Re: Lily's love

On May 31, 5:20 am, "Nova" <None> wrote:
Post by Thom Madura to alt.fan.harry-potter on 5/30/2008 in the thread
titled 'Bathilda's Secret'

"I still consider the biggest plot hole to be JKR's explanation of
Lily's love.
I still consider James to have done the most to protect his wife
and child by trying to take on Voldemort to delay him - so that
Lily could escape with Harry. James actually gave up his life to
save his family.
Lily did not do that. At the time, she did not know about the
ancient magic - **so as far as she knew** - giving up her life
would do **nothing** to protect Harry. Once gone - Harry
would be completely unprotected. I continue not to believe that
Voldemort would really have allowed her to live. So - her
"sacrifice" might have gained Harry a few more seconds of life -
but there was no reason it would do more."

So do we *know* that Lily didn't know about the protection she would give
Harry by freely giving her life to save him? IIRC, she did not, but surely
other magical people in the past have given up their lives to protect
someone else, and still Harry is the first known person to survive the AK
curse. Perhaps a little bit more is needed to insure the ancient
protection...

Of course. Voldemort didn't quite explicitly offer to spare her life
(that is, he didn't say it directly to her), but he clearly implied
that he would: "Stand aside, you silly girl . . . This is my last
warning--" Meanwhile, she was saying, "Not Harry, please no, take me,
kill me instead--" So he decided to kill her after she had offered her
life in exchange for Harry's. BTW, he must have known about binding
magical contracts, since he took advantage of one in GoF (not that the
outcome was really to his advantage).

Do we *know* that DD didn't invoke some ancient charm on her or James,
without their knowledge, that would give the infant Harry protection if one
or both of the parents freely gave their lives with the sole purpose of
saving him? After all, we know that DD informed them that V was coming after
them and arranged for their protection, (my real wonder is why DD wasn't the
secret keeper?)

Plus, even if Lily didn't know anything about how her sacrifice could
possibly help baby Harry, what was she supposed to do? Stand aside and watch
as V killed her child, then trust that he wouldn't kill her? If that were to
happen, what would become of her next? Taken by force to some location of
V's choosing, for whatever evil purpose he had in mind? If V had simply
killed Harry without killing her, what would her life be like? Who would
want to comfort a mother who willingly stood aside *knowing* that if she did
so her baby would be killed?

Just about any reasonable person would. You have gotten carried away
with your rhetoric to the point where you are not thinking it through.

Who would want to live that way? Lily wasn't in
Griffindor for nothing.

On top of all that, what parent wouldn't delay the murder of their son even
a second in the hope that someone else would show up to save the baby? For
all James and Lily knew, the other members of the Order were even at that
moment arriving on the scene to offer assistance.

I can't imagine any parent who, upon learning that a powerful and insane
serial killer was after their son, would not do anything they could to
secure their child's safety. When the killer actually manages to
circumnavigate all their efforts at safety, they would instinctively do the
next obvious thing, which was to throw themselves in front of their child
and do anything they could to save him. After everything else they have done
for Harry, how could they *not* do anything else?

More than a few normal people would save themselves rather than make a
desperate and probably futile effort to save their children. That
doesn't mean that they didn't love their children, it's just a
question of the point at which they give up on a seemingly lost cause
and think about their own survival instead.

--
Alex Clark
http://www.cafepress.com/albgoode
http://www.myspace.com/powdourfort

Dr. Omer Moll Toad IV (an anagram rejected by Tom Riddle)
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Unanswered Questions
    ... did Voldemort offer Lily so many chances to live? ... JKR: Can't tell you. ... But Rowling was asked if Lily was aware of the maternal protection ... knowing that doing so would protect Harry. ...
    (alt.fan.harry-potter)
  • Re: Unanswered Questions
    ... conflicts with the fact that Dumbledore knows about it and Voldemort ... anything magical would happen - she was just trying to save her child. ... we saw one example of this when the Sorting Hat gave Harry Gryffindor's ... sacrifice left a lasting magical protection on him. ...
    (alt.fan.harry-potter)
  • Re: Unanswered Questions
    ... JKR: No - because as I've tried to make clear in the series, ... conflicts with the fact that Dumbledore knows about it and Voldemort ... we saw one example of this when the Sorting Hat gave Harry Gryffindor's ... sacrifice left a lasting magical protection on him. ...
    (alt.fan.harry-potter)
  • Ancient Magic or not (HP7 Spoiler)
    ... He risked his life, but he wasn't given a choice by ... Voldemort to live. ... If they turn over Harry, ... James knows he will die, but he wants to live as long as possible to ...
    (alt.fan.harry-potter)
  • Re: But why was the choice given? Was avada Kedavra and the prophecy
    ... AK would NOT have rebounded had Lily not sacrificed her life. ... If Voldemort was going to AK Lily anyway, then the magic wouldn't have worked, because she wouldn't have been sacrificing anything. ... Based on the scene from the film, which was written by Rowling, James blocked the door to protect Lily and Harry. ...
    (alt.fan.harry-potter)
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