JKR interview - Lily and why Harry ends up having to ...

[boyd_smythe]

No: HPFGUIDX 101800

My responses are sprinkled throughout. Sorry, I know this format is 
always a pain!

> SOF wrote:
> 1) Lily eventually married James because he changed. He got over 
> himself and started behaving like a better person. Why hasn't been 
> revealed, but hey, people mature. 

Boyd: Canon doesn't actually demonstrate James changing, does it? So 
let's see which of our beliefs are HP-facts and which are 
assumptions/hopes.
 
> SOF wrote:
> 2)James put up a courageous to save his family. Otherwise, why 
bother 
> telling Lily to run with Harry? He was trying to protect them. This 
> is easily extrapolated from the shreds of information about that 
> fateful day that are seeded throughout the series. 

Boyd: While I agree that it's more likely James was good, I'm merely 
pointing out that it's still possible that he was, at least
initially, involved with LV. Do I believe this? No. But in the 
interest of weighing all the alternatives, there it is.

> SOF wrote:
> 3) Harry is the one because Voldemort chose to attack him. There 
were 
> only two choices: Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom. For his own 
> reasons, which Dumbledore suggests was a subconcious identification 
> to the half-blood child, Voldemort decided that Harry was the 
> prophesied "one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord." The 
> incidental result of his attack was the gifting of Harry with that 
> power. If Voldemort had attacked Neville, that boy would the one. 

Yes, you have stated the commonly-held opinion, but it's not canon. 
I'm again pointing out that we don't really *know* why Harry is the 
one. Maybe it is because he's the one LV attacked and his mother 
defended...or maybe it's something else. And if there's something 
interesting left to learn about what happened that day at GH (and I 
believe there is, although no canon yet), then here's one
alternative. There have to be others. Anyone?

> SOF wrote:
> Voldemort wasn't killed by the AK backfire because he had been 
> performing experiments on himself for years in an attempt to make 
> himself impervious to death. He doesn't know if he succeeded 
> entirely, but he managed to survive the AK. 

Once again, we have no canon either way. Could be meat, could be
cake. :) Your statement is what I initially assumed, but I feel there 
must be more to the GH/scar/prophecy triumvirate than we know.

> SOF wrote:
> I don't get this spell business. LV wasn't doing a spell with
Harry. 
> Their link comes from the AK backfire when Harry was a baby.

Yes, this "eternal life" spell is just a theory, but why did LV care 
about some mere baby? Isn't he the all-powerful Lord Voldemort? So 
what if some prophecy said something about the kid maybe being his 
equal. Isn't he almost at immortality yet? Why not send a dozen DEs
to do the deed? Why not tend to that after he takes over the whole
WW? 
No, I think there's a reason, and maybe it's that Harry was the key
to his long quest for immortality.

Further, and as my best canonical defence, we still have no clue why
a rebounding AK would forge a link between the two. I'm simply
supposing there was already a link there as the beginning of some 
eternal life spell or something.

Clearly, there's something we don't know yet. Something big.
Something that has to do with why Harry's the one, and why Harry is 
linked to LV, and what happened at GH. What is it? Hmmmm.

boyd