Who would Harry save?

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 123523


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "moondance241"
<leslie.s.bennett at l...> wrote:

<< Harry does have morals and values, though where he learned them is
a mystery!  I believe it's the same inherent character that gives
Harry these morals which enabled him to survive the Dursleys with an 
ability to sympathize and care for others.  It's this inherent 
characater that drives him to want to help/save others. >>

Moondance's post is #123243 of 123521, and I'm *trying* to read all
the posts before I post, but I can't resist this appeal to my Lily
obsession: Yes. And I have a theory. I think I think Lily was able,
with her magic, to put an image of herself in her baby's mind, that
would be like an 'imaginary mum' (by analogy with 'imaginary friend')
who would cuddle Harry and tell him that he's a good kid who doesn't
deserve Dursley abuse and tell him about how decent people behave,
thus being that one caring adult said to be necessary to even a
'resilient' child's survival of serious abuse, and an example of
goodness he could learn from.

I kind of think Lily used her last magic to put this image in
his head intentionally, instead of using her last magic in one last
attempt to escape Voldemort. That is the heroic self-sacrifce that
canon credits her, accepting her own death because it was more
important to her to give this protection (from abusive Dursleys) of
her love. I don't know why she would do that if she really believed
that he would be dead seconds after she was, so I am left sympathetic
to the theories that Harry survived AK because of some magic that had
been done on him (presumably by Lily) or that he had been born with.

When Harry resisted the Imperius Curse, the Curse's Moody-voice in his
head told him to jump up on the desk, and "another voice had awoken in
the back of his brain. Stupid to do, really, said the voice." I
believe that that other voice is what's left of the image-Lily after
all these years; she doesn't appear often, she appears as Harry's
voice instead of her own, but she still is caring for Harry -- and
still has free will.

In addition, so far we've always seen Harry wondering and trying to
find out about his father, and not about his mother. Some say that's a
plot device because JKR is saving some big surprise about Lily, and
some say it's normal because Harry is 11 to 15 so far, puberty and
adolescence, and much more concerned about a male image to identify
with. But *I* say that he doesn't search so much for Lily because,
unknown to himself, he already has her with him.