as if he didn't 
really remember it.

Debbie