Voldemort's Intentions & Snape's Expectations

[nikkalmati]

No: HPFGUIDX 189840



> Carol responds:
> snip, snip>
 
> I can only account for his promise to spare Lily (which, according to JKR, he intended to keep, no doubt because it cost him nothing to keep *her* alive, Harry being the only threat to his "immortality") because he asked the young Snape to name his own reward. Snape must have begun having doubts (and gone to DD out of desperation) somewhat later when he learned that LV intended to go after the Potters. Harry was not yet born (and, if my theory is correct, just barely conceived) when Snape reported the partial prophecy to LV, so, not having any idea that it involved the Potters, LV would not have hesitated to grant such a minor request. (Why not make an unwilling mistress out of a "Muggle" Order member? IMO, that's how he would see it.)
> 
> At any rate, he must, I think, have promised Severus that he would spare Lily at a point when he was "merely" killing off Order members one by one, not when he was specifically targeting Harry and his family. I doubt that Snape would go to LV at that point to request his reward. He must have seen the danger that LV might go back on his word and gone to Dumbledore for help.
> 
> Admittedly, JRR's time frame is far from clear, but that's the only way the promise to Snape--which LV *had* to have intended to honor for Lily to have that crucial choice that makes possible the Love Magic--makes sense to me.
> 
> Carol, wondering how many OWLs Severus earned and thinking it odd that JKR never informed us
>
Nikkalmati

I am not sure.  Of course we are speculating here.  I have doubts LV would have felt bound by a promise almost a year old - unless Snape had reminded him. 

I am impressed with the way JKR portrayed Snape's coming to DD even in fear of his life.  Snape acted like he had just found out what LV was going to do - hunt down and kill the child(ren) that threatened him and their families. I pictured him in that shocked and distressed state rushing first to LV and requesting that Lily should be spared.  LV agrees (for his own reasons), but Snape has no confidence in that agreement.  Maybe he feels that LV is not to be trusted or maybe he realizes that Lily will fight to the death in any case.  His only chance is to go to DD at the risk of his own life to ask that he protect Lily, so he immediately contacts DD in some way and meets him on the hilltop.  DD also promises to protect Lily and her family in return for Snape's service.  Sometimes you just can't win.

Nikkalmati