"Stand aside, girl" and the End

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 145779

> Alla:
> Right, so here are my questions. First of all, how did Voldemort 
> find out that Lily worked in the Veil room or Love room, if she 
> indeed did? Just asking for your speculations, of course. Snape or 
> Peter or something else?

Jen: I figured it was probably common knowledge if she was working 
at the MOM. We saw Bode on the lift and interacting with others in a 
familiar way, so the DOM employees are not hidden away. Also,  
Voldemort had spies in the Minstry.

Alla: 
> Why would Voldemort find Lily studying death worrisome? Because he 
> may think that she is ahead of him in his immortality quest or 
> something like that and him killing her will not work? I am still 
> not sure why he would not try though? He certainly tries to kill 
> Dumbledore in the battle of MoM, no? <snip> > I don't know it just
> does not make sense to me that even if Voldemort WAS afraid of 
> Lily or whatever she was studying of a great deal that he would 
> not TRY to kill her. IMO of course. Questions, questions.

Jen: For one thing, at the time of Lily's death Voldemort did not 
know if his experiements in immortality would work. By the time he 
faced Dumbledore in the MOM, he had proved to himself his horcruxes 
were working and believed himself immortal. But that night at GH, 
facing two powerful wizards who have defied him three times, he 
doesn't know. And I think if Lily did study in the Veil room, that 
would be something Voldemort couldn't understand since he's spent 
his life attempting to defeat death.

So I pictured the momentary worry or slight fear to be about his own 
immortality experiements and perhaps a wonder if Lily knew something 
he didn't. Maybe even something which would interfere with his 
experiments? He knows the Potters are in league with Dumbledore and 
are in hiding, so it's possible he thought there was more to their 
protections than he was aware. It was only enough to make him pause, 
whatever the reason, so it wouldn't be something he felt resolved 
about. I do like other people's suggestions that Voldemort wanted 
something from Lily, some knowledge, and planned to extract that 
after killing Harry.  

> Alla:
> I think on that we differ a gret deal or maybe I am wrong and I 
> misunderstood you. I think that if JKR wanted to play the 
> temptation theme for Harry, book 6 was a perfect place to do so
> AND I believe that the book belonging to Half Blood prince WAS the
> temptation in front of Harry, which he sort of fallen for, IMO.
> And it does not seem to me that any grand scale temptation will
> occur in book 7, IMO of course. <snip> I don't think that he will
> fall for any of his Lordship tricks, he will be too focused for 
> that.

Jen: I'm thinking about Dumbledore's speech in the horcrux chapter 
and his emphasis on how Harry's love protects him. And Harry doesn't 
really understand, sees love as no big deal compared to Voldemort's 
power. Voldemort's 'lure of power' is his ability to zero in on a 
person's weakness and use it against him. Like Draco being trapped 
in HBP, thinking he's been given an honor to be in service to the 
Dark Lord only to discover he is being used, is a scapegoat, and he 
and his family are dispensible to Voldemort. Harry of course would 
not fall for anything having to do with dark arts or the like, but I 
think he spelled his weakness out: "And if I meet Severus Snape 
along the way....so much the better for me, so much the worse for 
him (The White Tomb, p. 607 Bloomsbury) His hatred and need for 
revenge can be easily manipulated by Voldemort and they counter the 
love which protects him from such manipulation. It just looked like 
a perfect set-up to me, hearing about Dumbledore's explanation 
followed by this intense interaction and increase in hatred for 
Snape, a crack Voldemort can attempt to use against him. I call it 
temptation, but perhaps other terms could be used. Or we might just 
disagree this will happen <g>.

Jen