Why did Voldemort offer to spare Lily? (was: Reactions to Snape)

[littleleahstill]

No: HPFGUIDX 175789

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Judy" <judy at ...> wrote:
>
> Here is a question that I haven't seen discussed here lately.  We 
> know that Voldemort offered Lily the chance to live; it was her 
> willingness to die when she had the option to live that gave Harry 
> his protection from the Killing Curse. But, why did Voldemort give 
> Lily that option?
>> 
> But, this raises the question again: If Voldemort wasn't willing 
to 
> spare Lily for Snape's sake, then why, when Voldemort showed up at 
> Godric's Hollow, did he give her a chance to "step aside"?  Or, if 
> Voldemort did tell Snape that he would spare Lily, then why did 
Snape 
> show up, desperate, frantic, begging Dumbledore to save her?
> 
> Really, this seems like a plot hole to me.  The books never 
explain 
> whether Voldemort said he would spare Lily, and if so, why Snape 
> still went to Dumbledore. I know I was wrong about Snape hoping to 
> save James & Harry, and that Snape was therefore not as good a 
person 
> as I expected, but I think JKR was misleading on this point – she 
> said in interviews there was an important reason why Voldemort 
> offered to spare Lily.  So, I believed that Voldemort told Snape 
that 
> he would spare Lily, and that, since Snape knew that Voldemort 
would 
> spare Lily, Snape must have gone to Dumbledore in the hopes of 
saving 
> James and/or Harry as well.
> 
> Here's what I can come up with to plug this potential plothole:
> 1) Maybe Voldemort told Snape no, he would not spare Lily, but 
then 
> changed his mind.
> 2) Maybe Voldemort intended to spare Lily all along, but told 
Snape 
> he would not just to be cruel.
> 3) Maybe Voldemort DID tell Snape he would spare Lily, but Snape 
was 
> worried (quite rightly) that Voldemort wouldn't keep his word.
> 
> Any thoughts?
> 
>
Leah:  I think it's only possible to choose between these on gut 
feeling since I can't immediately think of any canon that would 
favour one over the other.  I think there's a possible a and b in 
your (3), (a) as you have written and (b) Voldemort did agree to 
spare Lily and Snape was only hedging his bets in coming to 
Dumbledore.  However, having formulated that I think I will reject 
it, as it doesn't tally with the desperate state in which Snape 
approaches DD.

My gut reaction (as a Snape fan, so it is coloured by that 
perspective) is that your number 3 is the one.  This would suggest 
that Snape quite rightly had decided that he couldn't trust VM as 
far as he could throw him, and also that he had worked out for 
himself at a fairly early stage something intrinsic about VM's 
nature and specifically the nature of his promises to his followers 
which others, notably Wormtail, don't find out until it's too late.

As to why Voldemort  offered Lily the chance to live, I am equally 
puzzled. It may be that he thought her continued existence would 
give him a powerful hold over Snape.  Otherwise, he could just have 
killed Lily and told Snape that she refused his offer, modified 
Snape's memory so he forgot the promise etc etc.  Or it may have 
something to do with Merope.  The distinct impression given in HBP 
is that Merope chose death over life with her baby.  In that case, a 
mother metaphorically sacrifices her child to her own wish for 
death, and I wonder if VM was intrigued to see whether a mother 
would literally sacrifice her child to her wish for life.    

On a somewhat related topic, I remain puzzled by the fact that DD 
let Snape loose with the prophecy.  Before HBP, my opinion was that 
DD could not have known he was overheard on the night in question, 
that the eavesdropper had been thrown out purely as an undesirable 
by someone who didn't query further and that DD was only informed of 
the overhearing later by, most likely,, Snape.  That went by the 
board after HBP.  So why let Snape out into the night with a 
prophecy that DD had had no chance to mull over.   Would DD really 
want to let a DE go with a piece of information that was interesting 
to put it at its mildest?  And what responsibiliy does DD bear as a 
consequence for the deaths of James and Lily.

Leah