"Stand aside, girl" and the End

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 145826

Jen Reese wrote:
<snip> Now that JKR has given us a better picture of the way Voldemort
thinks and his particular obsessions and patterns, the idea that
Voldemort would save Lily because Snape (or anyone) asked him to
doesn't fit for me.

Carol responds:
I totally agree, except that I never thought Voldemort was "saving
Lily for anybody.
> 
> Jen Reese:
> > The second most common suggestion is that Voldemort thought Lily 
too silly to bother with since his laser focus was on killing James
and Harry. 

Alla responded:
> 
> Yes, on this one I am with you. I don't buy it at all.

Carol notes:
I do, with a slight difference in interpretation. I think that
Voldemort was focused on killing Harry, the Prophecy Boy who posed a
real threat. James "had" to die only because he was an armed opponent;
LV's warped sense of honor and dignity (see his observance of the
formalities of duelling in the graveyard scene in GoF) demanded that
he allow James to "fight manfully" (quoting from memory here) before
killing him. But since LV is a Legilimens and thinks nothing of using
the Avada Kedavra Curse when he's had enough or the opponent seems to
pose a real threat, James never had a chance. 

Lily, however, was not armed and did not offer to fight. She was only,
quite literally, standing in LV's way, "foolishly" blocking his path
to his intended target. Once James had been dispensed with and Harry
was in view, LV's focus was entirely on the only person he perceived
as a real threat, Harry. Lily could have survived if she hadn't
refused to move. That was her choice.

My evidence? LV has never expressed anything but contempt for Lily
("Move aside, silly girl!" "Your Muggle mother," etc.). Granted, had
she resisted him as James did, he would have had to relinquish this
view and duel her, and he no doubt would have found his contempt
misplaced, but ultimately he would have killed her as he killed James
and then murdered Harry--and so much for the WW and the HP series! But
Lily's courage showed itself in a way he didn't comprehend and
dismissed as "silly"--the courage to sacrifice herself for love and in
so doing unwittingly defeat Voldemort (wonder if that was her third
defiance, and James's as well?).

More evidence: LV's treatment of Lily has a precedent in Tom Riddle's
treatment of the boy Hagrid in the diary memory in CoS, where his real
target is Aragog. Obviously he couldn't AK Hagrid and still be a
"hero," but he could have used Stupefy or Petrificus Totalis. Inside,
he orders him to stand aside, exactly as he orders Lily to stand aside
at GoF: 

"'Stand aside,' said Riddle, drawing out his wand" (CoS Am. ed., 247).

Seems like a pretty clear precedent to me.

At any rate, I see no need for fancy theories explaining Voldemort's
motivation, which is explained by the need to kill Harry and the lack
of need for killing Lily.

Which is not to say that Lily didn't work at the MoM and that her work
didn't play some role in saving Harry. I used to think that she put
some sort of protective Charm on Harry that was activated by her
self-sacrifice, but JKR's website seems to nix that idea. Still, I
believe that her knowledge of Charms and her association with Love
will prove important in Book 7. I just don't think it has any direct
bearing on why Voldemort told Lily to stand aside.

Alla wrote: 
> <snip> Now, I agree with you that he will discover power of Love in
himself fully and his forgiveness of Snape will somehow play into it,
but I  doubt that it will be connected with Voldemort tempting Harry
to come to the Dark side. :-) IMO of course.

Carol responds:
Hey, Alla, we agree on this one! Does that mean we must be right?

Carol, hoping that we *are*.