# Why did Voldemort want Lilly to join the Death Eaters

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-voldemort-want-lilly-to-join-the-death-eaters/577155>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 4, 2011, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-voldemort-want-lilly-to-join-the-death-eaters/577155 "2011-04-04T15:47:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2011, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-voldemort-want-lilly-to-join-the-death-eaters/577155/21 "2011-04-05T15:34:03Z")

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> [@Oy](#):
>
> Didn’t the Prophecy say that the Boy would be born to parents who had defied Lord Voldemort three times? Whne Dumbledore explained the Prophecy to Harry, he said that both the Longbottoms and the Potters qualified, so depending on what values of “defy” you use, this could be interpreted as rebuffing invitations.

From **AK84** ’s link:

> [@JKR](#):
>
> It depends how you take defying, doesn’t it. I mean, if you’re counting, which I do, anytime you arrested one of his henchmen, anytime you escaped him, anytime you thwarted him, that’s what he’s looking for. And both couples qualified because they were both fighting. Also, James and Lily turned him down, that was established in “Philosopher’s Stone”. He wanted them, and they wouldn’t come over, so that’s one strike against them before they were even out of their teens.

I don’t have a problem with her interpretation of “defy”, I just don’t agree that she actually established in the text of “Philosopher’s Stone” that they had turned him down. I’m perfectly happy to accept that they did so on the basis of her word–it’s her world, after all.

On that basis, the OP’s question is valid. My answer is what I alluded to in my previous post: she would have been useful. A big part of Voldy’s schtick was manipulation; he said himself that he’d always been able to charm those he needed, and he wasn’t just talking about spells. While he clearly had a particular hatred for muggles, I think he played up the “pureblood” angle as one way to control his followers, giving them a target. After all, he wasn’t pureblooded himself, and neither was Snape. His personal feelings, I think, were subsumed by his obsessions with immortality and power; if a muggle who had never even heard of magic could be useful to him in those pursuits, he would use them, then discard them–just as he would use and discard a pureblooded follower.

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**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2011, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-voldemort-want-lilly-to-join-the-death-eaters/577155/22 "2011-04-05T19:59:28Z")

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> [@howye](#):
>
> Most likely the entire pureblood thing mattered little to Voldy. It was a tool to gather up and manipulate those who would fall for his particular brand of charms. If mudbloods had somehow become necessary to immortality and power, then Voldy would have declared them friends of the cause without hesitation.

This. The whole “Hitler” theme was evident and intentional. Jews were not on the top of his crap list but they were the most convenient.

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