[HPforGrownups] Whose prophecy? (was Re: Why Harry?)

[Troels Forchhammer]

No: HPFGUIDX 54573

At 19:23 30-03-03 +0000, Erica wrote:
>Perhaps the prophecy didn't specify Harry defeating Voldemort but
>the 'heir of Gryffindor' defeating the 'heir of Slytherin'.  If
>Voldemort is aware that he is Slytherin's heir (last?) and comes to
>find out that the Potter line is descendent from Gryffindor then
>perhaps he would make a point of anihilating all Potter's
>everywhere.  This would explain why Harry has no 'Potter' relatives
>and why Voldemort was more interesting in killing James and Harry but
>not Lily.

The problem with this (from a logic viewpoint) is that it doesn't
explain the true mystery. That Voldemort wanted to kill the whole
family would be easy to believe - he after all wanted to kill
everyone who opposed him - he and his Death Eaters were not in the
habit of leaving survivors; neither women or children. What I would
really like to have explained is why on earth he would want to save
Lily - why did he attempt to get her move over?

I have seen someone claim that it was out of consideration for
Snape who was supposed to be in love with Lily, but that is - to
be frank about it - nonsense! If Snape were in love with Lily,
and had begged Voldemort spare her, then he would certainly see
that as a weakness in Snape (Lily was after all Muggle-born - what
Voldemort could only consider a lowly mudblood), and it wouldn't
make him hesitate for a second if she put herself between him and
his goal - much less waste effort trying to save a mudblood from
herself (as he would see it).

We need a far more compelling reason for Voldemort to wish to
spare Lily.

It has also been suggested that it had been predicted that
killing Lily would lead to his downfall, but then we have to
find some other reason why Voldemort wanted to kill Harry, because
it is obvious from Dumbledore's reluctance to tell Harry in PS
that this reason is important to the plot of the whole series.

What I would like to see is a theory that can combine the
compelling reason to kill Harry with a (not quite as) compelling
reason to spare Lily.

Troels