Harry's protection

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 112975

SSSusan:
>>>> So I'm going with Sacrificial Love as the Power that Lord 
Voldythingy Knows Not *and* which is somehow studied in that 
room in the Dept. of  Mysteries.<<<<
 
Kneasy: 
>>> Um. I'm having trouble with this one. 
How often does Sacrificial Love turn up in the books? Once -  
maybe.<<<
 
SSSusan:
>> Yep, NOT often at all--precisely my point.  It's a RARE thing to 
encounter.  And I think it would HAVE to be a rare action to be 
true.<<
 
Kneasy: 
>>> I'm not even sure that thoughts  of sacrifice crossed Harrys' 
mind on his rescue mission to the Ministry, more the impulse to act, 
to do something to help Sirius.<<<
 
Neri:
> Although I'm too lazy to dig the canon citation now, I'm sure DD 
> said that the Power-that-Voldy-knows-not is the power that sent 
> Harry to the MoM to rescue Sirius.
> 
> It is also the power that saved Harry from possession. So find 
> what is it that fits with both cases and this is your answer.


SSSusan again:
Yup, Neri, you're right.  Here's the text:

"There is a room in the Department of Mysteries that is kept locked 
at all times.  It contains a force that is at once more wonderful 
and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than forces 
of nature.  It is also, perhaps the most mysterious of the many 
subjects for study that reside there.  It is the power held within 
that room that you possess in such quantitites and which Voldemort 
has not at all.  That power took you to save Sirius tonight.  That 
power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could 
not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests.  In 
the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind.  It was 
your heart that saved you."  [US hardback, pp. 843-844]


I would argue that, while sacrificial love certainly isn't the ONLY 
thing which would fit this bill, it *is* a good match for it.  

The references here to both to something "more wonderful *and* more 
terrible than death" and to Harry's *heart* having saved him make me 
believe this, because in those words are references to love and to 
death, that is, the two things which combined could definitely equal 
Sacrificial Love.

Siriusly Snapey Susan