Life Debts to Harry

[arrowsmithbt]

No: HPFGUIDX 106648

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, udder_pen_dragon <udderpd at y...> wrote:
> 
> I was doing some digging and this thought struck me.
> We know that Wormtail ows Harry a life debt from PoA
> Does Ginny from the CoS
> And do: Snape, Ron and Hermione From the Dementors in PoA. 
> 
> I did not include Sirius because he is dead, although JKR has said some funny things 
about Sirisus's death.
> 
> If Dudley were the late developing magic user would he immediatly owe Harry a life 
debt?
> 

I  think we should  be a bit careful around  this 'life  debt' stuff.
We may be making far too much of it IMO.

Consider -  the phrase 'life debt' does not appear in the text;  it's
an invention of Fandom (as is 'the Prank'), a useful, but possibly
misleading bit of shorthand.

Snape hates being beholden to James; but that's mostly because
he hates James in the first place. From Snapes point of view having
the person you despise save your life is totally unforgivable. It cramps
your plans for getting even. It gives Sevvy a double reason for hating
James - the original offences plus being expected to show gratitude
for the rescue. Snape is livid about it and according to DD "wants to
go back to hating him in peace." 

Peter and Harry now have "a certain bond" according to DD. The way
'life  debt' is discussed on site one would expect Peter to be obliged
to expunge the debt asap. Not so. Peter has already had a chance to
do so and hasn't -  in the graveyard. Harry was bound and helpless
and if Peter had helped him Voldy would have been unable to do 
anything about it, being totally helpless himself. But he doesn't.
Good  for the plot, bad for the concept of 'life debt'.

Harry apparently 'helped' Peter by persuading Sirius and/or Lupin not
to kill him out of hand. But Harry didn't intend him to go free; if he'd
had his way Peter would have spent eternity in Azkaban. Is that
something to be obsessively grateful about?

IMO Peter may, probably will, help Harry (JKR has hinted as much in
the way DD  comments on the episode), but I doubt he'd put his own
life or well-being on the line to do so.

As for Ginny, Dudders, etc. No, Harry was busy saving his own life
at the time; their survival was incidental to and a consequence of his 
own survival.

Kneasy