Lily's Protection

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

When Lily Potter died, the magic of her sacrifice gave her son protection against Lord Voldemort. When Voldemort tried to kill Harry with an Avada Kedavra, a spell for which there is no known magical shield, Lily's protection caused the spell to rebound and hit Voldemort instead. More than ten years later, when Prof. Quirrell, possessed by Voldemort, tried to touch Harry, Lily's protection caused his skin to burn. Clearly, then, Lily's protection was both powerful and enduring.

I have a couple questions, though, about Lily's protection....

1. If Lily's protection made it impossible for Quirrellmort to even touch Harry, then why didn't it prevent a fragment of Voldemort's soul from latching onto Harry?

2. Likewise, why didn't Lily's protection appear to have any effect upon the diary horcrux, even though Harry touched it and entered its pensieved memories?

Comments

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

IIRC, Lily's protection explicitly lives in Harry's blood, implying a physical aspect to its power, which may explain the lack of Horcrux-immunity. No idea about the diary though.

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

My answer is the other extreme of sharaz'a: Harry voluntarily (eagerly, even) interacted with the Diary and invited its' effects. The protection that would otherwise have inhered was overridden by Harry's consent.

[oryx_leucoryx]

In Harry's encounter with Quirrell, first Quirrell touched him, but in the end Harry touched Quirrell of his own will. Yet the outcome was the same - burns to Quirrell.

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

You're right.

But here it is.

The Diary is a duly-made, deliberate Horcrux. Tom, as recommended, had put his most powerful spells of protection on it. Only something 'so destructive that the Horcrux can't repair itself' would damage it. (Fiendfyre and Basilisk venom, in canon--and how much do you want to bet that Tom could have imbued his Horcruxes with phoenix tears to protect against the venom, if it had entered his imagination that someone could possibly ever use his own pet Basilisk against him?) Whereas the Lily-protection burned Quirrell with what are originally apparently second-degree burns--it's only Harry holding on that burns Q. bad enough eventually to kill him. (Just as if a piece of burning wood falls on me, I'll be burned but not killed--if I'm trapped under a pile of burning wood, it will kill me.)

So the diary WAS being burned by contact with Harry--but it repaired itself as fast as the damage was incurred. And note that diary Tom did not try to come to grips with Harry--he used a Basilisk to attack from a distance.

That work better?

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

That sounds... complicated. :)

I had a thought just now. What if Lily's protection only activated in response to Voldemort's specific intent to kill Harry? It didn't protect Harry against any other physical or magical contact with Voldemort as long as Voldemort wasn't trying to kill Harry in that moment. So Quirrellmort could have shaken hands with Harry, crucioed Harry, used legilimency on Harry, etc. He just couldn't kill Harry.

In fact... that might mean that Voldemort could have been wrong that Lily's protection had been nullified in the graveyard. The reason that he could touch Harry was because he wasn't trying to kill Harry at that very moment....

That, in turn, would mean that any protection on 4PD could still be active.

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

But actually, think what happened when Ginny tried to destroy the Diary. She tried to drown it (which would both kill a human and cause a normal book to disintegrate into pulp)--no effect. Kreacher tried "everything, everything he knew" to destroy the Locket, "but nothing, nothing would work"--and House Elf magic can do things human magic can't....

A properly-protected Horcrux ia almost invulnerable--only agents of destruction that are impossible (or almost impossible) to counter can touch them, if the Horcrux-maker has done the job right.

So this just means that Lily's sacrificial magic doesn't cause instantaneous, incurable lethal damage to Tom (or Tom-fragment) at the slightest physical touch to Harry. Pain, yes, instantly. Damage, probably. Lethal and incurable damage at the slightest touch? That's not what Quirrell's death looked like--he didn't go up like a torch or start disintegrating, flaking away, from the moment he lay hands on Harry. Rather, he suffered pain and injury, enough to make him reluctant to repeat the experiment. But I had no expectation that if they'd been separated after that first contact, Quirrell would have (quite quickly) died of those burns.

And anything less than that, a properly constructed and protected Horcrux is supposed to be able to ignore.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

So this just means that Lily's sacrificial magic doesn't cause instantaneous, incurable lethal damage to Tom (or Tom-fragment) at the slightest physical touch to Harry. Pain, yes, instantly. Damage, probably. Lethal and incurable damage at the slightest touch? That's not what Quirrell's death looked like

OK, that does make some sense, at least in regards to the diary.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

I'm still stuck on why Lily's sacrifice didn't protect Harry himself from becoming a horcrux, though.

[sunnyskywalker]

Maybe because the soul-shard itself doesn't have evil intent toward him (it doesn't seem aware like Tom's magical object Horcruxes, anyway - maybe because he didn't have time to set things up properly) and doesn't seem to cause any harm directly? When Tom Prime is around and using the Horcrux in Harry's head, it's dangerous, but otherwise it seems more like a benign tumor or something. Except that it gives him at least one extra power (Parselmouth), and for all we know strengthens Harry's magic in other ways, so Lily's protection might register it as additional protection rather than a threat so long as it just sits there.

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

God, I want to get Harry under some proper diagnostic charms!

Preferably administered by an un-Befuddled Snape.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Possibly... but Harry presumably didn't give his consent in becoming a horcrux himself.