Epilogue (was Re: Ron and Parseltongue)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 183526

Lynda wrote: 
<snip> The Power of Blood was important, but the Power of Love even
moreso. It's the key to the books.
> 
> Julie:
> Here I agree with you, Lynda. While Lily's blood "seals" the
protection Harry receives both at Privet Drive and against Voldemort,
I do think her love for Harry was the element that sealed the magic.
Yes, Snape's love also gave her the choice to live, or to die for
Harry. But it was Lily's willingless to sacrifce herself that sealed
the magic in her blood. At least that's my interpretation, and since
how the protection actually worked is never spelled out, I'm sticking
with it. In the end it was the Power of Love doubled (Snape's and
Lily's) that saved Harry.
> 
> Julie, wondering if maybe this realization is why Harry named his
second child after Snape ;-)

Carol responds:

Just one additional note here. Harry's self-sacrifice duplicates his
mother's but on a larger scale. He willingly goes to what he thinks
will be his death is an act of love for the whole WW, specifically the
staff and students and townspeople who are fighting against Voldemort
at that particular moment, and just as Lily's act of love for her son
protected him like some super-Protego, causing the AK to ricochet onto
its caster, Harry's act of love shields the people around him and
makes Voldemort's spells ineffectual (as they ought to have been in
any case since he wasn't the Elder Wand's master, but, oh, well!).

Carol, agreeing that the theme of love extends beyond the blood
protection and that it's tied in with self-sacrifice