Why didn't it happen this way? (a missing scene from HP)

[mary_j_59]

I've said over on Snapedom that, if Lily was the be-all and end-all for young Sev, she should have been the be-all and end-all. So why couldn't he have joined the Death Eaters specifically to protect her? I do know the answer to that, of course: we couldn't have a scene that might make him more sympathetic. But why did Rowling also have to diminish James and Lily? Consider Voldemort's attack:

James hears something at the door and yells to his wife: "Lily, take Harry and run! I'll hold him off!" He picks up his wand and runs to the door, shouting, "Expelliarmus! Stupefy!" Spells ricochet off the walls of the small house, and eventually the young man falls. Voldemort steps over his body and strides up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, he meets Lily.

Voldemort: "Put the brat down and stand aside, girl."
Lily: (Turning so that she shelters Harry with her body and backing away) "No! Not Harry! Please, not Harry! I'll do anything-"
voldemort: "Stand aside, or you will die."
Lily: (She turns slightly toward Voldemort, still sheltering Harry in her arms). "If I join you, will you let Harry live?"
Voldemort: "You will join the Death Eaters?"
Lily: "Yes, I will, if you only let Harry live! I'll brew for you. I'll teach Harry to honor you (gulps as she says this, gasps, and goes on), I'll do anything you ask. Only let Harry live!"
Voldemort: (smiles cruelly) Very well, girl. I accept. Now set the child down.
Lily: "You promise? You will let him live?"
Voldemort: "I promise. Now set him down."
Lily: (looks doubtful, but carries Harry back into the bedroom and sets him in his crib.)
Voldemort: "Now stand aside, girl"
Lily: (steps to one side, her eyes wide and fearful)
Voldemort: (draws his wand and aims at Harry, beginning to pronounce) Avada-
Lily: (shrieks and darts in front of Voldemort's wand) No! Not Harry! You promised! (the beam of light hits her and she dies.)
Voldemort: "Foolish girl!" (he steps forward and aims at Harry again, saying, "Avada Kedavra". The curse rebounds and destroys him. His last feeling is fury that he could have been outwitted by a Muggleborn girl and her half-blood lover, who'd urged her usefulness and probably arranged the trap with her.)

Why couldn't have Rowling done it this way? Why couldn't she have shown Lily and James to have some smarts and competence? Just my two cents, as always.

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

Why didn't Lily have a wand on her? Because Rowling needed to keep Lily from escaping with Harry. I mean, even if DH demonstrates that one can't Apparate in and out of a Fidelius-protected place, with a wand she could have turned the first object she saw into a Portkey for both of them, instead of wasting time on piling furniture behind the door.

I like Jodel's reading (well, one of them), that by saying 'take me instead' Lily made a magical contract with Voldemort which he accepted when he killed her, and then broke when he attacked Harry. But Rowling's Lily wasn't supposed to have known what she was doing. Bah! Since Rowling's explanation is ex-canon I'm willing to go with Jodel's.

But no reading can redeem James.

You know, I was in Israel during the Gulf War (of 1991). I was living in dorms at my graduate school. For 2 months I carried a gas mask with me wherever I went, I always knew where the nearest 'sealable room' was, one night I even made it from the shower in my dorm to the 'sealable room' which was in the next building in time before the door was taped shut. While the Potters had to keep their alert for much longer, a wand is much easier to keep on one's person at all times than it is to keep a gas mask at the ready.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly - and that's certainly an interesting and pertinent example. But I can think of so many others - parents from all cultures, all over the world, have done extraordinary things for their children. However, I do have to say that in any contest of reason and common sense, Muggles would always win over Rowling's Wizards hands-down.

Rowling needed Lily to sacrifice herself and die, and she needed her sacrifice to protect Harry. I understand that. I do not understand why she had to make the poor girl look a fool in the process. As it is, I have more sympathy with both Narcissa Malfoy and that Muggle mother from Germany than I do with Lily. That cannot be what Rowling intended, can it?

[oryx_leucoryx]

When she forces characters into situations where they can do nothing but make grand gestures when the characters could have avoided it with a little common sense their grand gestures don't come across that well.