The Evil of Voldemort; Lily's choice

[juli17ptf]

No: HPFGUIDX 146745

Alla wrote:
> 
> The bottom line is I just don't see Voldemort leaving Lily alive 
> because he did not care enough to kill her. Even if he did not take 
> her seriously as battle opponent, she could have call for help or 
> something like that. Leaving a witness to the murder alive, leaving 
> a  mother alive with desire to avenge her sons and husbands deaths? I 
> strongly doubt it.
> 
>

Julie:
I see your point, but the bottom line for me is that I just don't see
Voldemort *killing* Lily if he had anything to gain from leaving her 
alive. He could have easily stunned her, or Imperioed her, or whatever.
If she had information he felt might be useful, or if he had promised 
Snape/Peter/Remus/other-poor-sod-fixated-on-Lily he'd spare her life,
then why didn't he just incapacitate her and kill Harry? It would cost
him nothing, and would provide potential gain (the information she 
might possess, or the strengthened loyalty of Snape/Peter/Remus/poor 
sod).

It could be as Carol said, that Voldemort offered her a chance to live
because she was *unimportant* rather than that she had anything to
offer him. If that is the case, I would agree that JKR's statements
seem to be misleading, though that probably wasn't her intent (perhaps
we're just bad interpreters!). Either that, or Voldemort did have a
reason that we still haven't been able to figure out, something that
will make complete sense out of what seems to be a hopeless conundrum
(to me anyway).

Julie