life's debt and how does it work?

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 134757

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at y...> wrote:
> 
> Next, even though Dumbledore says that Life Debt is magic at it's
> deepest, I'm more inclined to think it is nature at it's deepest. 
True there is an essense of magic there but it's not in the form of 
cast spells and enchantments. 

Tonks:

I also wonder if it involves an enemy. If you save the life of 
someone that is not your friend, but someone that you hate, maybe 
that has a special magic of its own. The love of enemy sort of 
thing. 

I don't think that it means that you have to place your own life in 
danger to do it either. Harry was not in danger when he spared 
Wormtail, as it was when he was in the chamber with Ginny. Ginny was 
a friend; he would have helped her out of love for a friend. But 
Wormtail's case was the highest form of Love. Harry spared the life 
of someone who was partly responsible for the death of his parents 
and may have deserved to die. That is very high magick indeed. I was 
very surprised by that at the time, coming as it was from such a 
young person. It showed a degree of wisdom and maturity that most 
adults don't even have.

Tonks_op