Why LV must kill Harry?

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 45180

Debbie McLain wrote:
> I tried finding this in the archives, but it is difficult to look up, 
> so please forgive me.
> 
> What is everyone's opinion on "Why must LV kill Harry" when he was 
> only one-year old? It seems to me in the canon, unless I interpreted 
> it wrong, that LV's intention was to kill Harry all along, not 
> necessarily the parents. As heard by Harry in PoA, James tries to 
> stop LV, trying to let Lily escape with Harry.
> 
> I know all are in agreement about Lily letting herself die to protect 
> Harry, but didn't James do the same?
> 
> IMHO, it seems somewhere out there it is known/written that LV's 
> downfall will result from Harry. It seems the centaurs from HPSS know 
> something about it too.
> 
> Answers, are appreciated.
> 
> -Debbie

Hi, Debbie, and don't let yourself be devoured by yahoomort! I've 
experienced myself the utter terror of having to look somehting up in 
the archives, and I know what it feels like (normally it is useless, 
unless you've read the post you are looking for). I'll try to give you 
a run-down on the theories on the matter, and then my own personal 
version.

First, canon seems to point that Voldemort was looking for James and 
Harry ("Your mother needn't have died" and "Out of the way, woman"). 
This has multiple explanation: it may be because of some prophecy 
Voldemort heard saying that the Potter family would destroy him (aka 
the heir theories, especially the "heir fo Gryffindor" theory). There 
are multiple variations to this one.

Or it might be that he was only taunting Lily (leaving her for later, 
for example). There are no good theories I can remember for this one, 
and it's based on the fact that evil overlords lie for no particular 
reasons and like to be cruel (i.e. forcing a mother watch her baby 
die).

Or it might be that he wanted Lily alive if she wasn't too much of a 
bother (normally as a reward for one of his loyal henchmen, normally 
Peter, for having turned them in).

Finally, maybe he was only going for Harry (again due to some prophecy, 
which tends to be the first true prophecy of Trelawny), and James dared 
to confront Voldemort, so he had to die, but since Lily was in 
histerics, Voldemort was saving his own power for the baby.

Or some combination thereof. Most of the variations modify mainly the 
intent of Voldmort and the number of planned murders that night. My own 
version is:

Vodemort had heard that the Potters were working on something that 
might destroy him. He assumes (or learns) that it is the reason they 
went into fidelius charm in the first place, and contacts his insider 
to try and find were they are. In fact, he knows that James and Lily 
had a proyect each, but having heard that Lily's was studying ancient 
magic, he decides that she would never find anything worth using (those 
spells are dead for a reason, he thinks), and concentrates on James' 
proyect.

This proyect, however, seems much more dangerous: James is trying 
variations of spells on Harry, trying to protect him, and hopefully 
find a defense against the unforgivables (this might include some 
variation of the elixir of life). The nature of the experiments is 
really irrelevant, since he didn't have time to finish them.

Lily, on the other hand, *had* found something that could protect 
Harry: an ancient spell that channels pure love into a love shield 
which is suposed to protect the recipient from evil curses. 
Unfortunately, the spell requires a human sacrifice, since the caster 
looses his life in proyecting his or her love -which is the reason it 
was forgotten in the first place: to sacrifice one to save another 
(just from one or two curses!) is really a bit excesive, especially 
from the point of view of the defended, who wouldn't want to loose a 
loved one only for a protection!

Thus, Voldemort has his loyal servant Peter take him to the Potter's 
house, with an intent: to destroy James, thus ending the dangerous 
investigation, and also kill the baby, which could be used to resurrect 
the investigation, after all. Oh, and let Lily live (if she doesn't try 
to get too much in the way)... is not as if she's doing something 
useful.

I should mention that I believe that this sort of thing had happened 
before: anytime Voldemort heard that someone might be plotting his 
death outside Dumbledore's protection, he sent one of his DE to finish 
them or, in cases were the enemies were too powerful (like James and 
Lily), he took the matters into his own hands.

So, off he went. Peter guides him to the house, points him to James and 
the Fidelius is broken. James wips out his wand while Lily runs to get 
Harry. James is sumarly AKed, and Voldemort glides after Lily, in time 
to see her in what looks like hysterism (but is really casting the love 
spell, since she knows she'll never make it out alive). Voldemort tries 
to get her out of the way, which he manages, and shoots his AK. Lily 
finishes her spell by throwing herself in the path of the AK, thus 
compleating the love sacrifice spell and protecting Harry. Voldemort 
tries to AK the baby, just to have the spell rebound in the newly 
created shield.

Things here get tricky, of course. We're not sure if the explosion was 
caused by the rebound or by hitting Voldemort. I'd say that the second 
looks more correct, since there wasn't a single trace left of 
Voldemort's body, when we know that wizards bodies tend to be quite 
tough; it looks more likely that Voldemort's body exploded, but that's 
still open to modification.

And that's *my* version, Debbie.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf, who has managed to let yet another post grow out of control