We had to destroy this boy in order to save him...

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 190748

On 7/1/2011 3:07 PM, dumbledore11214 wrote:
> It was meant to say to name his son after Snape of course. I also want to add that Harry also named his son after a man who planned for years to sacrifice him on the altar of the cause. I feel VERY sorry for Harry, who in my view was quite brainwashed and abused by Dumbledore as much as other people in his life, but again I can never be convinced of this as something great.

Bart:
My take (and it took a couple of readings of DH to get to it). Morty was 
going to marshal all his forces to kill Harry. So, the alternative to 
Harry sacrificing himself was not living; it was dying anyway. DD 
figured out something, however.

To give a background, very often in the news, you'll read about a major 
accident involving a drunk driver, where the only person who was 
uninjured, or the person with the fewest injuries, was the drunk. 
There's a reason other than natural injustice for this. When most people 
get into an accident, their muscles tighten up. A drunk, having slower 
reactions, stays relaxed. The relaxed muscles allow the drunk to move 
with the accident, and sustain fewer injuries, much like a storm will 
knock down trees, but not the grass.

Now, getting back to Harry & Morty, Harry had two special protections; 
the first was the blood protection. When Morty used some of Harry's 
blood in his new body, while he became able to touch Harry, his own body 
would rebel against attacking Harry. Harry's wand appearing to act on 
its own accord to protect him from Morty was, in effect, Morty 
unconsciously activating it himself.

The second protection was that Harry had not one soul, but also a piece 
of the Mortysoul. Harry could not kill Morty without losing his piece of 
the Mortysoul, and Harry would be in danger as long as Morty lived. But 
getting the soul out of a Horcrux without destroying or severely 
damaging the container is a tricky thing, indeed (otherwise, Harry could 
have gotten rid of the Mortysoul simply by being run through by the 
Sword of Gryffindor).

What DD realized is that if Harry was willing to sacrifice himself, and, 
like the drunk, allowed Morty to AK him without any resistance, the 
Mortysoul would be destroyed, and between that and the blood protection, 
Harry would survive. However, if Harry knew this was the case in 
advance, he would not be able to have the right frame of mind, since he 
would know he wasn't really sacrificing himself. In other words, the 
only way to save Harry's life was for Harry to willingly sacrifice 
himself (well, that or create a prison that you can't apparate out of, 
put on a Fidelius charm and make Harry the secret keeper, and put Harry 
into it, which one suspects would not be a preferred solution from 
Harry's point of view).

Bart