James gave his life, why no protection from him?

[saraquel_omphale]

No: HPFGUIDX 106592


> Max responds:
> 
> Something special about Lily is certainly possible, but I can't buy
> this whole selfless sacrifice for love automatically means ancient
> magic protection. If that were true people would have heard about it
> before. There would be stories and legends about it. Lily could not
> possibly be the first person to sacrifice herself for someone she
> loved in the wizarding world, after all.  Yet we know from reading
> PS/SS that Harry surviving the AK curse was unheard of.
> 
> So something is up there as far as I'm concerned. It makes no sense
> that this type of protection would occur automatically.

Saraquel adds two knuts:
I think Harry survived the AK curse because it didn't hit him 
directly.  During the priori incantatem at the end of GoF, James 
follows Lilly follows Bertha Jorkins - there is no indication that 
another spell was cast in between to kill Harry - (the cruciatus 
curses which did not kill people were marked by screams) - this 
implies to me that one curse did three things - killed Lily, scarred 
Harry and rebounded on Voldemort.  So maybe Lily put herself between 
Voldemort and Harry and  took the curse for herself, much like Fawkes 
did for DD.  That does leave the intruiging question as to how Harry 
got the scar, if not directly from the curse.