You're thinking like a Muggle. Lily's love was the mother's love that protected Harry, as Dumbledore said. However, his mother's love wasn't the "power he knows not". It was just love. The love he felt for his friends, family, for everyone. And it was this instinct born of love, which lead Harry to die for the ones he loved in the forest, that in the end turned out to be the power Voldemort knew not.

 

Or, as Dumbledore thinks, Prophecies are bullshit and power he knows not is super vague anyway.

 

re: the power he knows not

I interpret that part not as knowing in the sense of knowlege, but rather knowing in the sense of 'to have known something'.
Voldemeort intelectually understands love, but he has never felt it, not from his mother nor towards someone else, and hence he does not 'know' love.

 

I know Dumbledore hinted to Harry that prophecies weren't a reason to do something, ('Do you think all those prophecies in the Hall of Prophecies have come true?') but I don't see how you can say he didn't believe they were relevant. He employed Sybill Trelawney for the rest of his life on the basis that she gave him a real prophecy during her interview and that it was relevant enough for her to be protected.

 

The two prophecies we actually hear in canon are both fulfilled. That's not a bad rate of success.

 

I have one more question that I'm not very clear about.

Is there anything in canon that points towards Occlumency being either a permanently active defense, or a defence that an Occlumence should employ at the time of an attack. There are a lot of fics about Occlumency and while I ignore the 'mind shields' idea entirely, whatever opinion I had about this in my headcanon has gotten muddled over time.

 

Well the idea of it was to protect Harry from the visions when he was sleeping. So it wouldn't be very good if he had to consciously activate it.

 

Yes, but Snape also asks Harry to clear his mind before going to sleep. Couldn't that be him asking to activate it consciously? I guess the idea being that the cleared mind would remain clear until a person wakes up. However, it's entirely speculation on my part.

 

He employed Sybil to protect her, not for her competence as a seer. He knew Voldemort will seek her out once she made the prophecy and the best way to protect her was to keep her in Hogwarts.
It didn't matter if Dumbledore thought the prophecy valid because Voldemort would and that was enough to warrant protection.
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I think it becomes passive eventually. Like riding a bicycle. When you start learning to ride, you've got to focus on keeping your balance but once you've learnt it, you can do it without even thinking about it.

 

There's also that when he did manage to block Voldemort in DH it wasn't a conscious effort to do so. I was as a result of his anger and grief at Dobby's death.

 

Ah yes, found the actual quote from DH. I guess that answers a part of it, it should be possible to activate it unconsciously, but I'm still on the fence about whether it is actually permanently active or not. I'm doubt permanently holding grief (or any emotion for that matter) would be very healthy.

 

I don't think there is. Only this:

Take from it what you will.

 

My interpretation was that the grief allowed him to clear his mind, which he was never able to do before. He was focused only on his grief. Proper occlumency seems to be more about training yourself to think in a certain way rather than any real magic.

 

I guess that makes sense. I think I'll interpret it as a skill that once you master it, is permanently active until you lose control of your emotions, at which point you'd have to consciously take over.

EDIT: Anyways, thanks for the help everyone.

 

I have many thoughts on this, some of which find their way into my stories. They are, however, entirely conjecture.

I will say that Harry using his grief to keep Voldemort out of his head seems less like Occlumency i.e.: separating from his emotions so much as shoving his emotions in the face of his invader, which works particularly well for his situation but won't help against anyone else. Harry's grief at seeing Dumbledore killed didn't help him keep his thoughts from Snape during their subsequent duel.

 

Quick question. When is the first time Harry actually sees Dumbledore use magic?

 

After the sorting in first year, Dumbledore flicked his wand to create a ribbon which spelled out the words to the Hogwarts school song. I'm pretty sure that's the first magic Harry saw Dumbledore perform.

 

Is there any evidence for Hermione being the smartest in their year? I mean there is a whole house for smart people and I would think that at least one of them might be at least as smart og get at least as good grades as her.

 

Multiple characters say it, and we know that she sometimes gets over 100% on tests.

 

I don't recall from the books, but did the people petrified by the basilisk actually turn into stone?