What do you mean by "died before he could do what Lily did"? I was under the impression that dying is what she did, being that she gave her life protecting one she loved
Correct me if I'm wrong though
James was more sort of killed off guard straight away by Voldermort while Lily was given the opportunity to be spared but she stayed standing in front of harry to protect him. I think that was the difference. She chose to die (not saying that he wouldn't have) where as he was just killed.
James fought. Lily offered herself instead of fighting. In the last book, when Harry goes to meet Voldemort in the woods and gives himself up to protect the others still fighting and to help put an end to him, he puts the same charm on the defenders at Hogwarts.
I would say it was because he fought instead of made himself a wall. By that, I mean he wanted to keep Voldemort back by force, whereas Lily offered herself instead to protect Harry. And it is revealed that he did die at that time when Harry's and Voldemort's wands connect in the graveyard and the spells he cast were "reversed" in cronological order. His father came out last.
Actually, James' sacrificial death didn't work because it wasn't really a needless death. Voldemort came with the explicit intention of killing James and Harry, but not Lily, as it says in the books. That's why Lily's death protected Harry. It was a needless sacrifice born out of true love, while James' death was deemed protecting, not necessarily sacrificial in the sense that he was taking their place.
James had a choice just as much as Lily did. When voldemort walked in, he knew he was dead. It'd be like if in the real world a serial killer that had been hunting you walked into your home with a machine gun. You know you aren't making it out alive. Your only hope is to possibly hold him off long enough that your family might escape. He had the option of panicking and trying to run upstairs/away too, but he didn't. He chose to throw himself in front of the "gunfire" to give what little time he could to them. He sacrificed his own life to protect the 2 just as much as she sacrificed hers to protect Harry.
To say her love is more powerful because its a mothers is just ridiculous. If that were true how do you explain all the mothers that disown their kids or beat them? There are plenty of instances where the father loves the child much more than the mother. Either way it doesn't seem to be the case here. They both loved eachother and Harry, to try to give them degrees of love is dumb.
The theory that its because he fought and she just gave herself up as a wall kind of holds water though. I mean they both stood in the way knowing that it meant their death, but he did try to fight back rather than just stand there and take it. I don't really feel that it justifies the difference between a protective charm or not though. James knew he wasn't going to make it out alive, he knew the outcome was the same whether he stood there in the doorway or drew his wand, but he figured if he tried fighting him it might give Lily more time to get Harry and get out. You could argue that it took more courage to do that than to just stand in the way because your killer is much more likely to get angry with you and kill you slowly rather than quickly if you piss them off like that.
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My thought is that Rowling just made a slight mistake and didn't think of it. You have to remember thats the very first part of the story, its hard to edit out errors like that once its already been done.
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· 9 years ago
In the books it was stated that it worked for Lily because Voldemort honestly gave her the choice, because of Snape's request he really would have let her live, whereas he was always going to kill James.
Correct me if I'm wrong though
It's true
To say her love is more powerful because its a mothers is just ridiculous. If that were true how do you explain all the mothers that disown their kids or beat them? There are plenty of instances where the father loves the child much more than the mother. Either way it doesn't seem to be the case here. They both loved eachother and Harry, to try to give them degrees of love is dumb.
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My thought is that Rowling just made a slight mistake and didn't think of it. You have to remember thats the very first part of the story, its hard to edit out errors like that once its already been done.
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:'<