I just wondered how Life Debts would work with people in life-threatening situations that require aid from doctors/nurses at St. Mungos and get saved by them.

 

The way I see it, life debt`s would be a matter of the indebted person believing in them. Since the medic is only doing his job, with no mortal danger to himself by helping you no debt would be created, as opposed to, say, facing a basilisk to save your ass.

 

IIRC, the only life-debt we see being called in is the one Peter owes to Harry, when they're at Malfoy Manor in DH. Mr Weasley makes a comment about half his family owing life-debts to Harry, but that could easily be a joke. Anyway, I could be wrong, but doesn't Harry specifically say something like "You owe me Wormtail" when trying to stop him strangling Ron? It seems to me that life-debts only matter if someone explicitly uses it - you'd assume that, while Healers may be racking them up by the hundreds, they wouldn't try and collect them (although that could be an awesome idea for a fic).

Although the 'no mortal danger' idea words too - maybe a life-debt is activated by someone doing something truly selfless to save a life.

 

You could argue that becoming a Healer requires a variation of the Hippocratic Oath wherein they agree not to hold the life debts they may acquire over their patients. It would seem a logical precaution in a world where debts like that can literally come back to bite you in the ass, ala Wormtail.

 

Or the fact that they're getting paid to do it negates the life debt.

 

Why would that make a difference? From what I remember of life debts all they require is that you save the life of another person, no mention of reward for the fact. In fact, the life debts themselves seem to be non-magical in nature, with the Unbreakable Oath being the only magically binding agreement in canon, so it seems to be mostly a debt in the traditional sense (with only the person's honour and reputation being impugned by failing to adhere to it), which opens up the possibility of the Hippocratic Oath variation and the idea that it just doesn't apply to healers in the same way as others.

tl;dr - It could be either.

 

Where do you get this idea that life debts aren't magical? The way wizards talk about them you would think that they are enforced in some way by magic. The way I look at them is that you can gain a life debt only when you make a choice to save someone's life knowing full well that either they have done nothing to deserve being saved or that you have to risk your own life to save them.

A healer's job (much like a member of the MLE) is saving lives therefore they are neither going out of their way to put themselves at more risk to save someone's life nor are the people not deserving of having their lives saved because they would all be deserving based on the fact that it is their job to save lives which would automatically rule out the idea of a life debt.

Although, on a completely unrelated note, I'm now wondering if James called in his life debt to Snape in order to make Snape call Lily a mudblood so that it would end their friendship/whatever those two had going on so that James could have a shot. Might explain why Snape was so damned pissed off at James that he took it out on Harry.

 

It's probably because they get paid. I wouldn't be surprised if all patients and healers had to sign a waiver after each life-saving that the debt had been paid in gold.

 

Nowhere in canon is it ever written that Life Debts are a magical phenomenon. I think it is likelier than Life Debts are simply a powerful tradition in Wizarding Culture.

Saving another Wizard's life is simply a Big Deal.

 

Still though, you have to find it hard to believe that Wormtail choked himself dead. If that's not magical interference...

 

That was the magic of the hand and a result of him betraying Voldemort. Not the same.

 

Oh, interesting. I never read it that way...makes sense though

 

I don't know. I mean I do think it was the magic of the hand for betraying Voldemort, but I also think that it was partially due to the life debt magic i.e. I think Peter had no choice but to stop due to the life debt which in turn triggered Voldemort's fail safe on the hand.

I can't see Peter doing something just for tradition's sake. The man betrayed his best friends in the most dire of ways by breaking the ultimate pact of trust leading them to their deaths. He then proceeded to lop off his own hand to bring Voldemort back to life not to mention who knows what else he did as a death eater. I cannot fathom such a person caring about tradition. Plus, the way wizard's refer to it makes it seem like more than a tradition as if it is perhaps a part of old magic.

 

Well, technically, then, EVERYONE owes Harry a life debt for killing Voldemort. In fact, a life debt for every time Harry stopped voldemort.

 

Yes, but there is a chance that he would have killed them, and Harry's intent IS to save the world most of the time.

 

Is it really? It was always my understanding that Harry was doing it for himself/ his friends. Or maybe I've been reading fanfics far too long.

Besides, if life debts are that big of a deal, I don't see every one forming a line to inform him of that. Dumbledore sure wasn't calling debt's left and right, and he did kill his dark lord too.

Now here's a weird idea, If everyone was indebted to dumbledore because they might have died, why didn't he use that debt to force Tom Riddle to kill himself/ don't move out of a spell way right of the start? That, of course, assuming Tom Riddle was alive at the time.

Would the magic even work if the person did not feel indebted?

Malfoy might have died if Harry hadn't shoved him away from buckbead, but do you see Malfoy ever admiting such debt?

 

No, he didn't. Dumbledore never actually killed Grindelwald. He defeated him then put him in a prison. Furthermore, I believe it was Hagrid that saved Malfoy (iirc) which would fall under his job duties as a member of the Hogwarts straff thus no life debt. I believe the life debt works like something similar to being the master of a wand. It is obvious you don't just become the master of a wand by disarming someone via school yard conflict or practicing spells/dueling, and I didn't see anyone really rushing to tell Harry you could lose mastery of you wand by being disarmed either so I think that point is a little moot.

 

Does saving someone's life in that manner incur a life debt?
Healing someone is one thing, especially when it's your job, but Harry's life debt comes from him granting mercy to an enemy, rather than him helping out a friend... Maybe intent is what needs to come in?