Sirius, Sirius, and more Sirius

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 158483

katssirius wrote:
>
> It is interesting to me that JKR has chosen this contradiction.  She 
> spends six books with DD telling everyone who will listen that love
is the strongest magic, nothing is more powerful than love.  However
she puts Harry in the safest place magically, the Dursleys.  A place 
> without love and only blood protection.  Voldemort states he knows 
> nothing of Love magic in Book 6.  This should have been another 
> advantage.  JKR comes close to negating one of the themes of the
series for the reader who notices.  Love was not strong enough to
protect Harry or he would have been placed with Sirius or Hagrid or a
host of other people.  Nope, love did not carry the day.  The magic DD
sneered at in Voldemort's cave, blood magic, is what worked best.  I
wonder if JKR has noticed this contradiction.
> 
> katssirius
>
Carol responds:
I don't think it's a contradiction. Lily's sacrificial love "carried
the day." No other sacrifice can equal hers in JKR's view. The blood
protection is based on that ultimate gift, a gift that no one can give
Harry because no one else both shares his blood and would die to save
him. (Even James's death isn't as important because it's a death in
battle and not a sacrifice. As I've said elsewhere, he's a hero, but
Lily's a martyr.)

I'm not sure that Sirius's love for Harry could have equalled a
mother's love, however much Harry reminded him of James, and they
don't share the bond of blood kinship, which is clearly an important
theme in the books ("Blood's important," says Hagrid, weeping into his
beer over Grawpy and his dead mother.)

The reason that DD "sneers" at "blood magic" in Voldemort's cave is
that Voldemort is asking for a blood *tribute* as a way of weakening
his enemies. LV is afraid of death and sees blood as a symbol of death
and injury. Dumbledore calls this form of magic "crude" and is
disappointed that Voldemort would resort to it. That's very different
from the blood *protection* provided by Lily's sacrifice, which *is*
based on love.

Since the blood protection could not be extended to Sirius Black
because he doesn't share Harry's blood, he would have been a most
unsafe guardian even setting aside his youth, reckless personality,
and desire for revenge against Pettigrew.

I think that JKR would find your reading unsettling, as it
underestimates the importance of Lily's sacrificial love.

Carol, who thinks that Lily's love is somehow in her blood and
Harry's, as magic also seems to be in the blood