Lily's Irresistible Eyes



Rowling was once quoted as saying Harry's glasses "are the clue to his vulnerability".

After I wrote up the Harry is a Legilimens theory, someone had the clever idea that maybe Harry's glasses interfered with his Legilimency. I liked the idea, but it seemed a bit too modest of a proposition.

We know that Harry can already do Legilimency with his glasses on. We can guess that removing the glasses causes its own problem: blurry vision. And even if Harry could improve his Legilimency over the next year, would it be that helpful? He won't get powerful enough to read Voldemort or Snape.

We also know his Legilimentic ability comes from Voldemort, which means the significance of Lily's eyes remains unexplained.


So here's the new idea: Harry's glasses don't interfere with his Legilimency. Rather, they interfere when someone else Legilmenses Harry. Stranger still, eliminating that interference can be beneficial to Harry.

Got you curious yet? Read on:



The Snape Anagram Revisited: Reading Lily
S E V E R U S S N A P E = PERUSES EVANS

peruse
  1. To examine or consider with care.
  2. To read something completely.

Snape has some skill with Legilimency, although less than he has with Occlumency. At some point, presumably in his youth, the Legilimency would have been in a developmental stage. Most people would've been unreadable to Snape.

Lily Evans was not "most people". Those startlingly bright green eyes are a both an invitation and a trap. They are anti-Occlumentic, blocking nothing and actually enhancing the use of Legilimency.

At first, Snape might have found her an attractive target to practice an otherwise unusuable skill. But Lily's ultimate value to Snape went well beyond that. Here was someone he could trust, fully and completely.



Basic Human Nature: The Need for Approval
At least two traits are well-nigh universal among humanity:

1 The desire to be loved and/or admired
2 Insecurity

Imagine, for a moment, that through some magical mechanism you always had to tell the truth -- and everybody knew it.

That could be a hindrance, but it depends on what kind of person you are. If you have even a moderately positive outlook and you aren't too judgmental, you'll come off just fine. Better than fine.

If you gave someone an honest compliment, he/she would know that it was devoid of ulterior motives. If you offered honest criticism, the other party would know you weren't simply being petty, venting jealousy, or repeating what you'd heard from others.

If someone else hurt your feelings, he/she would know. If you called someone a friend, he/she would get a warm fuzzy feeling.

Get the picture yet? You'd be a crushing double-impact empathy-inducing machine. Your opinion would be twice as vulable as other people's; your feelings would carry twice the normal weight. When it's Lily Evans versus a budding Legilimens, pity the Legilimens. He hasn't got a chance.

We can guess that Lily admired Snape's ability in Potions, thought he was a right nice fellow for helping her, didn't count his House or appearance against him, and never thought he was a coward. Approval is as addictive as any narcotic and Snape would have acted to get more of it.



Horace Slughorn, Adorable Old Man
Dumbledore says,
"Professor Slughorn is an extremely able wizard... He is much more accomplished at Occlumency than poor Morfin Gaunt."
(HBP 17 pg 372)
Occlumency doesn't necessarily imply Legilimency, but with Slughron's diverse talents we can call him "probable". He's certainly not shy about studying anything which touches on the Dark Arts. We also know that Slughorn...
"...had an uncanny knack for choosing those who would go on to become outstanding in their various fields."
(HBP 4 pg 75)


In other words, he's good at reading people. That doesn't prove he uses Legilimency to pick for the Slug Club, but you can bet that a man with Slughorn's people-reading hobby would have tried at some point.

In meeting Lily, then, Slughorn succeeded with Legilimency like he'd never succeeded before. And he, like Snape, found the experience Irresistible.

The moment Slughorn is first left alone with Harry (HBP 4 pg 69) he notes that Harry has Lily's eyes. Then we start getting a picture of Slughorn's personality, and we learn that, yes, indeed, he has an insatiable craving for approval:
"I was head of Slytherin.... Oh, now, don't go holding that against me!"
(pg 70)
"You musn't think I'm prejudiced! No, no, no!"
(pg 71)
And later,
"And you've got her eyes.... Just don't think too badly of me...."
(HBP 22 pg 491)
Of course Lily was genuinely fond of Slughorn. The man is far from perfect, but he's a decent fellow and charming in his own way. A good comparison (to Lily) would be Hermione, who described the Slug Club meetings thusly:
"They're not that bad, you know.... They're even quite fun sometimes...."
(HBP 12 pg 244)
This despite the fact that Ron is excluded and Harry is getting all the attention in Potions.



Enter at your own risk. You aren't leaving until I let you go.
The big clues came in chapter 22, After the Burial, when Slughorn was conveniently drunk. First,
"Liked her?... I don't imagine anyone who met her wouldn't have liked her...."
(HBP 22 pg 489)
Horace Slughorn is very worldy and well-versed in politics. That's a naïve statement coming from him -- evidence of an altered perception.

Then, when Harry finally nailed him, it's because Slughorn fell for the green-eyed trap:

Slughorn gave a great shudder, but he did not seem able to tear his horrified gaze away from Harry's face.
(pg 489)
Harry looked steadily into Slughorn's tear-filled eyes. The Potions master seemed unable to look away.
(pg 489)
Slughorn couldn't escape! This is absolutely vital to understanding the power of Lily's eyes. Slughorn isn't getting happy feedback, but he's still trapped. This holding power is not a separate mechanism -- it's part of the same effect. Lily's & Harry's eyes are to normal eyes what quicksand is to packed earth. The former is much easier to dig into, but a whole lot harder to get out of.

The scene continues, and Felix Felicis tells Harry to keep Sluggy buried until Harry gets what he wants. It's also possible that Felix is making Harry's glasses more transparent:
Looking Slughorn straight in the eye, Harry leaned forward a little....

Slughorn and Harry stared at each other over the guttering candle. There was a long, long silence, but Felix Felicis told Harry not to break it, to wait....

Still looking into Harry's eyes, Slughorn touched the tip of his wand to his temple...
(pg 490-491)




Harry's Experience
I wouldn't place any bets, but the green-eyed power might also affect a non-Legilimens. After all, the basic interaction -- emotional feedback through eye contact -- isn't exclusive to the magical world.

It's worth noting that Harry has never had a Creevey-to-Potter relationship with anyone. When Harry likes/approves of someone, they always like him back. In fact, it's often disproportionate. Consider characters like Dobby, Mrs. Weasley*, Fortescue and Slughorn. Harry likes them; in return, they love him.

Consider Harry and Hermione. The feelings of friendship and (platonic) love are equal between the two, but Hermione is much more sensitive about Harry's opinion of her than vice versa.


  * Regarding Molly: Harry seems to love her as a surrogate mother now, but the relationship was different up through Harry's first visit to the Burrow. Harry merely thought well of Molly, and Molly reacted with absolute adoration for Harry.


Crouch Junior: The Exception that proves the Rule

Harry was very fond of Barty Crouch Jr. while he was pretending to be Moody. Then in the end, Crouch Jr. was faithful to Voldemort and tried to kill Harry. But after nine months of interaction with the green-eyed trap, it wasn't easy for him.

In fact, it was very difficult.

In fact, he went insane.

Read chapter 35 of GoF and notice how careful, deliberate, and manipulative Crouch Jr. has been all year. Observe that he seems perfectly sane (although evil) right up to the point where he decides to kill Harry. Unfortunately for Crouch Jr., he made too much eye contact as he reached that decision and, like so many others, was unable to look away:
Harry could see the outlines of three people [in the Foe-Glass]... But Moody wasn't watching them. His magical eye was upon Harry.

"The Dark Lord didn't manage to kill you, Potter... Imagine how he will reward me when he finds I have done it for him....

Moody's normal eye was bulging, the magical eye fixed upon Harry....
(pg 678)
Crouch Jr. is getting bombarded with Harry's perception of events. Harry, thinking what a great guy Moody is, is in denial -- he doesn't believe this is really happening. So Crouch Jr. keeps trying to explain, to convince Harry. Eventually, the contradiciton brings on (a strangely temporary) insanity:
"The Dark Lord and I," said Moody, and he looked completely insane now...

"You're mad," Harry said -- he couldn't stop himself -- "you're mad!"

"Mad, am I?" said Moody, his voice rising uncontrollably. "We'll see! We'll see who's mad..."
(pg 678)
Just ask yourself what plot purpose was served by making Crouch Jr. crazy over the span of a single page.


Snape and Occlumency

Anti-Occlumentic eyes are a double-edged sword. They make you really loveable if have good feelings toward someone, but, as demonstrated with Snape, they make things worse for Harry if he dislikes someone. Rowling made sure to get them off on the wrong foot, too, by literally putting Voldemort between them (on the back of Quirrell's head) the first time they saw each other.

Another clue: After the very first attempt at Occlumency lessons, Snape claimed,
"You let met get in too far. You lost control."
(OotP 24 pg 535)
Shame on you, Severus! It wasn't Harry who lost control -- it was Snape. He "got in too far" and had trouble escaping the quicksand-green-eyed trap. We can be sure of this because it only happened the first time. Did you think Harry learned his lesson and corrected the problem? Not a chance; Harry learned next to nothing. Snape is the one who corrected for the error.

Quick note: Dumbledore might've known about Lily's/Harry's eyes, but he still had hope for Occlumency lessons. That's because Harry was training to block Voldemort's intrusion via the "back door", not through eye contact.



Voldemort versus Lily
Alas, I don't have a good answer for why Voldemort wanted to spare Lily. But maybe with this someone else can come with something good.

I can, however, explain why the World's Most Accomplished Legilimens didn't know that Lily was willing to sacrifice herself to save Harry: He'd been forewarned. Possibly Pettigrew, possibly Snape, told Voldemort about Lily's Irresistible eyes, so Voldemort was afraid to look.



Harry versus Voldemort: The Spectacular Trap
If you've read the previous section (How to Stop a Dark Lord), you already know where this is going:
Harry is too open to be a successful Occlumens. He can't shut Voldemort out, but this isn't quite the weakness we may believe it is. Harry can use Legilimency as a weapon- Voldemort's own skillful Legilimency, at that. [B.R.]
Voldemort has already used Legilimency with eye contact against Harry once, so we'd better look at that first:

Feedback Loop in the Ministry Atrium

We'll start with Harry and Bella:

"Well, you're going to have to kill me, because it's gone!" Harry roared -- and as he shouted it, pain seared across his forehead. His scar was on fire again, and he felt a surge of fury that was quite unconnected with his own rage. "And he knows!"
(OotP 36 pg 811)
First obvious fact: Harry is tuned in to Voldemort's emotions and thoughts.

Second obvious fact: Voldemort is already using Legilimency on Harry. That's how he knew the prophecy sphere had been destroyed. He was probably hiding just outside the Ministry, or invisible behind the desk, or -- as I like to think -- in a nearby broom cupboard.

Third fact, not-so-obvious: Harry's pain is building to such a terrible intensity because he and Voldemort are reading each other: Voldemort using Legilimency, Harry feeling the connection via the soul fragment. That's the "feedback loop" that Bob told us about. It gets worse and worse until Voldemort starts using Occlumency. We can pinpoint the exact moment quite easily:

His scar seared and burned.... The pain of it was making his eyes stream....

...the pain building in his head so badly he thought his skull might burst....

"Don't waste your breath!" yelled Harry, his eyes screwed up against the pain in his scar, now more terrible than ever. "He can't hear you from here!"

"Can't I, Potter?" said a high, cold voice.

Harry opened his eyes.
(OotP 36 pg 811-812)
Boom! That's the moment. After that, Harry stopped telling us what Voldemort was thinking and feeling. After that, Harry stopped feeling scar pain.

Harry opening his eyes didn't change the circumstances. The line was placed to highlight the nature of what was happening just moments before: namely, a feedback loop (Voldie to soul fragment to Harry back to Voldie via Legilimency) without eye contact.

Furthermore, Harry had just reached the end of a solid year's worth of transmission from Voldemort. The constant bombardment had reached its peak and then suddenly cut off. How do you think that made Harry feel?

Numb, of course.

Harry had not even opened his mouth to resist. His mind was blank, his wand pointing uselessly at the floor.
(pg 813)
Ironically, this is probably the best bit of Occlumency Harry will ever perform in his life. It happened because Voldemort had just slammed down the sluice gate.

There's one more little clue in this scene (warning! literary subtext stuff!). It comes at the very moment that Harry has defeated Voldemort by driving him out with the power of love:
And as Harry's heart filled with emotion, the creature's coils loosened, the pain was gone, Harry was lying facedown on the floor his glasses gone, shivering as though he lay upon ice, not wood....
(pg 816)
Harry has just expelled Voldemort's main soul. Going back to the Ginnymented theory, ice, not wood tells us how Harry will get rid of the soul fragment: By means of a Dementor instead of a wand.

Harry has just defeated Voldemort. In line with the Irresistible Eyes theory, Harry has done so with his glasses gone.



Patterns from Philosopher's Stone and Goblet of Fire

Although the climax of Order of the Phoenix gives us important clues and tutorials, we shouldn't look for a repetition of Voldemort Possessing Harry. Rowling doesn't repeat exact events, she repeats themes. And as the pattern has held thus far, we should be looking at books one and four to find the climactic theme for book seven.
The Priori Incantatem scene (GoF Ch34)... depicts the final fight between Harry and Voldemort. [B.R.]
Right as usual, Bob. One addition to your evidence is the way the P.I. begins:
A jet of green light issued from Voldemort's wand just as a jet of red light blasted from Harry's --
(GoF 34 pg 663)
Voldemort's attack mode is the color of Harry's eyes; Harry's attack mode is the color of Voldemort's eyes. So in DH, Voldemort will "go after" Harry's eyes and vice versa.

So he'll look into Harry's soul and... Well, what happens when you hold a microphone up to its own speaker? A tremendous feedback loop that can kill both of them. And the worst part is, it can't be stopped. [B.R.]
We may disagree, here. PS/SS and GoF have a host of similarities which I expect to see repeated:

The P.I. ended when "Harry pulled his wand upward with an almighty wrench" (GoF 34). And of course, Harry could have let go of Quirrell anytime he wanted. So I expect Harry to endure the connection as a matter of necessity and break it for the same reason -- necessity. Either he'll have to rescue someone or he'll have to destroy a Horcrux before reinforcements arrive.



Baiting the Trap and Trapping the Bait

Will proximity and Legilimency be enough to close the loop? Perhaps.

But when Voldemort Legilimensed Harry in the Ministry Atrium (with eye contact) nothing happened. As long as Voldemort is practicing Occlumency, there is no feedback from him to Harry. So, ideally, Voldemort needs a motivation to re-open the window into his soul.

Remember the madness of Mr. Crouch (Junior, of course), the man who killed his own father in cold blood but had to put aside his sanity to have a go at Harry: All because he'd gotten too far into those bright green eyes; because Harry's mind wasn't blank, but filled with thoughts like "Dumbledore's friend, the famous Auror."

Not all of Harry's thoughts about Voldemort are antagonistic:
Could Harry "possibly be feeling sorry for Lord Voldemort?" If not, Harry is definitely capable of regretful/wishful thinking. Harry just has to imagine what life would have been like if Voldemort had made different choices. Look at Harry's response to Merope's choices (HBP 13 pg 262). He argues against her death and abandonment of young Tom, as if he could change the past.

Voldemort is ten times colder than Crouch Jr., of course. Pity by itself would amuse him. But with Harry, Voldemort has to deal with all their personal similarities. Add in the fact that Voldemort will be looking into his own soul fragment, which contains both his own memories and the marks of sixteen years of the Harry life. Worst of all, Harry will (I believe) have a go at trying to think from Voldemort's perspective.

Voldemort will be locked in Harry's eyes, so tightly bound that he won't know where his own thoughts end and Harry's begin.

At this point the problem is not pain, but confusion.

By opening himself up again, Voldemort can "clean up" the information flowing from the soul fragment. He just needs a good, quick blast of VoldEmotion to separate his thoughts from Harry's. Voldemort also knows that the feedback can literally knock Harry off his feet, as happened in Little Hangleton right before Cedric was killed.

And that's our final parallel to books one and four: Both times, Voldemort initiated a contact which turned sour because of some hidden quality of Harry's. In PS/SS, it was the mark of love in Harry's skin. In GoF, it was the feather in Harry's wand. In DH, it will be Lily's Irresistible eyes. The connection which Voldemort thought he could break will prove to be under Harry's control. Harry will endure it as long as need be, and then...

... well, that's it. Sorry for the anti-climax, but from here it goes back to the first part of the theory. Unless the whole thing is bogus, in which case Harry will hang on to the connection until they're both dead. But I don't think that will happen, so I'll close with a tidbit on Harry's choice not to die.

That choice could come while engaged with Voldemort or, more likely, when the Dementors close in. Harry's only escape route will be through the Veil: One chance to die and save himself from a possible Dementing, but at the cost of leaving Voldemort and/or an object Horcrux intact.
Duty is heavier than a mountain, death lighter than a feather.
- Japanese proverb
Perhaps this choice between the Dementors and death (via the veil) was foreshadowed the last time Harry encountered a Dementor:
He turned his head this way and that, trying to see something, but the darkness pressed on his eyes like a weightless veil.
(OotP 1 pg 16)
Get it? The veil is death, therefore it's weightless. But Harry will choose duty and, in doing so, live.




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