Why Voldemort is a fascist/sparing Lily

[huntergreen_3]

No: HPFGUIDX 109327

Siriusly Snapey Susan wrote:
> 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 replied:
>> 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. [snip]

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. <<

HunterGreen:
I completely agree. However, though, I don't think he necessarily had 
more respect for James than he did for Lily. I don't think either of 
them *had* to die (at least not before Harry).
 From what we've been told, Voldemort often delegates his evil tasks 
to the DE's, so Godric's Hollow is a special situation. Perhaps his 
basic plan was just to go inside, kill Harry, and leave (he did go at 
night, he probably hoped that James and Lily would be asleep...it 
would make the whole thing much easier). He'd tangled with them three 
times before, and they'd won (in the sense that they lived), and 
despite his power, I can see him just not wanting to deal with them 
that night. He doesn't leave his evil lair very often, and might have 
been eager to get the killing-infant business over with as quickly as 
possible so he could return to his lair. 
Voldemort enters the Potter home with that mindset, and encounters 
James in the living room(?). He might have tried to sweep by James 
and head for Lily and Harry (according to the memory Harry has in 
PoA, James says "take Harry and go..." which indicates the three of 
them were in the room and Lily was either holding Harry, or near 
him). Voldemort, at this point, is far more interested in getting to 
Harry before Lily manages to do something like get out of the house, 
but there is James, presumably also standing in Voldemort's way, but 
he had a wand. They may have dueled, or perhaps Voldemort simply AKed 
him immediately since he was a threat (because he was standing there 
with his wand, facing Voldemort and prepared to fight). 
Then Voldemort, already annoyed with the diversion, heads for Lily 
and Harry, and Lily jumps into his way. She's not armed and he can 
see Harry behind her, so he at first just wants her to get out of the 
way. I don't know why he didn't just AK her immediately, perhaps AK 
takes more energy and concentration than he wanted to bother with at 
the moment (at least on her). Voldemort's common sense may have been 
kicking in in the back of his mind too (saying that there might be a 
reason she's innocently standing there without a wand, saying "kill 
me instead!"), and it took him a moment to disregard it and kill her 
anyway. 
At first I don't see the need for *killing* her, since he may have 
been more focused on just pushing her out of the way, but she 
wouldn't get out of the way, and she was talking to him so that 
caught his attention and he decided to just kill her then, as opposed 
to waiting until Harry was finished with. He really should have gone 
with his first instinct.

Carol:
>>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.<<

I agree with that as well. After all, he could see what he had come 
for (Harry), behind her, his mind was more on that than anything 
else. He only turned his attention to her when she demanded it.
As for making the same mistake with Harry, he already did that in 
GoF. I wonder, though, if he's thick enough to repeat that mistake.