Why didn't Lily run? (Was: James, a paragon of virtue?)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 123719


Ces wrote:> 
> I get the impression that Voldemort just walked in and AK'd James - 
> that he never got the chance to fight.  Couldn't Lily have flooed 
> somewhere with Harry?  It just seems to me that there weren't enough 
> precautions taken.


Carol responds:
As Valky points out in another post in this thread, Voldemort himself
says that James put up a courageous fight. She quotes SS/PS. I had
thought there was a similar comment in the graveyard scene in GoF
along the lines of, "Your father fought bravely, but your mother
didn't have to die." This quote has led to speculation that Voldemort
was actually willing, or even intending, to spare Lily. I don't see it
that way; I think he just wanted her to get out of the way, and since
she was unarmed, unlike James, he had no reason to fight her.

That aside, however, I think there was a very good reason that Lily
didn't "take Harry and run," as James shouted to her to do before his
fatal fight with LV. She knew that she had to die, that she had to
sacrifice herself to save Harry. As I've argued elsewhere, I don't
think that the sacrifice was all that was involved; I think she
anticipated the encounter with LV and placed a protective charm on
Harry that would be activated by her death. She had to die first or it
wouldn't work. Other posters have argued that by killing her, LV
"signed" a "binding magical contract" to trade her life for Harry's
that he violated by killing Harry, and that Lily knew this would
happen. Either way, she couldn't run or the "ancient magic" wouldn't
work. Her only option was to protect Harry and be sure that Voldemort
killed her first. 

I also think that she arrived at this desperate measure, possibly in
conjunction with Dumbledore, as a last-ditch protection for Harry in
case the Fidelius Charm failed. She may also have known that she
couldn't apparate with a baby and that Floo powder wouldn't work even
if sh had time to use it--Voldemort would hear her call out her
destination and follow her. It might have been better if DD had
porvided her with a portkey, but he didn't. So she did the only thing
she could. She stayed to defend Harry, not by fighting Voldemort but
by giving him no choice but to murder her--unarmed and defenseless--a
willing sacrifice and not a fight.

Carol, who hopes someone else will find that quote, which I could have
sworn was in GoF