Why Voldemort Would Have Spared Lily

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 112449

> GEO wrote: 
Right now nobody has come up with a decent explaination imo. So 
> far the best ones I've heard are that his initial hesitation came 
> from Voldemort having a small inkling in the back of his head of a 
> possible protection kicking in when he killed Lily or Lily had 
> something or some sort of connection with the Dark Lord that may 
> have possibly made him want to spare her for one reason or another 
> for his very own benefit, which may have been a reason why Lily 
> Potter was also able to survive three encounters with Voldemort 
> previously as an OOTP member.


Carol responds:
I've already discussed this topic so often that I don't want to go
into detail here; I think Lily was merely in LV's way, unarmed and a
"common Muggle" (his words, not mine; he's not distinguishing between
Muggles and Muggleborns or acknowledging that she might have powers he
know nothing of, including the power to trick him into killing her and
triggering ancient magic to save her son.)

What I'm wondering, though, is what exactly is meant by "defied
[Voldemort] three times. Does it necessarily mean that both Lily and
James were involved in all three encounters. And does "defy" mean
"survive combat"? Any ideas about other possible meanings?

Carol