More COS clues: Dobby related

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 112286


sad1199 wrote:
> 
>  <snip> I have already said in post #107071 that I 
> think somewhere in Lily's heritage there is elvin blood. She who is 
> a mere witch stopped Voldemort from killing Harry by sacrificing 
> herself? I just don't buy it. Now, if she had some sort of stronger 
> powers that were not widely known-such as elvin powers, I could see 
> her stopping the strongest wizard ever (next to Dumbldore, of 
> course). Maybe because she did not have full elvin capabilities she 
> could not stop Voldemort from killing her but she was able to 
> deflect or counter Voldemort's curse on Harry back to himself.
>   I also think Dobby will have more to do in the last two books. He 
> seems to be a small character that has been growing into a larger 
> character throughout the books we have so far. Especially, if it 
> comes out that Lily/Harry are related to him in some way. As was 
> said before it is VERY unusual for a house elf to go directly 
> against his wizard family and Dobby obviously chose to help Harry 
> and go against years(?) of tradition.
> 
> ...happy, caring, loving...  sad1199

Carol responds:
I agree with you that self-sacrifice by itself is an inadequate
explanation for the "ancient magic" that protected baby Harry from
Voldemort. Surely many parents sacrificed themselves to protect their
children and many husbands and wives sacrificed themselves to protect
each other, but *none* succeeded in deflecting a completed avada
kedavra curse except Lily.

I disagree, though, that the reason her self-sacrifice succeeds in
saving Harry is that she has House Elf blood. Unfortunately for your
hypothesis, there's no canon support for Lily having any ancestors
other than Muggles (though there could conceivably be a distant witch,
wizard, or Squib a few centuries back). There is, however, evidence
that she's skilled at Charms, presented to us in the first book when
Ollivander tells Harry that Lily's first wand was "nice . . . for
Charm work" while James's was excellent for Transfiguration. The James
reference foreshadows his skill as an animagus, an advanced form of
Transfiguration; the Lily reference almost certainly foreshadows an
important role for her skill with Charms. There are hints, too, that
she was a powerful witch. Note the respect that Hagrid and McGonagall
have for her and James's wariness in the Pensieve scene, almost as if
he's afraid she'll hex him.

For this reason, I think that Lily placed the Fidelius Charm on Peter
Pettigrew (who else could have done it? Dumbledore didn't) and that
she placed some other protective charm involving "ancient magic" (and
her own self-sacrifice) on baby Harry to protect him from Voldemort
and/or the avada kedavra curse. (Possibly she consulted with
Dumbledore before doing this, which would account for his apparent
foreknowledge of the events at Godric's Hollow. Dumbledore then built
on Lily's foundation with the blood protection involving Petunia Dursley.)

Carol