On Human Sacrfice and Dark Magic

[annoni_no]

I've spent some time archive binging recently and got to thinking about what the new conclusions meant for old issues that weren't directly addressed.  In particular, I was reminded of all the old complaints about Lily's sacrifice being held up as exceptional even though most parents would die for their children.  And if sacrificial magic is as

Comments

[annoni_no]

Uh, where did you get that from? Even bad people can have loved ones. Lucius loves Narcissa and Draco, do you want to argue that he's not a bigoted, murderous arse? Severus despises James, does that mean he's incapable of loving Lily, or anyone else? Are you looking for a fight? Or is it simply verbotten to say a villainous character has any redeemable features whatsoever?

The original complaint was that there was no reason why *Lily's* sacrificial death was so special, as if no one else in the history of humanity would have been willing to sacrifice their life for another. I was arguing that there are plenty of people who are willing, but that few are crazy enough to WANT to do it, but it's the will and intentionality that magic responds to.

The stuff about James is entirely conjecture. There's no evidence in canon whatsoever that merely risking injury or death is enough to trigger a magical reaction. It's just a nice, hypothetical thought that in this magical world being willing to put your life on the line can buy a little luck for another, even if only for a few minutes.

Nor is this about James Potter specifically (though I'm sure his ego would be enormously flattered that you think it is). It's about what ANY human, or sentient being, in the Potter-verse is able to accomplish through sacrifice of varying degrees.

The only reason James and Lily are particularly relevant is because Harry's luck does seem to be far beyond the usual. Thus my conjecture that James' willingness to risk his life, which under normal circumstances might, at most, have bought his wife a few minutes good fortune, like spotting a spare wand that had fallen behind the bed she would otherwise have overlooked, instead let Lily hit upon, in ignorance, the far more powerful magic that *could* keep their son safe - ironically, solely because they were so screwed that Lily had no other options whatsoever (i.e. there were no spare wands). But in order for it to work, Tom had to take the deal. Since Tom's already a sadist, even a very weak surge of luck was enough to make him do it.

Addendum: it occurs to me that intentionality may still be important in that you must WANT to take the risk in the first place, in which case you can argue that James was just showing off again for thrills and glory, since it seems to be anathema to you to allow that he had any positive traits whatsoever, however banal and small in scope they were.