Why didn't Lily have to die?

[greatelderone]

No: HPFGUIDX 93484

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" 
<justcarol67 at y...> wrote:
> What *I* don't
> understand is how he could have thought that *any* mother would 
stand
> aside and let him kill her baby.

Practical experience from his travels no doubt. They're dark wizards 
and though I haven't seen any of it in the books no doubt sacrificing 
children or their blood could be practiced among those versed in the 
dark arts.

> I
> think he was merely focusing on his goal and what he wanted was to 
get
> her out of his way so he could commit the murder he had come to
> commit. But would he have left her there alive if his plan had
> succeeded? I don't think so--unless he wanted an eyewitness who 
would
> inform Dumbledore that the prophecy would not be fulfilled.

Then why tell her to step aside? He could have simply gone through 
her yet he didn't and he actually told her to step aside. This coming 
from a dark lord who had by then earned a reputation for the 
atrocities committed by him and his minions. 

Furthermore I don't buy the fact that he would have killed her 
anyways. It undermines and detracts from her sacrifice for her son if 
she was just going to be next on the hit list. The fact that she was 
going to live through the night yet instead died for her son was 
always why the sacrifice and the protection worked in my honest 
opinion.