Why Lord Voldemort would have spared Lily

[littleleahstill]

No: HPFGUIDX 111978

gelite67 wrote:
Any theories on why Voldemort was willing to spare Lily? Harry
remembers hearing Voldemort telling Lily she needn't die, or words
to that effect. If Voldemort had killed so many with no
compunction, and was obviously willing to kill an infant, why spare
Lily?


Becki's Opinion;

To me, as a mother, (a parent for those fathers), a fate worth than
death would be to see me baby killed before my very own eyes, and to
have to live with that vision for the rest of my life. Perhaps LV's
plan was just plain torture. He probably felt James was a threat to
him and had to kill him to get to Harry, a means to an end, but
perhaps thought Lily was not as much as a threat and in retaliation
for "defying him 3 times", thought this would be a good
punishment?

I don't think he was going to spare her out of the goodness of his
heart. (what heart?)

Becki


Leah replies:

That makes sense.  But apparently Voldemort doesn't do much personal 
dispatching.  Sirius says that Regulus probably wasn't important 
enough to be killed by Voldemort in person and when Moody is going 
through the rollcall of the fallen from the photo, he says it took 5 
DEs to dispatch the Prewetts (no LV it seems), and Dorcas Meadowes 
gets a special mention- 'Voldemort killed her personally'.  And it's 
not LV who dispatches Cedric, he only gives the order to Wormtail.

This suggests that LV doesn't really get a kick out of killing.  
Bellatrix says that you really have to mean an Unforgiveable Curse.  
Perhaps, just as there's not enough human left in LV to die or to 
love, there's not enough to hate.  He'll crucio, because that's one 
of the ways he maintains power- he wants people to fear him and they 
do that better alive. Other than that, he is totally self absorbed, 
so the deaths of others are quite  meaningless for him.  James had to 
go because he was in the way, but he felt nothing about Lily until 
she refused  to sit by quietly.  

Afterthought: There's a possibility, I suppose, that killing 
literally takes something out of LV, something to do with his 
immortality seeking, and therefore he has to ration himself. 

Leah, who wants to know who Dorcas Meadowes is.