Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

Voldemort hears this prophecy and, like Herod, sets out intending to kill his threat before the child grows
up (HBP 549). However, Voldemort’s plan is also foiled by a mother’s love for her child. Lily Potter
serves as the Virgin Mary figure to Harry’s Christ figure. Her name recalls the white flowers associated
with purity and the Virgin Mary in Christian symbolism and, in the Bible, Mary sacrifices herself and her
reputation to carry God’s child (“Lily”). Though Lily is not a virgin mother, she also sacrifices herself for
her son. She gives her life to save Harry, thus protecting him from Voldemort’s killing curse (OotP 836).
Voldemort is ripped from his body while Harry becomes the Boy Who Lived and “is spirited into hiding
with his Muggle relatives, just as, according to the Gospel of Matthew, the baby Jesus was hustled into
Egypt” (Killinger 14-5). In his attempt to kill Harry, Voldemort not only defeats himself, but also fulfills
the rest of the prophecy. He marks Harry as his equal and ensures that one will have to kill the other if
either wants to survive. Infant Harry’s story very clearly parallels the story of baby Jesus as both are the
subjects of prophecies, both are saved from failed attempts on their respective lives, and both fulfill the
prophecies about them by surviving these attempts (Neal 161-2). Through these similarities, Rowling
begins the association between Harry and Christ and foreshadows that the green-eyed baby will grow to
“save [the Wizarding world] from the evil Lord Voldemort” in the same way Christ grew to save the world
from death (Killinger 14).
Rowling reinforces the Harry’s association with the baby Christ in the memorial Harry and
Hermione find in Godric’s Hollow. On Christmas Eve the two friends return to Harry’s first home and
stumble across “a statue of three people: a man with untidy hair and glasses, a woman with long hair and a
kind, pretty face, and a baby boy sitting in his mother’s arms” (DH 324). The memorial is a “Holy Family
crèche of sorts” meant to “remind the reader of the Christmas Story” and reinforce the comparisons
between Lily as the Virgin Mary and Harry as Christ (Granger 104). The biblical image strengthens
Rowling’s connection between Harry and Christ. At this point in the seventh book, doubts plague Harry,
but his association with the Nativity story brings hope. The image of the Holy Family in a very dark chapter
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