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

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 175846

 



Way  back in early 2002 (Message #34801), Cindy Sphinx said:
>> The  Snape-Loves-Lily theory, on the other hand, says that Snape
>>  performs all of these heroic tasks and puts himself in harm's way
>>  for the stale memory of a relationship with a woman Snape never  
had.
>> If that's true, then that makes Snape, well, kinda  pitiful, no? <g>

And I responded: (Judy)
> I prefer to  think of it as a tragic and touching, not pitiful.

Now that Snape  "putting himself in harm's way for a relationship he 
never had" is  actually canon, I still see it as tragic and touching.  
But boy, is  it sad!  I cried when Snape died looking into Harry's 
eyes.  In  fact, the only thing that made me feel better was imagining 
(as several  others did here), that Snape "woke up" in the afterlife 
(in his equivalent  of King's Cross station, perhaps) looking into 
Lily's eyes. We see that in  the afterlife, everyone (except 
Voldemort) has at least some degree of  physical healing.  I'd like to 
think that Snape is healed  emotionally, as well. (Who knows, maybe 
his hair is even clean.)  



Julie:
The thing is, it isn't a "stale" memory of a relationship Snape never had, 
because they DID have a relationship, a close friendship, for 6-7  years,
depending on when it started. So it's a memory of a real relationship,  the
most positive one in Snape's life, that Snape lost, first because of his  own
mistakes in judgment (choosing his budding-DE friendships over Lily's)  and
then because he unintentionally got her killed and lost her  *forever.*
 
So, yes it was tragic and sad, but I still don't see it as pitiful in any  
way,
except perhaps n relation to Snape--not because he loved Lily and  promised
to keep her son alive to honor her memory, but that his guilt kept him  from
moving beyond it all and having any prospects of a normal life.
 
Oh, and as for why Voldemort offered to spare Lily--whether he did or  didn't
promise Snape he would *try*, it cost him nothing to offer Lily her life.  It 
also
would have cost him nothing to simply stupefy her, and then release her  once
he'd taken care of Harry, but I can only assume he didn't do that because  
then
there would be no plot about the Boy Who Lived and the grieving DE who  turned
and helped that boy defeat evil, thus no Harry Potter saga at all!
 
Julie 



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