Asking Lily to step aside (Was: Pettigrew Power)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 90320

Hitomi asked:
<snip> Why did V ask Lily to step aside? Maybe Lily (like Harry to
Pettigrew) was compassionate to V and saved his life once. Then V owed
Lily. <snip>

Hi, Hitomi. Apologies for narrowing in on a small part of your
interesting post. I think the answer is contained in LV's words to
Lily, "Step aside, you silly girl!" Clearly he doesn't perceive her as
a threat, maybe because she's very young (about twenty-one: note
"girl," not "woman") and Muggle-born--both possible grounds for
contempt in LV's view in anyone who isn't "the one" (killing off
Muggle-borns has ceased to matter to him now, as Tom Riddle tells us
in CoS)--and she's female to boot. (Given the small number of female
DEs, it's safe to assume that LV is sexist.) IOW, he sees her as
virtually powerless, despite the three defeats mentioned in the
prophecy, which he probably credits to James. In any case, James
presumably put up a fight so LV had to kill him, but Lily is
apparently just standing between LV and Harry, not a threat but an
obstacle blocking his way. He doesn't understand that any mother,
whether she's human or a grizzly bear, will protect her child from
harm (whether or not he's protected by a charm involving her death).
He somehow expects her to move over and let him kill the baby. He
could have just stunned her or elbowed her aside, but she insisted
hysterically that he kill her instead and he apparently saw that as
the only means of accomplishing his goal. (I think she had to die for
the protective charm to work, but that's beside the point here.)

I imagine LV would have killed her as frosting on the cake after the
main job was done, though maybe he would have enjoyed watching her
suffer first. (If Bella was with him, I'm sure he'd have left Lily to
her.) But, to repeat, I think he didn't kill her at first because he
perceived her as an obstacle, not a threat. He didn't care whether she
was dead or alive at that point, as long as she was out of his way. It
was Harry's death that mattered.

Carol