[EatingPie]

Now, here are my claims about Harry.

- Harry makes a loving, substitutionary sacrifice.
- Harry experiences a pseudo-death/resurrection.
- Harry's sacrifice imbues protection upon those he loves.
- The blood is the vehicle of this protection.
- Harry shows mercy to most evil personality in his history.

In this post, I cover the first two.

- Harry makes a loving, substitutionary sacrifice.

Like Lily, Harry willingly walks into the forrest and faces Voldemort's Avada Kedavera. He sacrifices himself.

Originally Posted by The Deathly Hallows

Harry understood at last that he was not supposed to survive. His job was to walk calmly into Death's welcoming arms. Along the way, he was to dispose of Voldemort's remaining links to life, so that when at last he flung himself across Voldemort's path, and did not raise a wand to defend himself...
...
His will to live had always been so much stronger than his fear of death. Yet it did not occur to him now to try to escape, to outrun Voldemort. It was over, he knew it, and all that was left was the thing itself: dying.
...
And Dumbledore had known that Harry would not duck out, that he would keep going to the end, even though it was his end, because he had taken trouble to get to know him, hadn't he? Dumbledore knew, as Voldemort knew that Harry would not let anyone else die for him now that he had discovered it was in his power to stop it.

"Harry would not let..." Harry is choosing not to let others die for him. He is sacrificing himself.

We also see here the substitutionary nature of Harry's sacrifice. He will not let anyone else die for him. He will go face his own death instead of allowing others to be harmed.

And again...

Originally Posted by Harry

...I was ready to die to stop you from hurting these people --"
"But you did not!"
"--I meant to...

Harry's death to stop others from being harmed: Substituting himself for the sake of others.

Lily said "take me, kill me instead." Harry said "I was ready to die to stop you from hurting these people." Me instead of you. A substitute.

I do not believe the substitutionary aspect is an imperative to the sacrifice/protection. I believe it is the loving sacrifice that's the imperative. I bring the substitutionary aspect up because I see it, not because I think it's a key to the protection Harry/Lily embue.

So that leaves the loving aspect to his sacrifice.

It's nowhere stated in the text "Harry loves everyone at Hogwarts." But it is implied in his actions throughout the series. He loves Ron, Hermione, Sirius, Lupin, Tonks, Fred, George, Ginny, Neville, McGonagall, etc., etc. etc. Where does that love stop?

Love itself is also stated as the key to Voldemort's defeat in the prophecy as explained by Dumbledore.

He did not know that you would have power the Dark Lord knows not--
'But I don't!' said Harry, in a strangled voice. 'I haven't any powers he
hasn't got, I couldn't fight the way he did tonight, I can't possess people
or--or kill them --'
'There is a room in the Department of Mysteries,' interrupted Dumbledore,
'that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more
wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces
of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for
study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess
in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power took you to
save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort,
because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests.
In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your
heart that saved you.'

This power that Harry has is love. And this power will ultimately end in the defeat of Voldemort. Yes, the Elder Wand is important, but here, the prophecy refers to love, as Dumbledore says (the only other possibility is the Elder Wand, and that's in Dumbledore's pocket, not the Department of Mysteries).

Drawing the connecting back to Harry's mother, her love saved Harry. The love was a key ingredient to her sacrifice and protection.

Or as Harry puts it...

Originally Posted by The Deathly Hallows

"You won't be killing anyone else tonight," said Harry as they circled, and stared into each other's eyes, green into red. "You won't be able to kill any of them ever again. Don't you get it? I was ready to die to stop you from hurting these people --"
"But you did not!"
"--I meant to, and that's what did it. I've done what my mother did. They're protected from you.

Harry sacrified himself for those he loves. He did what his mother did. That implication takes us further -- specifically, to magical protection, in the follw-up post.

I do want to re-emphasize the importance of "what Lily did." Her loving sacrifice is referred to in all the books. Not "just" standing in front of Voldemort. Not just dying. But choosing to die because she loved Harry, and the subsequent protection that act provided. The action as a whole -- loving sacrifice, protection -- is the most likely explanation for "what my mother did."

- Harry experiences a pseudo-death/resurrection.

Harry experiences a "psuedo-death" and "pseudo-resurrection." It was like a death and resurrection. Not exactly the same, but I believe like enough to make the association to a Christ Figure.

In King's Cross we have the following two quotations.

Originally Posted by The Deathly Hallows

"Then"; I'm dead too?"
"Ah," said Dumbledore, smiling still more broadly. "That is the question, isn't it? On the whole, dear boy, I think not."

On the whole, not dead.

But on the whole, alive?

"I've got to go back, haven't I?"
"That is up to you."
"I've got a choice?"
"Oh yes," Dumbledore smiled at him. "We are in King's Cross you say? I think that if you decided not to go back, you would be able to -- let's say -- board a train."
"And where would it take me?"
"On," said Dumbledore simply.

At this point Harry stands somewhere between life and death. A crossroads, a station. He can choose to return to life, or to go off to death. Had the Adava Kedavera simply knocked him out, he wouldn't have such a choice -- he'd just be asleep.

So I call this state pseudo-death. It's also been referred to as "symbolic death" in past threads. It's like he's dead. No he is NOT on the whole dead. But no his not on the whole alive either.

And his return looks from a place like death gives us something like a resurrection -- a return from death.

-Pie