Lily's protection for Harry

[steven1965aaa]

No: HPFGUIDX 151767

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at ...> wrote:
 
As to why Voldemort gave Lily a chance to live, I have always
speculated that once he stepped into the bedroom, he had his 
objective in sight (Harry), and that's all he cared about. Lily at 
that point was an incidental annoyance. He could care less one way 
or the other about her. 

Steven1965aaa:

I just don't buy that.  We've seen, directly, a situation almost 
exactly like that, with Cedric in the graveyard.  There, just like 
the scenario described above, Voldemort had his objective in sight 
(Harry), and that's all he cared about.  Cedric at that point was an 
incidental annoyance (and as a 17 year old was presumably less of a 
threat than Lily).  The result?   "Kill the spare."  No humanity 
whatsoever, no thought to sparing (pun intended by me, and I believe 
also by the JKR) "the spare".  Why was Lily treated differently?  I 
have no idea of the answer to that question (I know there's of 
course been a lot of speculation on it, especially involving Snape) 
but I believe that its a very important question.

I guess you could argue that he had Cedric killed because he didn't 
want a witness around, whereas with Lily he wanted a witness who 
could tell everyone about what happened.  But I see Cedric's killing 
more as an example of VM's utter lack of humanity and values.