Did Harry Notice?

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182951

Carol earlier:
> 
> snip
> > But, again, just stepping in front of your child and choosing to 
die (like the German woman in DH) is not enough. You have to be given
a chance to live in the first place and forfeit that chance.
> <snip>
> 
> Beatrice:  I disagree with you here.  The German woman did not stand
in front of her children.  She was frightened and died first, but at
no time did she do what Lily does (Harry does the same thing at then
end of DH).  What is important in their deaths is not that Snape asks
LV to spare Lily, although this does mean that LV tells her to stand
aside.  What IS important is that Lily says, "kill me INSTEAD."  

Carol responds:

Well, then, we disagree with each other, which, in itself, proves
nothing. And you're mistaken about the German woman not standing in
front of her children: "Two young children came running into the hall.
she tried to shield them with her arms. There was a flash of green
light--" (DH Am. ed. 253).

The scene ends at that point, but since LV is angry and since he has
no qualms about killing children and hates the sound of children
screaming or crying, it's safe to assume, as Harry does, that "by now
he'''s probably killed her whole family" (233).

Moreover, I'd say that Snape's request, which, as you say, results in
LV's repeated requests or orders to Lily to stand aside, is *very*
important. If not for that, Lily would have had no more choice in the
matter than James or the German woman. 

Please notice that I said "Just stepping in front of your child and
choosing to die . . . is not enough." Setting aside the words that
Lily spoke, which I'll get to in a moment, let's look at the actions.
The German woman extended her arms to protect her children, just as
Lily did. Clearly, that wasn't sufficient. She died, and so, it
appears, did her children. Certainly, there's no ancient magic
involved. Voldie is not harmed. I think we can agree that just
stepping in front of your child with your arms spread, an instinctive
gesture that occurs several times in the books, is not enough, any
more than it would protect a Muggle child from a gunman.

James, too, rushes out to protect his wife and child. Again, that's
not enough, nor would it have been enough if he'd had a wand. Why?
Because, as JKR says herself, he was going to die, anyway. He, unlike
Lily, was not given a chance to live and the choice of accepting or
rejecting that chance.

Beatrice:
> 
> This in a way becomes a contract between the two of them.  LV takes
 accepts the terms of her verbal / magical contract. 

Carol responds:
I partially agree with you that there was an implicit contract between
LV and Lily, which *may* have been a factor in what happened to
Voldemort himself, if not in the protection that Harry received. In
fact, I mentioned something of the sort upthread. However, I'd be more
inclined to weight this ostensible contract heavily if JKR or the
narrator or LV or DD ever mentioned it, but no one ever does. What
*is* mentioned, as I've shown in my previous posts, is that Lily was
given a choice, as neither James nor the German woman nor anyone else
that we know of ever was. Lily was told four times to stand aside; she
chose not to accept the offer and offers herself instead of Harry.

Beatrice:
 Lily sacrifices herself on the understanding or on the assumption
that LV will kill her and spare her son (although we could argue that
Lily has no reason to believe that he will do such a thing.)

Carol responds:
I disagree with all except the parenthesis. There's no *understanding*
between Lily and LV, only a plea for (nonexistent) mercy. But, as we
know, LV never had any intention of showing mercy to Harry or of
trading Lily's life for his. He came to GH intending to kill James and
Harry but not necessarily Lily ("As long as she was sensible, she, at
least, had nothing to fear," 344).

Beatrice:
  LV's undoing is that Lily's act of sacrifice protects her son from
harm. <snip>

Carol responds:
Here we agree. Her self-sacrifice protected Harry, but only because
she had a chance to live and didn't take it. That chance, that choice,
is what makes her death a sacrifice rather than a standard murder. Had
LV gone after Neville Longbottom instead of Harry, and had Alice stood
in front of Neville's crib, begging LV for mercy, as she surely would
have done, and even if she had offered herself in his place, it would
not have been enough. Why? Because LV would not have promised to spare
Alice and would not have given her the chance to live. 

The point is that Lily alone *chooses* to die. No one else is given
that choice. And she has that choice solely because Severus snape
begged Voldemort to spare Lily. There would be no point in Harry's
mentioning to Voldemort that Snape begged him to spare Lily's life if
that request, in itself, had not resulted in giving Lily the *choice*
to live or to sacrifice herself for her son. Had she merely died
begging him for mercy for Harry, I don't think that the love charm
would have worked.

To quote again from JKR herself:

ES: This is one of my burning questions since the third book - why did
Voldemort offer Lily so many chances to live? Would he actually have
let her live?

JKR: Mmhm. [IOW, yes.]

ES: Why?

JKR: [silence] Can't tell you. But he did offer, you're absolutely
right. Don't you want to ask me why James's death didn't protect Lily
and Harry? There's your answer, you've just answered your own
question, because *she could have lived and chose to die*. James was
going to be killed anyway. Do you see what I mean? I'm not saying
James wasn't ready to; he died trying to protect his family but he was
going to be murdered anyway. He had no - he wasn't given a choice, so
he rushed into it in a kind of animal way, <snip>

There you have it, in JKR's own words. Lily "could have lived and
chose to die." *That*, not her begging LV to kill her instead of Harry
and LV's breaking of a contract never mentioned in canon or
interviews, is what made her death a sacrifice and gave it the power
of ancient magic. James wasn't given a choice; Lily was. And that,
*along with* her choice to die, is what mattered.

http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2005/0705-tlc_mugglenet-anelli-1.htm

Carol, agreeing that Harry, who also chose to die, made a similar
sacrifice without being offered a choice by Voldemort, but he was an
accidental Horcrux and the Chosen One, sharing a drop of magical blood
with LV, so, to adapt Snape's phrase, the usual rules don't apply to him