Love is branded as a powerful kind of magic throughout theHarry Potterseries. InHarry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, Dumbledore tells Harry that there is a force in the Ministry of Magic’s Department of Mysteries that is “more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than forces of nature”. It is ultimately this power that leads to Harry’s victory — his ability to love and be loved makes him different from Voldemort, who is unable to comprehend (and, thus, underestimates) the impact of this form of magic.
Lily Potter’s sacrifice to protect her son is a perfect illustration of this; despite Voldemort’s constant struggle to overcome its unforeseen consequences, her love is what helps Harry escape death more than once. However, this raises the question of why the death of James Potter did not protect Lily and Harry in a similar manner. What made his sacrifice fundamentally different for the ancient magic to not take effect?
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How Sacrificial Protection Works in Harry Potter
Sacrificial protection, often considered as the ‘ultimate protection’, is an age-old counter-charm that takes place when one has willingly sacrificed their life out of pure love to save one or more people. After the sacrifice, the protection lives on in the recipient’s blood. If the victim’s killer goes on to even touch the recipient, he or she would experience extreme pain. This can be seen when Quirrell, while being possessed by Voldemort, feels tremendous pain when he makes contact with Harry during their fight inHarry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. His hands get covered in blisters as if they have been burned, andVoldemort flees to save himselfjust in time while Quirrell eventually dies.
This also means that sacrificial protection can causethe Killing Curseto rebound, if directed at the recipient. Although, in the case of someone dying to protect more than one person, it is unknown whether the protection can be extended to the point of deflecting the Unforgivable Curse, but this may depend on whether the victim actually dies (since, in the one instance of such a scenario,Harry comes back to lifeafter he died to protect everyone during the Battle of Hogwarts).
If the blood is transferred to the killer, however, he or she would also be able to negate the effects of the protection to some extent. For instance, when Voldemort takes Harry’s blood for his resurrection inHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, he is able to touch him afterwards. Ironically though, as is revealed later on, this prevents Harry from dying as long as Voldemort remains alive.
If the victim is related to the recipient, another powerful charm called the bond of blood can be cast upon the saved person to give additional protection. It does not take effect until the recipient is taken in by another blood relative. This is why Dumbledore decides to send Harry to live with the Dursleys; he casts the charm on him, but it is only sealed when Petunia agrees to raise him in her home. Hence, Harry is protected from Voldemort while he lives with his mother’s family until the age of seventeen, when wizards officially come of age.
How Lily Saved Harry (And How James Couldn’t)
Voldemort has reasons to believe thatHarry is the Chosen Onewhen Sybill Trelawney delivers a prophecy that a young boy born at the end of July, whose parents have defied the Dark Lord thrice, will possess power that he is unaware of, and would be able to defeat him. On the night of Halloween in 1981, he proceeds to Godric’s Hollow afterPeter Pettigrew gives up the Potters' location. As he bursts through the front door, James forgets his wand behind and shouts at Lily to take Harry upstairs while he attempts to ward him off. Predictably so, Voldemort is able to murder him without meeting much resistance, and follows Lily upstairs. He warns her several times to move aside so he could kill off Harry, but she keeps pleading with him to curse her instead of him. He eventually kills her too, and points his wand at Harry. However, the spell backfires, reducing him to a bodiless form and leaving nothing but a lightning-shaped scar on Harry instead.
The reason why the sacrificial protection charm is invoked only when Lily attempts to save Harry, and not when James puts himself between Voldemort and his family, is the specific circumstances of each situation. James is destined to die, as Voldemort never gives him an option to save himself. On the other hand, Lily has the choice to step aside — most likely becauseSnape had requested Voldemort to spare her life, in exchange for details about the prophecy. Her conscious refusal and readiness to die seals the charm and, thus, Harry’s fate asthe Boy Who Lived. Although James has the same intention of saving his family while knowing that he is likely to be killed, he is not granted an alternative for his sacrifice to put Lily and Harry under magical protection.
Harry’s Sacrifice for the Wizarding World
During the Battle of Hogwarts, Voldemort presents Harry with a choice: either he keeps fighting while risking his friends’ lives, or he surrenders. When Harry opts for the latter and allows Voldemort to cast the Killing Curse on him without putting up any fight, he unwittingly causes the sacrificial protection charm to take effect. Due to this, Voldemort’s spells fail to affect any of his intended victims as such later on. For instance, the Stunning Spell placed on Neville wears off only a few moments after being cast, and the Silencing Charm cast on everyone in the Great Hall also loses effect quickly. As a result, Harry is able to save the lives of his loved ones just likehis mother saved his.
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