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In King's Cross, when Harry tells Dumbledore that he meant to let Voldemort kill him, Dumbledore says

And that will, I think, have made all the difference.

  • If he is referring to the fact that the Elder wand was still Harry's, then there is no indication that Dumbledore intended for the Elder wand to end up in Harry's allegiance, right?
  • Is he basically acknowledging a happy coincidence that he didn't plan for?
  • Because if he is not referring to the Elder wand in this statement, then what difference does it make that Harry willingly let Voldemort kill him?
    • What would have happened if Harry had been killed while trying to fight Voldemort?
FreeMan
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SlimZaidi
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    Can you go back and make the wording of the Question match the exposition?

    If you meant 'Harry being prepared to let Voldemort kill him' why not say that?

    Clearly, Harry 'letting Voldemort kill him' might have mattered but equally clearly that is neither what happened, not what your exposition describes.

    If 'Harry letting Voldemort kill him' did happen, how did Harry survive?

     – Robbie Goodwin Nov 25 '23 at 21:50
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    I advise against trying too hard to make sense of Deathly Hallows. It is full of holes, particularly related to what Dumbledore/Voldemort believed, why they believed it, and what they expected to happen. – J. Mini Nov 25 '23 at 23:27

1 Answers1

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He just repeated his mother's protection charm.

A willing sacrifice of one's life in protection of another is what protected Harry from Voldemort for years. The fact that Harry didn't quite die is no bother apparently. By going to Voldemort and letting him kill Harry, his intention was to destroy the unintended horcrux in himself, but he also gave the entire school protection. Voldemort hasn't learned from what happened with Lily, and has just made himself impotent, he just doesn't know it yet.

Radhil
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    Thanks! Would it also be correct to say that had Harry offered resistance and defeated Voldemort at that moment, the pieces of Voldemort's soul in Harry and Nagini would have allowed him to survive, not allowing him to be finished? – SlimZaidi Nov 25 '23 at 15:26
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    @SlimZaidi I suppose so - what ifs slide pretty quickly into opinion, especially with a small army of Death Eaters watching; Voldemort clinging to the path that he had to finish Harry personally to prove his power is what doomed him in the end, any spectator would not have had all the magical baggage those two had. – Radhil Nov 25 '23 at 19:28
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    Rowling emphasized in an interview that the willing sacrifice needs specific circumstances. Those were not met in Harry's case. There is also no evidence that anybody is protected by Harry's sacrifice. – RalfFriedl Nov 26 '23 at 03:09
  • @RalfFriedl can you please provide a link to this interview? – SlimZaidi Nov 26 '23 at 06:50
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    @RalfFriedl Nonsense. The final few chapters are filled with examples of people being able to shrug off Voldemort's magic. – J. Mini Nov 28 '23 at 07:54
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    @SlimZaidi https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/27987/119918 references the interview. It claims that it is essential that Voldemort intended to let Lily live. He intended to kill Harry. According to that interview, Harry's death therefor can't create such a protection. Note that I don't claim that it makes sense what Rowling said. – RalfFriedl Nov 29 '23 at 00:56