The reason why Harry Potter did not die as a baby was because his mother gave up her life to protect him, therefore shielding him with the most powerful defense against magic: love.
Harry’s mother died telling him how
loved he is and with that, her love continued to live and serve to protect
Harry from harm and evil, causing him to be untouchable to the Dark Lord. Even
though Lord Voldemort tried to kill Harry multiple times while he was attending
Hogwarts, he was unable to succeed. He remained protected until he turned
seventeen. It was also very important that Harry stayed with his aunt Petunia
and her family during the summer break because aunt Petunia shares the same
blood as his mother.
Sacrificial protection
Sacrificial protection is a powerful
counter-charm. It has been around since ancient times and needs no
incantation.
It is set in motion when one person
willingly sacrifices their own life to save the life of somebody else out of
deep and pure love. Sacrificial protection is regarded as the ultimate
protection. The protector must be given an option to live, and if they
consciously choose to die, the protection is formed. After the sacrifice, the
protection lives on in the blood of the person that was saved.
In Harry’s case, since he was the
only person that was protected, the protection caused Lord Voldemort to feel
excruciating pain when touching him.
If the protection involves more
people, the extent of it is unknown.
In case that the person who was
killed is related to the person they protected, a powerful charm can be cast
upon the saved person to give them additional protection. The charm is called
the bond of blood and protects the saved one from the person that tried to hurt
them while they are in a blood-related relative’s home. In order for the bond
of blood to take effect, the living blood-relative has to take the saved person
into their home willingly. The protection breaks automatically when the saved
person moves out forever or turns seventeen, whichever comes first.
Harry Potter- “The
boy who lived“
Harry was born on July 31st, 1980, on
the date that ended up being very important. His parents were witch Lilly and
wizard James Potter, members of a wizarding group The Order of Phoenix, which
fought against Lord Voldemort and his evil army, the Death Eaters.
On Monday, October 31st, 1981, when
Harry was just one year old, his life was turned upside down. Lord Voldemort
broke into the home at Godric’s Hollow where Harry and his parents were hiding.
James tried to fight Lord Voldemort while Lilly and Harry fled, but failed to
do so, and he died proudly. The Dark Lord went on to kill Harry, but Lilly
threw herself in front of her only child and begged to take her instead.
Voldemort killed her, unaware of the protection Lilly placed upon Harry. He
threw the Avada Kedavra curse at Harry, which bounced back and hit him instead.
Harry was left unharmed, with only a lightning scar on his forehead, and became
known as “The boy who lived”.
Avada Kedavra-The
Killing Curse
Avada Kedavra is one of three
Unforgivable Curses, The Killing Curse, The Cruciatus Curse, and The Imperius
Curse. They are named Unforgivable because their use is forbidden and the use
is punishable by a life sentence in Azkaban, the wizarding prison.
The Killing Curse manifests as
a jet of green light coming from the tip of the wizarding wand. It causes
immediate and painless death. The curse can be dodged, blocked with solid
objects, or intercepted with only a few very powerful and fast spells.
Harry is the only known person to
survive The Killing Curse, which he did twice. He was also the only one ever to
nullify and deflect the curse.
The Prophecy-Why
Lord Voldemort wanted to kill Harry Potter
The prophecy made by Sybill Trelawney
while she was being interviewed for the post of Divination professor at
Hogwarts, foretold the birth of a child that would defeat Lord Voldemort
forever.
She said: ”The one with the power to
vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him,
born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal,
but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand
of the other, for neither can live while the other survives… the one with the
power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month
dies…”.
Lord Voldemort only found out about
the first part of the prophecy, and even though two boys fit the description,
Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom, he chose to eliminate Harry. Trying to
kill Harry, he set the prophecy in motion, by “marking him as equal”.
Dumbledore, the most powerful known
wizard and headmaster at Hogwarts, warned both Harry’s and Neville’s parents to
hide. Regrettably, the Potters made their Secret Keeper Peter Pettigrew, who
was a traitor in the Order of Phoenix. He told Voldemort where the Potters were
hiding and he hunted them down.
Years later, after the Battle of the
Department of Mysteries, at the beginning of the Second Wizarding War, Harry
was named “The Chosen One”, the one predetermined to kill Lord Voldemort.
The End of Lord
Voldemort-Horcruxes and Elder Wand
But the journey to Voldemort’s end
wasn’t easy or quick. Key elements in his destruction were Horcruxes.
A Horcrux is an object that is used
in an attempt to become immortal. A Dark witch or wizard split their soul into
fragments and hide one fragment in a Horcrux.
They serve as a form of container in
which a part of a soul is hidden as a way to protect it. When a witch or wizard
is killed, their body is harmed but their soul remains untouched, but when a
Horcrux is destroyed, so is the piece of the soul that is hidden in it.
They can only be created after
committing the supreme act of evil, murder. Because Horcruxes were precious to
those who made them, certain measures have been put in place to protect them,
such as curses and counter-charms. The Horcrux is considered the most terrible
of all Dark magic and dark arts. Lord Voldermort was the only known person to
create more than one Horcrux.
The main purpose of a Horcrux is to
bind its creator to the mortal realm for the sake of obtaining immortality. For
as long as there is at least one Horcrux the creator’s soul will be bound to
the world of the living. Therefore, if the creator’s body is destroyed, his
soul will stay as a spirit instead of passing through to the other side.
It was believed that Lord Voldemort
created six Horcruxes, and Harry and his friends found and destroyed all of
them. Only later did they found out that there is one more Horcrux-Harry Potter
himself. When Voldemort tried to kill Harry and the Killing Curse bounced off
and hit Voldemort instead, a fragment of his soul was torn off and it attached
itself to the first thing it found- baby Harry.
Elder Wand is another important
aspect in the battle to defeat the Dark Lord.
According to the Tale of Three
Brothers, three brothers were out traveling when they came across the river
that was known for taking many lives of those who tried to cross it. They
pulled out the wand and conjured a bridge out of thin air, thus cheating death.
Pretending to congratulate them, Death offered each brother a gift of their
choice for outsmarting him. The eldest asked for a wand that would defeat all
others. The second brother asked for an object that would recall the dead, and
Death gave him the Ressurection stone. The youngest asked for an object that
would hide him from Death and was given the Cloak of invisibility.
The Elder wand has since had many
owners and it is very loyal- it cannot kill his owner, but it does switch
allegiance when the owner loses a duel. When Draco Malfoy killed
Dumbledore the wand became his. Harry later disarmed Draco and became the
wand’s owner. That is why, when Voldemort tried to kill Harry, the spell
rebounded on Voldemort and killed him instead, thus fulfilling the prophecy of
Harry killing Lord Voldemort.
No comments:
Post a Comment