Why Voldemort Would Have Spared Lily

[hannahmarder]

No: HPFGUIDX 112141

> Karen L.
I feel that DD used Lily's 
> sacrifice to protect Harry, and that's why he ended up at the 
> Dursleys'.  It was about a week after Harry's parents died that he 
> was placed with the Dursleys.  If this had been preplanned, 
> wouldn't he have gotten to the Dursley's sooner?  He was 
> "unprotected" during that week that DD or whomever had him 
> and was deciding where Harry should go.  Maybe that's when 
> DD discovered that this particular magic would protect Harry, he 
> did say it was old magic.  
<snip>
If DD had any idea that LV was going to get to GH and kill the 
> Potter's, don't you think he would have surrounded the house 
> with more security?  I firmly believe it was not planned, but DD 
> used his knowledge of old magic to protect Harry after the fact, 
by 
> sealing the magic by putting Harry with a blood relative.

Hannah: Sorry, I don't think that's supported by canon.  In PS/SS, 
McGonagall says LV turned up at the Potters' 'last night.'(British 
softback p14). So Harry is in fact being placed with the Dursley's 
the night after the attack, not a week later.  Secondly, Hagrid, who 
lifts Harry out of the ruined house straight after the attack, 
already knows he's going to the Dursley's.  He tells Sirius so, who 
turns up just after Hagrid (PoA pub conversation, UK softback 
p154).  Dumbledore knows where Harry is going almost as soon as he 
hears of the attack - IMO, *before* the attack has even occurred 
(see my earlier post on this).  Even if you don't subscribe to this 
theory, cannon tells us Harry's guardians were chosen before he was 
even removed from the wreckage of his former home.