Why spare Lily? (was: Why were the sacrifices different? )

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 95361

I (Carol) wrote:
<snip> As for why LV didn't just kill her, she wasn't threatening him.
She was just standing in his way. There was, in his view, no need to 
waste time and energy fighting or killing a "silly girl." (Yes, 
there's some sexism on Voldy's part; look at the era in which he 
grew up. 
> 
> Susan responds:
> We simply do not agree on this part of it.  She wasn't threatening 
> him?  She was just a silly girl?  Yes, he used those words when 
> telling Harry the story, but I'm not convinced that's what he felt 
> or believed!  She'd defied him twice before, she was in the Order, 
> she was smart enough to figure out this ancient magic thing.  Voldy 
> may well have underestimated her that night but I still believe 
> there was **something else** going on in his mind, some other reason 
> for his planning to spare Lily's life. <snip>

Carol:
Those aren't Voldemort's words to Harry. They're the words Harry hears
Voldemort say when the Dementor shows up at the Quidditch match:

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"
"Stand aside, you silly girl. . . stand aside, now. . . ."
"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead---" (PoA Am. ed. 179)

I'm sure that when she was "defying him thrice," he didn't consider
her a silly girl, but at this point, she was just in his way, an
obstacle, not a threat. As for the *something else* going on in his
mind, what could it be except his desire to thwart the prophecy by
killing Harry? In his mind, Lily didn't matter *at that moment*. IMO,
he wasn't "planning" to spare Lily's life. He was just trying to get
her out of the way. There's no compassion involved, only cold
practicality.

If his plan had succeeded and Harry had died, he might have killed her
afterwards as coldly as he (indirectly) killed  poor Cedric("the
spare")--who was also just in his way. Or he might have stayed to
gloat and torment poor Lily as she stared at her dead baby, whom she
had tried and failed to save. Neither life nor death would have
mattered to her then. She'd have lost not only Harry and James, but
the whole WW, which she would have failed to save by not dying before
Harry.

My point is, at that moment, Lily *didn't matter* to LV. All that
mattered to him was Harry. She had to *make* herself matter, make him
understand that she was not going to move, make him kill her before he
got to Harry. And she succeeded. Her death was her victory.

Carol