Why not kill Lily?

[ornadv]

No: HPFGUIDX 143029

Roberta:

>Perhaps the rewards are only material things, perhaps not. Who
>knows? I was speculating about possible motives for Voldemort to
>reward followers with what they want. What Peter wanted in that
>moment was a hand. It would have been pointless to give him
>something else. If another follower wanted a lover, it would have
>been pointless to give him, say, a hand. :)

Orna:
I understand that you don't really think it was for Snape's sake 
that he spared Lily. I don't think this scenario could be for Snape, 
or for any other DE.

I can't imagine Snape telling Voldermort, he wants Lily for himself, 
because he loves her. It's totally contradictory to Snape's 
character, and also to Voldermort to go ahead with it. If anything, 
it would make him keener on killing her. I can think of Snape 
telling Voldermort to spare Lily to use her somehow (for potions, 
<g>), but I don't think so. I think Voldermort's had some reason of 
his own for not wanting to kill her and even this is puzzling. 
Because he doesn't sound very interested in keeping her alive –
 "stand aside, silly girl", and he didn't take precautions, to let 
her stay alive. If he really wanted to spare her life – he could 
have stunned her, or found some other way of managing her.

>Roberta:
>I don't agree with the theory that he wanted to torture her by 
making
>her watch the death of her son. Voldemort didn't go to Godric's
>Hollow to have fun torturing and killing people. He went to
>eliminate a threat, and that requires single-mindedness. You go
>after the threat, and you get rid of anything in the way. You don't
>waste precious time telling the kid's mother to get out of the way
>just because it's cool to watch her reaction to her child's death.

Orna:
I don't think he did it just because of thinking it's cool . 
I had many thoughts about it, one of them is:   It seems, that he 
just gave her the opportunity, to stay alive – at the expense of her 
baby's life. When she didn't take this opportunity, he killed her 
straightforward. That's why I think, that in fact, that was his 
whole point – to have her give up her motherly concern and 
sacrifice. I think, that had Lily acted according to his code of 
thinking, he would have been quite satisfied, Harry dead, and here 
goes another mother, who cares for herself, more than for her son.

Another option is that perhaps he wanted to crucio-interrogate her – 
after all, he must have been curious about why this boy was destined 
to be his potential vanquisher. It's like DD said in the cave – he 
wouldn't want her to be dead immediately. He would want to know what 
it is that enabled her to have a child – as powerful as that. That 
would be in line of eliminating the threat – trying to understand 
the nature of this potential threat. After all, he couldn't rely on 
hearing every future prophecy, and he would want to know what the 
essence of this danger is.  

Paradoxically – he got an answer by her act of sacrifice and by 
Harry staying alive - – and – because Lily's act could have told him 
that love means more than death, and that the main power was her 
love which saved Harry, and that's also Harry's power. But 
Voldermort isn't able to hear or remember, or understand this power. 
Even when he hears it in CoS, he belittles it, and when he feels it 
in OotP, he flies right away – quite enough clues to recognize this 
as a power, if you are somehow open to it.
Well, I can say in defense of Voldermort, that Harry himself isn't 
too convinced that love is much of a power. I suppose that that will 
be his task in book 7.  

Orna