Lily's protection for Harry

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 151944

Cassy Ferris wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/151749>:

<< why it never happened before? LV killed so many families, surely
some mother would stand in front of her child in effort to protect
him/her? We can't assume that Lily's love was of some "higher
quality," so it worked better. Or was it that LV gave Lily a choice
wether to die or not? But why exactly did he do it, wasted his time
trying to convince a defenseless woman to stand aside? >>

The same interview http://www.mugglenet.com/jkrinterview.shtml says:

<< ES: This is one of my burning questions since the third book - why
did Voldemort offer Lily so many chances to live? Would he actually
have let her live?

JKR: Mmhm.

ES: Why?

JKR: [silence] Can't tell you. But he did offer, you're absolutely
right. Don't you want to ask me why James's death didn't protect Lily
and Harry? There's your answer, you've just answered your own
question, because she could have lived and chose to die. James was
going to be killed anyway. Do you see what I mean? I'm not saying
James wasn't ready to; he died trying to protect his family but he was
going to be murdered anyway. He had no - he wasn't given a choice, so
he rushed into it in a kind of animal way, I think there are
distinctions in courage. James was immensely brave. But the caliber of
Lily's bravery was, I think in this instance, higher because she could
have saved herself. Now any mother, any normal mother would have done
what Lily did. So in that sense her courage too was of an animal
quality but she was given time to choose. James wasn't. It's like an
intruder entering your house, isn't it? You would instinctively rush
them. But if in cold blood you were told, "Get out of the way," you
know, what would you do? I mean, I don't think any mother would stand
aside from their child. But does that answer it? She did very
consciously lay down her life. She had a clear choice -

ES: And James didn't.

JKR: Did he clearly die to try and protect Harry specifically given a
clear choice? No. It's a subtle distinction and there's slightly more
to it than that but that's most of the answer.

MA: Did she know anything about the possible effect of standing in
front of Harry?

JKR: No - because as I've tried to make clear in the series, it never
happened before. No one ever survived before. And no one, therefore,
knew that could happen.

MA: So no one - Voldemort or anyone using Avada Kedavra - ever gave
someone a choice and then they took that option [to die] -

JKR: They may have been given a choice, but not in that particular way. >>

I don't believe that Snape was ever in love with Lily and I don't want
JKR to say he was, but LOLLILOPS (the name of 'Snape loved Lily', as
acronym of 'Love of Lily Left Ire Polluting Our Poor Severus') would
tidily tie up a lot of loose ends, such as: Why did Snape turn against
LV? Why did LV offer Lily a chance to live? Why did Snape feel remorse
when he found that it was the Potters who would be killed because he
had passed along the Prophecy?

When Snape learned that LV was planning to kill all three Potters,
including Lily, he begged LV to spare Lily's life. In order to make
such a plea without seeming totally soft-hearted. he asked for LV to
give Lily to him as a gift. LV, pleased with Snape for something else,
promised that he would do so if Lily didn't interfere with him killing
her baby. 

Snape, knowing that Lily would never consent to such thing, decided to
save her life by foiling LV's entire attack by warning Dumbledore
about it. At that time, Dumbledore talked Snape into serving as his
spy; also, Dumbledore warned the Potters and the Longbottoms that LV
was after them, so they went into hiding.

After a while, LV got close on the Potters' trail; Snape warned
Dumbledore; Dumbledore warned James (& Lily?) and suggested the
Fidelius Charm. Due to Potters choosing Pettigrew as Secret Keeper,
this backfired. LV did make a token effort to save Lily to give her to
Severus, but he sure didn't put much effort into it.

(There was once a theory that there was a Prophecy that Lily's child
would win the war for his father's side, so LV wanted to keep Lily
alive to bear him a child. I say, if he had wanted her for himself, he
would have used a Stunning Spell or Petrificus Totalus or Imperius on
her instead of AK.)

(A simpler theory, which doesn't explain why Snape turned, is that
Pettigrew wanted Lily for himself and his real reason for betraying
Potters to LV was he offered LV a deal: "I can help you kill James and
Harry if you give me Lily as a reward.")

Snape, sincerely believing that Black was the traitorous Secret
Keeper, doubled his hatred of Potter and Black because, between them,
they had killed Lily -- that is, had ruined his plan to save Lily.

It is possible to cobble together an explanation of how Snape didn't
know it was Pettigrew when the Death Eaters in Azkaban did. If
Bellatrix was the only Death Eater who knew it was Pettigrew, her
crazed screams in Azkaban would have spread the word there. If
Pettigrew knew that she knew about him, he would have hidden from her
immediately (as he did) and, by the time she was put in Azkaban
(months later), he was comfortable enough as a pet rat not to bother
re-appearing as himself.