Note: This essay was inspired by discussions on the Pensieve Forums and the Harry Potter for Grownups List Serve.
Author: Madmaxime
After the Half-Blood Prince there can no longer be any doubt that the 'power of love' will play a major role in the downfall of Voldemort. For some reason that we do not yet fully understand, Harry has an unusual amount of this 'power' stored within. My guess is that it has something to do with the way the events played out at Godric's Hollow the night Voldemort was vanquished. And more specifically, I believe it might be tied to the unique way in which Lily sacrificed herself.
Prior to HBP, I believed that the uniqueness of Lily's sacrifice was that she knowingly conjured a charm beforehand that helped to activate the ancient magic. JKR has since shot down this theory. Not only did Lily not know about the ancient magic, but she would also not have known that Voldemort was willing to spare her life. So what was so unique about her sacrifice, other than the fact that an infant was being targeted? (Which I still don't believe would be so unusual that Harry would be the only known case.)
When asked in the Leaky Cauldron interview if no one had ever been offered such a choice before, JKR stated that others were given this choice before but never in that particular way. So what was so unique about the way that Lily exercised her choice?
This sort of goes back to an old theory, but I am wondering again about the role forgiveness might play in the series. After OotP there was a thread in the Pensieve forums called 'Will Love be the Death of Voldemort?' where we theorized, among other things, about what might happen if Harry were to forgive Voldemort. Now before you get all queasy, I'm not talking about warm, fuzzy, hug me forgiveness, but the kind of forgiveness that allows a person to accept that the difficulties and abuses in life are, for better or worse, a part of who they are. It requires a relinquishing of blame and a letting go of the past - not so all is forgotten, but so one is no longer being controlled by blind emotions. Only then can one truly exercise their free will.
So what if the uniqueness of Lily's sacrifice was that, at the moment of her death, she was filled with a sense of forgiveness or compassion towards Voldemort? The ability to do this would go far beyond reliance on 'ordinary love', or even the fierce protective love a parent feels for a child. I'm not suggesting that JKR intends Lily as a Christ figure, but if viewed through a Christian lens, Lily's forgiveness of Voldemort's sins could be seen as a sacrifice for love in the highest sense. Perhaps the ancient magic conjured in the face of this kind of sacrifice forms a very powerful mirror of sorts which reflects back onto a person an uncompromising view of who they are and what they have become. So Lily would not have been the only one given a choice that night at Godric's Hollow. Voldemort could have chosen to step back and re access his plans in the face of all that Lily sacrificed. His decision to continue with his acts of hatred would then have caused the ancient magic to reflect back on him his utter disdain for love and the sanctity of human life in the form of the AK curse. Harry, on the other hand, would have absorbed the full power of the sacrifice into his very being. And this power remains with him to this very day.
JKR has stated numerous times that Lily will have a larger role to play in Book 7. She has suggested that Harry will learn something significant about her (or from her) that will help him in his final battle with Voldemort. Perhaps Harry will somehow have a direct experience of Lily's lesson in forgiveness, either through something he discovers when he returns to Godric's Hollow, or through the direct experience of his own buried memory placed in a Pensieve, or perhaps even something experienced in the locked room at the DoM.
Whatever it is, many argue that a shift in Harry's behavior will be absolutely necessary in Book 7. In fact, it could be said that the success of his mission depends upon it. No one can deny that, in the past two books, Harry's tendency to be controlled by blind anger and his ever increasing attempts to use the unforgivables and other dark curses might be viewed as troubling indeed. Blind vengeance and vigilante justice is not going to make accessible the powerful love necessary to kill Voldemort, in fact one could say with almost complete certainty that this approach will more than likely fail miserably, with Harry dying in the process.
Harry's strength, after all, is love not vengeance. But it is a 'weapon' which he currently has no idea how to use or even access. So Harry will have a choice in Book 7 as well. Either he will continue down the path of anger or he will mature to the point where he is able to recognize how the damage from his past is controlling his behavior. Only then will he really be able to grasp who he is and what he is truly capable of.