Plot Holes and Contemplations:
How Lily Potter's Sacrifice Might Have Worked
It's All Hallow's Eve of 1981. The Dark Lord Voldemort has gained information on the locations of a family that has defied him numerous times already. What's more, one of his servants, Severus Snape, has informed him that there is a prophecy surrounding the child of this family - the brat is destined to defeat him. Him! The greatest Dark Lord of the Age!
The brat had to die. No other option was acceptable.
He has acquired access to the family's hiding place via their secret keeper turned traitor, Peter Pettigrew, and it took all of five minutes to kill the hazel-eyed male, James Potter, before confronting the man's wife, Lily, in the nursery. At the request of his now favored spy, Severus, he gives the woman the chance to live, if she would step aside and let him kill her son. However, the stupid bint refused to do so, continuously begging for him to spare her son and take her life in the boy's place - very well. Let Severus never say that he didn't respect the silly's girl's wishes - well, half of them, anyway. He kills her, before turning the same curse upon her one-year-old son.
However, the curse, instead of finishing the toddler off like it had all others before it, instead rebounds upon its caster, and Voldemort's spirit is forced to flee as his body is destroyed.
All because of the great love Lily Potter had for her son.
Wait…what?
It has been said by many critics of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books that of the many plotholes and hand-waves that exist throughout the series, the concept of Lily's Sacrifice is both the most bewildering and quite possibly the most offensive, if only due to how integral to the entire story-line the sacrifice is. For, without it, there would be no Boy-Who-Lived. There would simply be another three entries into the long list of casualties resultant of Voldemort's First Rise to power.
There have been many who have tried to come up with ways that Lily could have saved Harry - rituals, blood magic, ancient spells - and many more who sit back and merely complain about how it doesn't make a single iota of sense.
I, however, will do neither of these things, and instead wish to put forth something of a rather radical proposition.
I believe that the concept of Lily's Sacrifice, as explained in-universe, does, in fact, make sense.
Before you all shoot me and cry traitor, I would like to explain my reasoning, using nothing but the book series, for making such a radical statement.
If there is one thing we know, from Harry's encounters with Dementors in the Prisoner of Azkaban, it is that Voldemort - cold, heartless, ruthless, merciless Dark Lord Voldemort - gave Lily Potter, a woman who had defied him three times before now, a chance to live, so long as she stood aside and let him kill her son.
It might also be prudent to note that everything we know about the night of Halloween, 1981, that hasn't been either told to us or witnessed through other eyes, can, in fact, be summed up in a grand total of 31 words, the majority of which consist of a mere two letters.
That's right, critics and fans. The only primary source we have of the night of Godric's Hallow is known from Harry Potter's encounters with dementors, and our poor hero continues to black out before we can really get to the juicy bits.
The reason I bring this up isn't to reiterate facts you already know, but rather, to emphasize one fact that many people don't seem to pay attention to, or if they do, they give it the bare minimum of consideration.
The fact that Lord Voldemort gave Lily Potter née Evans a chance to live in return for her son's death.
One of the biggest criticisms I have heard of the concept of Lily's Sacrifice is the ludicrous idea that no other mother chose to die instead of their baby or child. I agree, the very idea is absurd. Under that particular line of reasoning, Lily's Sacrifice makes no sense.
But… how many other mothers were actually given the option of stepping away and dooming their child, instead of simply resigning themselves to their fate?
That is the point that I believe Lily's Sacrifice ends up hinging upon. The fact that Lily had the very real option of living if she left Harry to die, but she instead chose to die for her child anyway.
In this case, that makes what Lily did a true sacrifice and created that protection born of love that Albus Dumbledore did so love mentioning.
Now, I suppose, this is my question: Does the Wizarding World now have Harry Potter's blood protection, after he sacrifices himself to Voldemort?
A question for another night, perhaps.