"Power the Dark Lord Knows Not" -- Attachment

[ceridwennight]

No: HPFGUIDX 137715

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Jen Reese" <stevejjen at e...> 
wrote:
> Jen: Why did Merope die? I asked this question already today in 
> another post, but will give it another go here :-). 
> 
> Young, relatively healthy Merope should not have died for no 
> particular reason. I honestly found myself thinking of Padme in 
> the recent Star Wars movie, dying in childbirth for no explicable 
> reason other than heartbreak! Is that what we're supposed to 
> believe, Merope died of a broken heart?!

Ceridwen:
I didn't read Merope's death that way.  I got the impression she 
was undernourished, and refused to lift a wand from the time TRsr. 
left her to the time she died.  She had to pawn a valuable locket 
and was swindled for it, in order to keep alive long enough to 
have her child.  She probably weakened herself all through the 
pregnancy, resulting in her death at the end.  She wouldn't use 
magic, not to eat, to find suitable accomodations, or to get 
medical assistance of some form or another.

Maybe she didn't think she deserved it, either because she thought 
her father was right in the end, she was just a nothing, a nearly-
Squib; or because she felt so much guilt over ruining her own life, 
TRsr.'s life, and their child's life through her attempts at magic.  
Maybe she was too proud to return to her abusive home, would rather 
die than seek out family help.  We were shown Tonks in questionable 
ability due to love-sickness, and her situation was not nearly as 
desperate as Merope's.  Also, Tonks at least had a steady 
upbringing, which Merope did not.

So, I think that she despondently refused to help herself eat 
better, live better, and get the best medical attention she could, 
which she could have done through magical means.  An emergency in 
delivery would have to have been taken care of by trained healers, 
IMO, as Mom would have been too out of it by then to do a thing.

I can't say what young Tom thought, or believed could have 
happened, and when, in the circumstances.  He knew nothing about 
his beginnings.

> Jen: Argh, the great mystery about Lily's sacrifice. I keep 
> running in circles over this issue and may confuse myself yet 
> again here.
> <snip>
> The missing part for me is, will Lily's sacrifice offer other 
> benefits we haven't seen yet or will the weakening of Voldemort 
> be the last part to Lily's sacrifice? I guess that's why I'm not 
> sure whether Harry got another literal magical element from 
> Lily's sacrifice, i.e. an addition to his soul, when we know its 
> power is literally in his blood. Not to mention the beautiful 
> symbolism of her sarcrifice.
> 
*(snip)*
> But Dumbledore is the one who taught him about finding the ones 
> we love inside ourselves when we truly need them. So far Harry 
> has brought forth his mother's love when Quirrell couldn't touch 
> him, and his father's love when he casts his Patronus that night 
> on the lake. I hope to see Dumbledore's love express itself in 
> some literal way in Book 7.

Now you've got me wondering.  Could anything done to or for Harry 
in particular, of a sacrificial nature, be added to his extra 
store, as long as it was done with love for him?  Or, by someone loved by him?  <i>Will</i> Dumbledore's meaning for Harry be 
embodied in some way in book 7, as Lily's sacrifice was throughout his life so far, and as James's was when he manifested as Harry's Patronus?  Who else's love and sacrifice will show up in greater or lesser power?  Ron's in SS/PS, when he sacrifices himself for the quest?  And what about Cedric Diggory's death, and Harry showing 
love for him by bringing his body back?  What exactly is bubbling around in Harry's blood now, because of all of this, that will aid 
him in his quest?

> Jen: Tying to the idea that Lily's sacrifice strengthens Harry 
> every time Harry defies Voldemort, Dumbledore really made a case 
> for Voldemort defeating *himself* in the Horcrux chapter:" He 
> heard the prophecy and he leapt into action, with the result that 
> he not only handpicked the man most likely to finish him, he 
> handed him uniquely deadly weapons" (chap. 23, p. 510). 
> 
> I don't know how it will happen, but somehow Voldemort is making 
> Harry impossible to kill by his own hands. And everything that 
> came after Voldemort's decision about the prophecy,i.e, Lily's 
> sacrifice, the blood charm, Sirius' sacrifice (?) etc. all make 
> Harry even stronger. Voldemort hasn't got a chance ;).

If it goes as outlined above, then Harry is being magically armed 
with quite an arsenal.  Sort-of like the games played on computers, 
where you go in and buy this or that, a weapon or a bribe, to 
assist you on the next level.  After certain quests/books, he 
seems to get something.  His parents' contribution, and if correct, 
something from Ron in SS/PS, something from Cedric in GoF, and now 
something from Dumbledore.  (Maybe something from Ginny in CoS?)  
And something from Sirius beyond the Black estate, from OotP.  I 
can't think of anything from PoA, but I might just not be thinking along the right lines.

> Jen, thanking Mara for a really great post that got her brain in 
> gear today.

Ceridwen, adding to that thanks, to both.