Voldemort and Lily

[dibble2]

Hurry, go read JKR's most recent interview on mugglenet.com. Lots of interesting things in there, including this stumper:

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.

What? What's that all about? Voldemort letting someone live? There's something huge going on here! What do you think?

[Scarlet Lioness]

http://www.mugglenet.com/jkrinterview.shtml

Here's Part 1 of the interview...Lots of interesting comments by JK in the interview...^^^

Part 2:
http://www.mugglenet.com/jkrinterview2.shtml

Part 3:
http://www.mugglenet.com/jkrinterview3.shtml

Enjoy...

[thestral]

yup i read that too and was like WHAT!?! it confirmed what i thought all along. i mean we practically know james potter we've got so much backstory on him, but we know next to nothing about lily potter, bar she was muggle born, female and harry's mother with red hair and green eyes.

JK's holding back details about her cos there's something huge to come. but i don't know what. most theories are that LV wanted her to join the DE's so offered her the chance, but would that really work? she's a 'mudblood' to them so i don't believe that theory.

which leaves me with...nothing. i don't have a clue why LV offered her the chance to live. i DON'T think he was in love with her somehow, he doesn't seem the sort . so until JK finally writes it and tells us, i'm stumped as to why she'd so important to LV.

[Froggs]

He promised her to Snape?

[thestral]

i think that's getting into robin hood movie territory there. i don't imagine that would be the answer, also can you really imagine lily potter as the sort of person who would be bartered about as a bargaining chip?

[Fweegal]

Maybe it's because LV only killed for a reason, and that there would have been no reason to kill Lily is she got out of the way.

[thestral]

no i don't think LV only kills people for a reason. i dont think he cares who he kills and if someone gets in the way of his objective (kill harry) he wouldn't hesitate to kill them, they're just an obstacle to him. but he hesitated with lily. why did he give her the offer to live. why would he care whether she lives or dies, she's just one more body right? there defintly something really fishy going on there.

[Fweegal]

Hmmm... I agree. I think either there is a Snape link there, or something that hasn't even been hinted at yet.

[darkcloak]

From what I've read of the interview (linked above) I think JKR answered the question fully.

James tried to stop Voldemort by attacking him and therefore was not thinking about protecting Harry with his death whereas Lily realised her peril and got in the way of Harry, slowing Voldermort down and allowing herself time to perform the protection spell.

In other words, it's self-fulfilling, if Lily had attacked Voldemort as James did, then Harry would not have been protected.

[Snow_Crystal]

Yeah I read the interviews on mugglenet as well. Why did he bother to give her chances to live? He obviously felt she could give him something that James couldn't. We know she was good at charms, was he planning something else at the time that she would have been able to help him with? Could he have been working on hiding his horcruxes? His priorities obviously changed after Harry lived and he lost his body. What were his plans before that night?

Do you think LV might have had respect for Lily because she was also a half-blood like himself and his other trusted DE Snape?

Something is pointing me in this direction for some reason. He also gave HP the offer of joining him in Philosophers Stone and Harry's a half-blood too.

[Scarlet Lioness]

Yeah maybe...but he did give Harry a chance to join him...maybe he gave Lilly that chance too...join him and they could do great things...but of course she declined and he killed her just like he attempted to do with Harry...

[dibble2]

I don't know how reliable it is, but from Harry's memories in PoA (from the dementors) it didn't seem like Voldemort offered a chance to join him. But maybe he would have come back to it after Lily lost everything she had to live for.

[darkcloak]

If you remember the prophecy it says that James and Lily have already defied the Dark Lord three times.

Who knows what happened during their previous encounters?

Perhaps he was wary of Lily because of this?

[Snow_Crystal]

Hmm interesting - I wonder how they defied him, I'd forgotten about that! Apparently LV wasn't interested in James though and killed him outright when he reached Godrics Hollow.

So it must have been Lily he was after in the previous attempts. I wonder if her "charms" were significant in the last few attempts? Or perhaps that he wanted to kill her before Harry was born... very Terminator I know but possible...

[dibble2]

Maybe he just killed James outright because he was trying to fight. He couldn't risk it. Lily, though, was just protecting her child. I know Voldemort is devoid of love and often emotionless, but maybe the image of the selfless, protective mother made him hesitate. After all, his mother was where his magic came from, and he never met her. I don't mean he felt sympathy (look who we're dealing with) but maybe, for reasons Voldemort can't explain himself, he didn't think it was necessairy. Much more likey she had something he wanted, but...just throwing it out there. After all, JKR's books have a lot to say about human nature.