Why Voldemort is a fascist/sparing Lily

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 109318

SSSusan enquired:
<snip> Why 
> *might* Voldy have been willing to let Lily live?  I've some 
> thoughts on this, too, but I'm always interested to hear multiple 
> views.<<
> 
>  
> Kneasy responded: 
<snip> in terms of the current thread *if* Voldy is an 
 > ideologically driven fanatic determined to instute the  primacy of
 > purebloods at any cost then one would expect him to wipe out
 > Lily with absolutely no compunction. He didn't. So maybe he's
 > not being ideologically driven; maybe he's a pragmatist doing 
 > what he sees as necessary to achieve his personal ends. 
 > 
 > Lily has defied him 3 times we're told. For a murdering ideologue 
 > this would be unforgivable and would merit the ultimate sanction.
 > But Voldy isn't thinking along those lines - he wants to kill Harry,
 > that seems to be his sole aim. James possibly and Lily for sure 
 > need not have died. But if they get in the way then die they will.
 > That is a very cold pragmatic way of assessing the 'mission' - that
 > it's a safeguard for his future security, not an aspect or 
 > reflection of a wider political agenda. <snip>
  
Siriusly Snapey Susan again:
<snip> While I'm 
> convinced that Voldy had a *reason* for suggesting she didn't have
to die--that he really did *mean* it when he said it--I can't come up 
> with much in the way of WHY, beyond the rather tired ideas of his 
> somehow being related to Lily or having promised to try to spare her 
> for someone else, i.e., Severus. 

Carol steps in:
Hi, SSS. I'm not sure I should even post this because you already know
what I think on the matter, but here goes.

I think Kneasy is right that, from Voldemort's perspective, Lily
didn't have to die. Whatever Voldemort's political agenda may normally
be, his personal mission to kill his prospective destroyer, the baby
in the Prophecy, overrode all other concerns that day. Lily wasn't
threatening him; she apparently wasn't even armed; she was just trying
to kill Harry and she died because she wouldn't get out of his way and
let him accomplish his mission. (From her own perspective, of course,
she *did* have to die, but that has nothing to do with your question.)

He wasn't telling her to get out of the way because she was a promised
reward to Severus or his own relative or any other other hypothetical
reason. He just wanted her to stop blocking his path. He wasn't seeing
her as a member of the Order who had defied him three times, though
that was no doubt how he saw James. He was seeing her as a "silly
girl" whose motives he neither respected nor understood. She was just
Harry's "common Muggleborn mother"--a nobody, beneath contempt, not
worth killing (except maybe as an afterthought after he had
accomplished his objective). I imagine that if he had succeeded in
killing Harry, she would have suffered the fate of his own Muggle
grandparents after he killed his father. With his mission
accomplished, he could attend to less important details--including his
own vendetta against Muggleborns if he so chose. Or he might have
chosen to let her live on in wretchedness, having lost house, husband,
child, and the battle against evil all in a few short moments. That,
IMO, would have been crueller than killing her.

In short, he was willing to let her live, at least for the time being,
but in his view, or at least the view he presents to Harry, she
foolishly chose to die. IMO, he's speaking a half truth (she didn't
have to die *then*) to torture Harry, but he also clearly doesn't
understand that she *did* have to die to save Harry, and that her
self-sacrifice was neither foolish nor accidental.

I agree with Kneasy that Voldemort's actions in this case were
motivated neither by mercy (which he can't feel) nor politics (which
were secondary or even tertiary in this instance) but by sheer cold
pragmatism and (IMO--not sure Kneasy agrees with this part) contempt
for an enemy who would not even fight him. He underestimated her to
his great detriment, and I'm guessing he'll make the same mistake with
Harry.

Carol