Why didn't Harry die in the Forbidden Forest? [duplicate]

Question

In the Forbidden Forest, did Harry fall on top of the Resurrection Stone after being hit with Voldemort's Killing Curse?

Would this have made him the 'Master of Death'?

Is that why he didn't die?

Answer 1

• In the Forbidden Forest, when Voldemort aimed the Killing curse at Harry, did he fall on top of the Resurrection Stone?

  Unknown in canon. It's not impossible since he dropped the stone right where he was killed. But, as you can see from the rest of the answer, irrelevant.

• This would have made him the 'Master of Death'

  No. First, he was already touching the stone before falling, and this falling on it -even if he did - didn't change his status at all. Second, and most important, What made him the true Master of Death was not falling on top of the stone - it was the fact that he accepted possibility of Death and wasn't afraid of it.

  You are the true master of death, because the true master does not seek to run away from Death. He accepts that he must die, and understands that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying." (DH, "King's Cross")

• Is that why he didn't die?

  The reason Harry didn't die was NOT because he was Master of Death, or because he physically touched the Stone.

  It was because Voldemort took Harry's blood into his body at the end of GoF when he created a new body for himself - and Lily's sacrificial protection was deeply tied to that blood. We see that when Dumbledore gets all excited at the mention of this use of Harry's blood when he questioned Harry.

  Because of that, when he hit Harry with A.K., he killed the portion of his own soul that was inside of Harry, but not Harry. Dumbledore explained it in "King's Cross" chapter

  "But if Voldemort used the Killing Curse," Harry started again, "and nobody died for me this time – how can I be alive?"
  "I think you know," said Dumbledore. "Think back. Remember what he did, in his ignorance, in his greed and his cruelty."
  Harry thought. ... Then the answer rose to his lips easily, without effort.
  "He took my blood," said Harry.
  "Precisely!" said Dumbledore. "He took your blood and rebuilt his living body with it! Your blood in his veins, Harry, Lily's protection inside both of you! He thethered you to life while he lives!"

  • As a side note, Resurrection Stone wasn't an object that was even supposed to prevent you from dying, never mind actually worked that way. It was supposed to (according to the legend) raise dead people from the death. What it really did was to raise their spirits (both in legend, and in the Forest when Harry actually used it).

Answer 2

Harry Potter was tethered to life. When Voldemort took Harry's blood in the Graveyard in 1995, he took in Lily's protection, meaning that Harry's blood ran though his own. While Voldemort lives, Harry cannot die. Harry had the choice of coming back to life to finish off Voldemort because technically, part of Harry still was alive. However,both of them did not know this.

Here is a quote on the Harry Potter Wiki,

"What neither he nor Voldemort realised, however, was that when Voldemort used Harry's blood in his resurrection in 1995, he unwittingly took Lily Potter's magical protection of Harry into himself as well, thereby tethering Harry's life to his own."

The statement can be found here, under History, second line.

This is why Harry did not die in the Forbidden Forest.