Life-saving bonds

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 94434

> Marianne wrote:
> 
> 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. <snip> 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?  

Carol:
I have the same questions and no answers. But it seems to me that part
of Snape's resentment of James is that he died without giving Snape a
chance to repay that debt. And IMO part (but by no means all) of his
motive in trying to save Harry in various circumstances is the hope
that he can finally pay back that debt. Maybe (and this will be a
strange concept to the Snape-haters) his personal *honor* is at stake?
Or will there be consequences of some sort if he dies with the debt
unpaid? We do have evidence of some sort of afterlife in the WW. Would
Snape, if he were killed with the debt unpaid, come back as a ghost to
avoid facing those consequences? I can't picture that, darkly funny as
it would be to have Snape as a Hogwarts ghost, because the one fault
Snape definitely does not have is cowardice.
> 
> 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.

Carol:
I don't think we're going to see either Peter or Snape refuse to pay
the debt. Peter is too cowardly not to and Snape had been trying to
pay it since the first book. So despite the near-absence of religion
in the WW (they celebrate a secularized Christmas and Easter, they
hold funerals and bury their dead (Crouch's wife's empty grave), they
believe in a soul that can be "sucked" by Dementors), I think the "God
will punish you" idea shouldn't be entirely ruled out. The voice we
hear in Trelawny's prophecies comes from somewhere outside her. Is it
God's voice? The three worst curses are not just illegal, they're
Unforgiveable. *Who* can't forgive them? The WW? God? It seems as if
there is some sort of religious belief here. Maybe Regulus Black
wasn't simply resisting the order to commit murder. Maybe he didn't
want to contaminate his soul by performing an Unforgiveable Curse. And
maybe Snape and Peter will be compelled to fulfill their life debts
for similar reasons--a concern for consequences in the afterlife if
they don't. yes, I know it sounds strange, but the WW is medieval in
many respects, and many tyrants and murderers in the RW have been
believers in God (or Allah), so it's not as incomprehensible as it
seems. If there are no consequences in the afterlife, why would Nearly
Headless Nick and the other Hogwarts ghosts be afraid to face "the
last great adventure"?

Carol, who is asking questions here, not providing what she thinks are
the answers