James gave his life, why no protection from him?

[meriaugust]

No: HPFGUIDX 106660

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mad_maxime" <mad_maxime at h...> 
wrote:
 
> Max wrote:
> 
> 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.

Actually, DD knew about this kind of magiacal protection. He called 
it "ancient magic" and told Harry that this is the exact kind of 
magic that LV has no use for, and therefore it is understandable 
that LV forgot about it when he attacked Harry after killing Lily. 
Implications that James loved Harry less than Lily did (I don't buy 
that a father's love for his only child is any less potent or 
powerful than a mother's) aside, what we really have to take into 
account is the type of protection that Harry is under now. There may 
very well be some sort of sacrificial-love protection on Harry from 
his father, but he has no living relatives on his father's side to 
activate that. His mother's sister was still alive to take him in, 
and therefore Lily's sacrifice is the one mentioned most and used. 
And as to what each of them were thinking during the final moments, 
I believe that they were both thinking of Harry, probably because 
they both knew of the prophecy. To insinuate that James was thinking 
of defeating LV ("a guy thing to think"), when he knew quite surely 
that he couldn't, is IMVHO an insult to James' memory. 

Meri - who keeps in mind that Lily wasn't a saint either...