What triggered ancient magic? WAS: Re: James and Intent

[zanooda2]

No: HPFGUIDX 187016

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" <dumbledore11214 at ...> wrote:

> My point is that I think that any **reason** under which 
> Lily would have been given a choice to step aside and 
> did not step aside would have lead to ancient magic.


zanooda:

I think that whatever reason LV might have had for offering Lily "the choice", the ancient magic would have been triggered anyway. If he said "step aside" because he decided to keep her as his love slave, it still would have given her that choice. I think that this time JKR explained it right, and I believed it even before I read that interview. Snape's request *was* what led to the ancient magic being evoked, but it *could have been* something else (theoretically, of course :-)).

This was always my belief, because, to be honest, I never put much trust in all the "magical contract" theories, although I find them fascinating. To me, any contract must take into consideration both parties intentions, not just one's. LV never agreed to take Lily's life instead of Harry's, he never stated his intention to spare Harry, in fact, he never had this intention. 

He never even bothered to try and trick Lily into believing that they might have a deal. If he said "OK, I'll let him live but I'll kill you" - than I would have believed it was a contract, LOL. JMO, of course. So to me, it was plain old love magic, no contracts :-).


> Carol wrote:

> Lily, unlike Harry, actually had to die for her choice to 
> take effect. The intention to die for Harry would not, IMO, 
> have sufficed.


zanooda:

This is my belief too, the intention alone is not enough, IMO, although we can't prove it :-). And I kind of think that Harry died as well, in a way. It was something like clinical death, wasn't it? He could have "gone on", right? He could have never woken up...