The priceless Eric Oppen [from 35002]

[carolynwhite2]

After all, we don't know what Lily Evans looked like as a young girl, 
do we?
Just because Harry thought she was beautiful in the Mirror of Erised,
doesn't mean she was always beautiful. Until she got her growth spurt,
which could have come in her last couple of years at Hogwarts, she 
could
have been "Miss Shorty-Greasy-Spot-Spot" to all and sundry. Or, more
prosaically, who's to say that Snape even goes for redheads? 
According to
Sydney Biddle Barrows, the so-called "Mayflower Madam," men divide 
into two
camps on the subject of redheads---Love 'Em and Can't Stand 'Em. If 
Snape
is in the second category, he could be _friends_ with Lily Evans, 
while
feeling no great attraction for her, and, again for all we know, 
breaking
the hearts (and certain other things) of half the girls in Slytherin 
House.
Severus' girlfriend-of-the-moment is never particularly threatened by 
Lily's
presence in his life, because they're _known_ to only be platonic
friends---who'd want to snog Miss Shorty-Greasy-Spot-Spot, anyway?---
and
she's got enough to worry about keeping her trophy-boyfriend away 
from those
other cows in Slytherin House, who'd steal him right out from under 
her if
they saw an opening.