unselfish love vs. sacrificial love (was: Harry's protection)

[snow15145]

No: HPFGUIDX 113118




Geoff snipped:

We don't see God very openly in HP but Harry does have this "saving 
people" urge and, on occasions, has acted first and not considered 
the potential dangers until afterwards.  

Snow:

This section of your post brought to mind several thoughts. The first 
pertaining to Dumbledore's statement, "I cared about you too much," 
said Dumbledore simply. "I cared more for your happiness than your 
knowing the truth, more for your peace of mind than my plan, more for 
your life than the lives that might be lost if the plan failed. In 
other words, I acted exactly as Voldemort expects *we* fools who love 
to act.  (my emphasis on we, meaning himself and Harry, IMO)

Then we have Harry with his "saving people" attribute who acts from 
pure emotion but also regrets (after the fact) that he puts others in 
danger. The first example of this would be when Neville attempted to 
warn Harry and Hermione that Malfoy knew about the dragon and got 
detention because he was also out of bed late. Although Harry was 
doing something selfless to save Hagrid, he unintentionally got 
Neville into trouble, which he recognized during the detention in the 
forbidden forest when Harry tells Hermione "It's our fault he's here 
in the first place."
The second example is when Harry fears for the lives of all the 
captives during the second task in GOF. This time Harry's emotional 
reaction doesn't put anyone else's life in jeopardy as much as 
himself when he almost doesn't have quite enough breathe to reach the 
surface of the water. 
The final example is at the Ministry when Harry realizes that it 
would be his entire fault if anyone who came with him were hurt 
because of his emotional life saving attribute. OOP- If Sirius really 
was not here, he had led his friends to their deaths for no reason at 
all



Neither Dumbledore nor Harry set out to risk the lives of others but 
are willing to accept that they are responsible for their 
unintentional actions that are a direct result of their selfless, 
sacrificial love.

Selfless love is to care less for ones self than others and 
sacrificial love is to give of yourself without regard, thought or 
question to do so. At least that's how I see it. 

Voldemort understands this love: OOP- "He has a great weakness for 
heroics; the Dark Lord understands this about him."

Voldemort underestimates the `power' of this love (heroics) to most 
likely his own demise
in fact he already has, which was Lily's love 
for Harry: 

OOP- "You would be protected by an ancient magic of which he knows, 
which he despises, and which he has always, therefore, underestimated-
to his cost."

There was a Veterans of Foreign Wars memorial in my small hometown 
that I passed everyday when I was young which sums it all up better 
than I could: 
"There is no greater love than a man should lie down his life for his 
friends"

This love does not necessitate a mushy, fluffy type of ending to the 
story as a whole. On the contrary, it is this type of love that 
causes one to be patriotic to their country. It is this type of 
underlying ending to most every story, which was worth the read or 
worthy of sitting next to the annoying person in the theatre to see 
the film, that makes us feel as though we were a part of it. 
Snow