Analysis of the flashback scene in PS/SS film

[torillgrnhaug]

> --- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, "jotwo2003" <jsummerill at s...> 
> wrote:
> 
> > I am now 99% sure that Alan Rickman is in the flashback, in his 
> > normal role as Snape, trying to protect Lily, and that fans have 
> > guessed correctly that Snape was there on the night the Potters 
> were 
> > killed.

I have now spent great portions of this afternoon to watch that scene
over and over, to see what on earth you are talking about - I always
assumed it was Voldemort the whole time too. 

I'm still not convinced that it's not though. 

It's not a good argument I think, that whoever it is standing in front
of Lily turns away when she shuts the door in his face. It is clear
this is NOT James, and I don't understand how anyone will think that
it is, even if Coltrane says "your parents fought against him" when
the door is shut. Whoever this is, it is someone Lily fears and
loaths, just look at her face as she shuts the door. No, this is not
James, and it's no reason the actor playing him should be credited
next to the one playing Lily.

It can still be Voldemort, turning around to take on James first. It's
not a question of him coming in unseen or something. The Potters know
he is coming, and James has shouted to Lily to take Harry and run, she
is doing that here. As the sound is still Coltrane's voiceover, we
don't know if anyone here is actually saying something. Voldie could
have only stunned James while going for Lily, but James could have
recovered sooner than Voldie thought he would and shouted to him to
divert his attention from Lily again, and then Voldie is turning
around to finish his job with James, leaving Lily for the moment,
knowing she can't get away from him now, as the secretkeeper has
betrayed her. 

There ARE some strange things with this scene, though. I'll come back
to that shortly. So maybe it's not Voldemort that we see. But whatever
is going on, and possibly it's more going on here than we have heard
of yet, I don't really think it's Snape either. The cloak and the
sleeve and the wand is the same all through the scene. If it IS Snape
that we see all the time, then something very strange is going on
indeed, because it's clear that when the wand is pointed towards Lily
after we have seen the blast on the other side of the door -
presumably what kills James - that is the moment when Lily is killed.
Just watch and hear her agony. 

OR...and here come the strange things. The light on both occasions is
yellow, not green. The flash of the killing curse is described as
green in canon, isn't it? The green light is only seen afterwards,
from the outside, out of TWO windows of the house. 

So what does this mean? Was Lily and James tortured with the crucio
spell before they were killed? Voldie could definitely be cruel enough
to do that. If it wasn't Voldie, but Snape pointing his wand at Lily
in the yellow light, then he is not defending her but torturing her.
Look at her, look at her terrible agony. It is clearly the person with
the wand doing this to her, and it's NOT a friendly person doing it.
If it IS Snape, as I'm not sure it is, then he is a Death Eater for
sure, or he was at this point in time. If he did this to Lily, he must
have been in the house together with Voldemort, assisting him. Then we
can understand why he turns away from Lily in the first scene - Voldie
   might have called him back from her, as he wants to deal with her
by himself, after he has handled James.

Another thing - if James was only tortured in the blast of yellow
light behind the door, he could have gotten back to help Lily
afterwards, coming in through the door and attacking Lily's attacker
from behind, if it was only one intruder in the house. The Crucio
spell is terribly painful, but as it is described in the books, people
recover from it rather quickly. What if there ARE two intruders, and
James is killed by Voldie in one room, while Lily is being tortured by
the assistant in another, disobeying Voldies request to leave her for
him to deal with. We only see the yellow light from the spell that
tortures Lily here, not the green light coming from the wand killing
James, that fits.  And then Harry and Lily are both attakced by the
killing spell (yes,I know, I'm too lazy to look up the spelling of the
correct name just now) afterwards, in two different rooms, Harry by
Voldie and Lily by the assistant, thus explaining the green light seen
through two windows. 

If this assistant of Voldie's is Snape, he really has a lot to regret.
He could have done it out of hatred and jealousy if he wanted Lily
himself, and was tormented that she chose his chief enemy James Potter
instead. Assuming that Snape is not all bad, which I think he is not,
I would think it possible for him to be horrified by himself after
this, when he kind of woke up from his rage and realized fully what he
had done. It could explain his need to redeem himself by working for
Dumbledore, and try to protect Harry, even if he hates him - the
hatred for those that remind you of your wrongdoings may be very
strong indeed! Also he might really need Sirius out of the way,
because if he found out what had REALLY happened.....Maybe this is why
he blew up the house after the act too, to distroy whatever clue he
migth have left behind that could prove he was there. Because why was
the house blown up? The killing spell kills people, it doesn't bring
buildings down. 

Of course, the assistant might not really be Snape. I don't think the
colour of the sleeve is a very strong evidence. Rather weak actually,
couldn't just about anyone in the wizarding world wear a black robe
occationally? I don't think it's definitely a white cuff that we see
there either, it's kind of hard to discern from the film I think.And
going by the credits (- which doesn't necessary say much, there are
mistakes in CoS for instance, crediting people from deleted scenes), I
assume Rickman comes later, too?  The assistant could have been
Pettigrew, of course - or someone else we would never think likely. 

Or we are just analyzing too much into this short snippet of the first
film!! But they were so keen to tell us Rowling had written it, and
that it was something there not in the book, so maybe there IS some
cues here. Personally I find this thing with the coulours of the
lights much more significant than that sleeve. 

Torill