[the_old_crowd] Re: (Another) Interpretation question

[Catherine Coleman]

--- fhmaneely <fmaneely at ...> wrote:

> --- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "mooseming" <josturgess at e...> 
> wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > OK below is an excerpt from that interview and I'm wondering if 
> > others read it as I do? Specifically that Lily did not expect her 
> > death to protect Harry, to all intents she died, in her 
> expectation, 
> > pointlessly?
> > 
> > Regards
> > Jo
> > 
> Oh I agree wholeheartedly!  Especially on this point of the interview:
> MA: Did she know anything about the possible effect of standing in
> front of Harry?
> JKR: No - because as I've tried to make clear in the series, it
> never happened before. No one ever survived before. And no one,
> therefore, knew that could happen.
> 
> No one knew it could happen! Enough said. IIRC, which is not 
> often,<g> there were many posts stating Lily put a protection charm 
> on Harry. It was simply her sacrifice, when given a choice of life, 
> that set off the protection. I think that was the ancient magic, LV 
> and DD have referred to in the other books.
> 
> Regards,
> Fran


The other thing about this I would like to know is a possible discrepancy, and its possible
meaning.

Originally, during his explanation to Harry at the end of OoP, it sounds as though, whilst Harry
is actually physically at Privet Drive, he can't be harmed.  JKR is very careful to twice use the
word "there" - 

"While you can still call home the place where your mother's blood dwells, *there* you cannot be
touched or harmed by Voldemort....You need return there only once a year, but as long as you can
still call it home, whilst you are *there* he cannot hurt you."

I noticed that at the time, and assumed that Harry was safe whilst physically there, from
Voldemort at least.  However, at the beginning of HBP, it seems this protection is much more
far-reaching:

" The magic I evoked fifteen years ago means that Harry has powerful protection while he can still
call this house home....This magic will cease to operate the moment that Harry turns seventeen; 
in other words, the moment he becomes a man.  I ask only this: that you allow Harry to return,
once more, to this house, before his seventeenth birthday, which will ensure that the protection
continues until that time."

So, I always assumed that one of the reasons Harry was made to live with the Dursleys until the
age of 11 was because the only place he couldn't be harmed was his aunt's house.  But the
implication of the above is that the protection continues for as long as he is a minor *wherever
he is*.    Does this mean that all the times Harry has been in danger over the previous 6 books,
Dumbledore knew that this protection would ensure that Harry would never be in *mortal* danger? 
Does the protection apply only when it is Voldemort attempting to harm Harry?  

Why is Dumbledore saying one thing at the end of OoP, and then at the beginning of HBP, a mere few
weeks later, is saying something completely different?

Catherine

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