“The Dark Lord came to Godric’s Hollow,” said McGonagall in a whisper. “You should have been hidden, but you were betrayed. The Dark Lord killed James, and he killed Lily, and he came in the end to you, to your crib. He cast the Killing Curse at you. And that was where it ended. The Killing Curse is formed of pure hate, and strikes directly at the soul, severing it from the body. It cannot be blocked. The only defense is not to be there. But you survived. You are the only person ever to survive. The Killing Curse reflected and rebounded and struck the Dark Lord, leaving only the burnt hulk of his body and a scar on your forehead. That was the end of the terror, and we were free. That, Harry Potter, is why people want to see the scar on your forehead, and why they want to shake your hand.”
The storm of weeping that had washed through Harry had used up all his tears; he could not cry again, he was done.
(And somewhere in the back of his mind was a small, small note of confusion, a sense of something wrong about that story; and it should have been a part of Harry’s art to notice that tiny note, but he was distracted. For it is a sad rule that whenever you are most in need of your art as a rationalist, that is when you are most likely to forget it.)
I actually think the clearest clue here is probably the “but how does anyone know that’s what happened?” problem. Other problems: reference to souls, bizarre behavior of the killing curse, total lack of explanation for why a totally reliable spell backfired so spectacularly. But Eliezer has pretty much told us that something is wrong with the story.
Yes, but we saw the actual event in Humanism, part 1. We saw it right up until the moment Voldemort cast the Killing Curse. The “small, small note of confusion” refers to what Harry realized much later: “Dark Lords were not usually scared of infant children.” The confusion was about the reason Voldemort was so intent on killing Harry in the first place.
The reference to souls is simply because that’s what Dumbledore believes, not because of any plot. Yes, the Killing Curse behaved bizarrely, but we’re supposed to think “Why did it behave bizarrely?”, not “That must be a lie!”, especially given that it sometimes behaved bizarrely in canon.
If “Eliezer has pretty much told us that something is wrong with the story” and we don’t know what it is, that means he lied to us in Chapter 43.
Thank you for quoting the bit in chapter 46. I had forgotten it, and it is worth taking into account. But in context, I don’t think it shows what you think it does:
Lord Voldemort had killed James Potter. He had preferred to spare Lily Potter’s life. He had continued his attack, therefore, with the sole purpose of killing their infant child.
Dark Lords were not usually scared of infant children.
So prior to recovering that memory, Harry didn’t have nearly as much reason to think Voldemort had been afraid of him. In Ch. 3, for all Harry knew Voldemort was just the sort of person who would murder his enemies’ children given the opportunity, and he would have been largely correct to think that.
But it seems Harry’s inference that Voldemort meant to kill him may not be as safe as Harry assumes. It is equally consistent with everything Harry notices to think that Voldemort meant to do something else to Harry. Consider this part:
“I give you this rare chance to flee,” said the shrill voice. “But I will not trouble myself to subdue you, and your death here will not save your child. Step aside, foolish woman, if you have any sense in you at all!”
“Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead!”
The empty thing that was Harry wondered if Lily Potter seriously imagined that Lord Voldemort would say yes, kill her, and then depart leaving her son unharmed.
“Very well,” said the voice of death, now sounding coldly amused, “I accept the bargain. Yourself to die, and the child to live. Now drop your wand so that I can murder you.”
Suppose Voldemort meant to do something else to Harry other than kill him, and that he succeeded in doing whatever he meant to do. If so, “your death here will not save your child” would turn out to be true. In that case, perhaps what amused Voldemort was realizing that Lily had misunderstood what he was going to do to Harry, and that she had offered up her life to prevent something that was not going to happen anyway. In that case, “Yourself to die, and the child to live” also reflects Voldemort’s true intentions.
At this point, it looks to me very much like Voldemort somehow decided killing baby Harry was not the right response to the prophecy. The prophecy looks like a key clue here; probably Voldemort wouldn’t have bothered with such a complicated plot as he appears to be pursuing without the prophecy. But what thought process led to that plot?
Chris Hallquist wrote:
“Suppose Voldemort meant to do something else to Harry other than kill him, and that he succeeded in doing whatever he meant to do. If so, “your death here will not save your child” would turn out to be true. In that case, perhaps what amused Voldemort was realizing that Lily had misunderstood what he was going to do to Harry, and that she had offered up her life to prevent something that was not going to happen anyway. In that case, “Yourself to die, and the child to live” also reflects Voldemort’s true intentions.”
That makes sense. Maybe all he wanted was to turn Harry into a horcrux, and suceeded.
Since creating horcruxes requires killing someone, killing James Potter was a convenient horcrux-energy source, while killing Lily could be an extra, but unnecessary bonus.
We saw it right up until the moment Voldemort cast the Killing Curse
You’re misremembering the chapter, that scene ends like this:
And the boy in the crib saw it, the eyes, those two crimson eyes, seeming to glow bright red, to blaze like miniature suns, filling Harry’s whole vision as they locked to his own -
I actually think the clearest clue here is probably the “but how does anyone know that’s what happened?” problem. Other problems: reference to souls, bizarre behavior of the killing curse, total lack of explanation for why a totally reliable spell backfired so spectacularly. But Eliezer has pretty much told us that something is wrong with the story.
Yes, but we saw the actual event in Humanism, part 1. We saw it right up until the moment Voldemort cast the Killing Curse. The “small, small note of confusion” refers to what Harry realized much later: “Dark Lords were not usually scared of infant children.” The confusion was about the reason Voldemort was so intent on killing Harry in the first place.
The reference to souls is simply because that’s what Dumbledore believes, not because of any plot. Yes, the Killing Curse behaved bizarrely, but we’re supposed to think “Why did it behave bizarrely?”, not “That must be a lie!”, especially given that it sometimes behaved bizarrely in canon.
If “Eliezer has pretty much told us that something is wrong with the story” and we don’t know what it is, that means he lied to us in Chapter 43.
Thank you for quoting the bit in chapter 46. I had forgotten it, and it is worth taking into account. But in context, I don’t think it shows what you think it does:
So prior to recovering that memory, Harry didn’t have nearly as much reason to think Voldemort had been afraid of him. In Ch. 3, for all Harry knew Voldemort was just the sort of person who would murder his enemies’ children given the opportunity, and he would have been largely correct to think that.
But it seems Harry’s inference that Voldemort meant to kill him may not be as safe as Harry assumes. It is equally consistent with everything Harry notices to think that Voldemort meant to do something else to Harry. Consider this part:
Suppose Voldemort meant to do something else to Harry other than kill him, and that he succeeded in doing whatever he meant to do. If so, “your death here will not save your child” would turn out to be true. In that case, perhaps what amused Voldemort was realizing that Lily had misunderstood what he was going to do to Harry, and that she had offered up her life to prevent something that was not going to happen anyway. In that case, “Yourself to die, and the child to live” also reflects Voldemort’s true intentions.
At this point, it looks to me very much like Voldemort somehow decided killing baby Harry was not the right response to the prophecy. The prophecy looks like a key clue here; probably Voldemort wouldn’t have bothered with such a complicated plot as he appears to be pursuing without the prophecy. But what thought process led to that plot?
Chris Hallquist wrote: “Suppose Voldemort meant to do something else to Harry other than kill him, and that he succeeded in doing whatever he meant to do. If so, “your death here will not save your child” would turn out to be true. In that case, perhaps what amused Voldemort was realizing that Lily had misunderstood what he was going to do to Harry, and that she had offered up her life to prevent something that was not going to happen anyway. In that case, “Yourself to die, and the child to live” also reflects Voldemort’s true intentions.”
That makes sense. Maybe all he wanted was to turn Harry into a horcrux, and suceeded. Since creating horcruxes requires killing someone, killing James Potter was a convenient horcrux-energy source, while killing Lily could be an extra, but unnecessary bonus.
You’re misremembering the chapter, that scene ends like this: