Lily Evans Potter relationship to Voldemort

[vivamus42]

No: HPFGUIDX 58359

She does say, "I'll do anything, anything . . ." which is certainly
suggestive.

It's interesting, though, that this whole thread never addressed the
question I thought I asked, so I must have asked it poorly.  There
has been discussion about V's motives in wanting to kill Harry first,
and Lily's motives in not fighting, but the real puzzle to me is why
V would *trust* that Lily would let him kill her baby.  

Even without her wand, a mother protecting her child could easily
pick up a lamp and crush the skull of a large man.  With her wand,
one would expect that Lily could, in that circumstance, have made a
Voldemort-shaped hole in the moon with a banishing charm -- or a
*very* messy smear on the wall.  

Okay, so Lily had her reasons for letting V kill her, and I think the
best suggested reason I've heard so far is that she knew she could
protect Harry best by allowing herself to be killed on his behalf,
for any of several different reasons.  But that's not the puzzle, as
there are lots of possible answers for JKR to use.

The puzzle to me is why Voldemort would expect that Lily would, after
he told her to stand aside, just stand there and let him kill her
baby.  She didn't do that, but why did he even have a glimmer of an
expectation that she would?   Okay, so he doesn't have any
understanding of the real depth and potency of mother love.  He still
knows that she is Harry's last protector, and must have known
(intellectually if not viscerally) that a mother protecting her child
is a fierce adversary.  He is no fool, and yet wanted to attack an
infant while that infant's only protector stood beside him.   

That seems monumentally foolish to me.  If we assume that he is
supremely arrogant of victory, and doesn't think anything can stand
in his way once Harry is dead, then *perhaps* one can make sense of
it, but it's still a stretch.  

If Lily saved his life at some point, it might be why he would
hesitate to kill her -- for fear of personal repercussions, as he
certainly experienced when he tried to kill Harry.  But it wouldn't
stop Lily from killing *him* -- and he's not an idiot.  

The only thing I can think of that would make Lily so hesitant to
kill Voldemort that Voldemort would count on that hesitation is that
she owed HIM something.   Unless he saved HER life at some point
(which seems very unlikely,) the best explanation I can come up with
is that there is a blood relationship between the two.

Vivamus


-----Original Message-----
From: Silver Stag [mailto:prongs at marauders-map.net]
Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2003 9:43 AM
To: HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [HPforGrownups] Re: Lily Evans Potter relationship to
Voldemort


Ray:

> Just as children know that Elmer Fudd lusting after Bugs Bunny in a
dress
and lipstick is funny without knowing quite why, Lily's unspoken
offer to
Voldemort is for the adults who know "the secret".  I agree that she
could
never make the offer explicitly in a children's book, but the fact
us, she
didn't.  Likewise, she didn't say "kill me instead", she said, "take
me
instead".
Actually, she does say "Kill me instead"
I get this from Ch. 9.
    "Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead --"
Silver Stag