GoF SPOILER

[plinsenmayer]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C4241
From: plinsenmayer
Subject: Re: GoF SPOILER
Reply To: [Yahoo! #4232] Re: GoF SPOILER   (was Re: Ravenclaw?)
Date: 7/14/00 11:14 am  (ET)

Good morning everyone! Spoilers coming up!

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<<According to Book 1, Ch. 17, page 294 (American ed.) Voldemort tells
Harry that he killed James first, then Lily (who was protecting Harry)

of course, looking at this passage, Voldemort says that Lily didn't
need to die. She did because she was protecting Harry. Wonder if that
means anything...>>

Voicelady: <<<Ah, yes, but at the end of GoF, when V's murders are
coming out of his wand BACKWARD, we see James and then Lily next. I
think we were supposed to assume that Voldemort killed James first,
but now we have *evidence* that he went after Lily first. And since Lily
died protecting Harry, now we can reasonably infer that Voldemort's main
purpose was to kill Harry! Which now completely ups the ante as far as
Harry's safety is concerned.>>>

I have long assumed that Harry was Voldemort's prime (or perhaps sole)
target. But, I think there is more than one inference to be made from
the fact that James comes out of the wand first.

(1) Voldemort killed Lily first. This would mean that James must have
been in the room and that James tried to protect Harry after Lily
died. Otherwise, Voldemort would have killed Lily and then turned
immediately to Harry (if James were not somehow in the way). We know
that his failure to kill Harry caused him to lose most of his powers,
so he would not have had powers remaining sufficient to kill James
after having killed Lily and having failed to kill Harry. So, if Lily
was killed first, then James must have been stepping in & trying to
prevent Harry from being attacked & got himself killed at that point.

The problem with that theory in my mind is that Harry heard his father
shouting at Lily to "take Harry and run," which certainly implies that
Voldemort would have encountered James first.

(2) He tried to kill James first, but James was also quite a powerful
wizard and resisted dying for some period of time (V used something less
than the killing curse) and so Lily died before James. I'm picturing
James lying in the living room, trying to shake off V's curse, while V
moves on to the bedroom, where Lily is trying to escape with Harry. He
kills Lily, James expires in the living room, and then V turns to Harry,
and his curse rebounds on himself, squashing his powers.

There are probably other scenarios as well, but these were the 2 that
came to my mind.

Penny