Lily Evans Potter relationship to Voldemort

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No: HPFGUIDX 58371

"vivamus42" wrote:
<snip>
> 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?   

Me: 

I personally agree with Darrin and some others that point out Voldie 
really didn't try too hard to spare Lily. I think there is a very 
simple explanation. 

Avada Kedavra is a darn powerful curse. Fake!Moody explains to the 
DADA class that they could all try to AK him at once, and he 
probably wouldn't get so much as a nosebleed. It needs serious 
magical energy behind it. Now, Voldie just AK'd James and was going 
to AK Harry next. That's two AK's in a matter of minutes. I don't 
recall in canon any references to a depletion of energy per strength 
of curse equation, but it is possible that each subsequent curse 
probably has a little less `oomph' behind it than the previous. 

Simply, he wants the power to use on Harry. He doesn't want to waste 
it on this annoying woman in his way, but Lily leaves him no choice. 

So, to get on with your question: Why did he expect this woman to 
just move out of the way and let him kill her child? 

Taking a small step outside of the HP world for a second. According 
to psychologists, serial killers often dehumanize their victims. 
They don't see them as human at all. Just `things'. Things that are 
there to either serve the killer's purpose or things that are there 
to keep the killer from achieving their purpose. Soldiers are also 
trained to dehumanize their targets. It makes it easier to kill. 
It's actually recommended that if you are kidnapped or held hostage 
you should attempt to re-humanize yourself; talk about your family, 
show pictures, try to find some commonality between you and your 
captor etc., etc. 

So
back to HP. I think Voldemort doesn't see Lily, the protective 
mother.  He simply sees an obstruction – an object that's keeping 
him from acheiving his goal [killing Harry]. So, it doesn't come as 
a great surprise to me that he just expects her to stand aside.

And this, to me, is also a significant moment in Voldemort's 
character. This isn't the 16-year-old Riddle that *knew* a mother's 
sacrifice is a powerful countercharm. This is omnipotent, 
indestructible, Dark Lord Voldemort, who doesn't even see a mother 
before him. 

 I believe that this shows the full complete transformation of Tom 
Riddle into Voldemort. There is no Riddle left anymore – by this 
time, there is no humanity at all left in Voldemort. 

Cheers!

-Tanya