[HPforGrownups] Re: Why was Lily given a chance to survive?

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 161653

> Jim Ferer said:
> I never understood the "Voldemort chose Harry [to kill]."  I can't
> think of any reason at all why Voldemort wouldn't kill both boys that
> fit the prophecy, and the Potters was the house he went to first.  Why
> wouldn't Voldemort, having successfully killed Harry, move on to the
> Longbottom's house?  It could have been as simple a matter as he found
> the Potters first. I call it the King Herod solution to the prophecy
> problem. By losing his body we never found out what Voldemort would
> have done that night.

Frankly, this view is the simplest and most reasonable. All other theories, 
imho, spin too much "what ifs" that stem from ones own personal preferences 
of which characters, introduced later in the story, were good, bad, in love 
with someone else, and so forth, and I don't think any of that plays at all 
into JKR's simple introduction into the story. She started to write this 
story with Harry's parents being dead, having been murdered, according to 
interviews, and then worked out all other relationships and the rest of the 
story from there. I don't think there is a major deep plot point behind 
Voldemort picking Harry first, but I think once he heard the prophecy, he 
intended to kill both. I certainly would have if I were playing the role of 
Voldemort. I wouldn't have taken any chances that I could be wrong. I think 
he was only prevented from going after Neville (again) by the fact that he 
lost his power to do so. We know Neville's parents were harmed too, so we 
know that he indeed was intending very real harm to both families, and in 
fact, if he had tortured the Longbottoms to get at Neville, then we know 
that he failed twice. Not killing Harry would have been his second defeat, 
for his first one would have been not getting information from the 
Longbottoms on where Neville was hidden. It's just that Harry is given 
credit for sapping life out of Voldemort, reducing him to Vapormort, and the 
Longbottoms aren't for their success in protecting Neville, since they 
suffered the loss of their minds in the process.

Shelley