Life-saving bonds

kiricat2001 Zarleycat at aol.com
Sun Mar 28 12:37:05 UTC 2004


No: HPFGUIDX 94259

 "Naama" wrote:

> [I hope this hasn't been brought up before. If it has - sorry, and 
> please tell me where]
> 
> Remember how at the end of Book 3, DD tells Harry that when a 
wizard 
> saves another wizard's life, a bond is created between them? Won't 
> that mean that there was (or maybe still is) a bond between Snape 
> and James? Would such a thing affect Snape today (maybe this bond 
> passed to Harry)?

Marianne:

The subject of life bonds or life debts has come up, but it's 
anyone's guess if you'll be able to find it using the primitive 
search capabilities here.  

The whole concept strikes me as somewhat vague.  Maybe that's 
deliberate on JKR's part, or maybe she hasn't decided what, if 
anything, she's going to do about it.  The implication has been made 
that Peter is now in Harry's debt and that this is not going to be 
happy news to Voldemort.  The implication has also been made that 
Snape had a debt to James.

What has not been explained in the books is to what extent these 
debts exist. For how long? What action repays a debt? I'd assume that 
if a debt comes into being because you've saved my life, can I only 
repay it by saving your life?  Can I repay it by saving the life of 
someone you love?  Can I repay it by doing other good works for those 
who need help?  

And, what if I really can't stand you and I'm generally pissed off 
that now I'm in your debt?  What happens if I get the opportunity to 
pay back that debt by saving your life, and I simply decide to let 
you die? Do I then get some other punishment?  From who?  God and 
religion don't seem to play a particularly overt part in the Wizard 
World, so there doesn't seem to be a "God will punish you" rationale.

The whole fuzzy idea seems to be based on a code of honor that 
implies that, of course, a debt will be repaid at the appropriate 
time and in an appropriate way.  Are we taking that at face value 
when perhaps we shouldn't?

Marianne, who's sure that Peter won't repay any debt for purely 
selfless and/or honorable reasons






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