LV's survival

[dcgmck]

No: HPFGUIDX 112057

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Anita Hillin <akhillin at y...> 
wrote:
> [snip]
> James died because he fought. Lily could have done the same but 
didn't. It just might be that fighting is not enough; a totally 
unambiguous sacrifice is needed to trigger the spell - unarmed, 
unresisting, voluntary. 
> 
> [more snips, then Kneasy goes on to quote canon from OOTP]:
> 
> 
> "And so I made my decision. You would be protected by an ancient 
magic of which *he knows, which he despises,* [akh emphasis]and which 
he has always, therefore, underestimated -  to  his cost. I am 
speaking, of course, of the fact that your mother died to save you." 
> 
> 
> akh: This triggered the synapses, connecting JKR's comment at the 
Edinburgh appearance, where she said we should be asking why 
Voldemort didn't die at GH.  Perhaps DD is saying LV knows about this 
specific magic; in other words, his mother deliberately did not save 
her own life, thereby saving her son's.  LV may have a version of the 
same "ancient magic," and his mother's sacrifice is what has kept him 
alive.  Because of his experience in the orphanage and his more 
negative nature coupled with what must be an enormous ego (I believe 
in nature+nurture+choices, but we'll save that for another time), he 
doesn't see his mother's sacrifice as noble.

dcgmck:
Wow!  So you're suggesting that TR's mother laid a similar protective 
charm on her young son's life before she died?  But doesn't that mean 
that someone must have intentionally taken her life as well?  At 
least, that's how C.S. Lewis sets it up in "The Lion, the Witch, and 
the Wardrobe" and what DD seems to be saying to HP.  Yet while LV 
blames his father for abandoning him before he was even born, there 
is no suggestion that any attempts were made to kill his mother.  

I note that you say " a version" of the same ancient magic, but it 
does seem that sacrifice is an integral ingredient.  Please explain 
further.