[HPforGrownups] Re: Pondering a Snape thing

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 3754

mmarth at peoplepc.com wrote:

> I agree that he must have suffered a severe disappointment and hurt
> in his life.  But when and what?  I think it does go WAY back.  How
> does an 11 year old know so many curses?  Who taught him?  Why has he
> always been interested in the Dark Arts?  Is it because that is the
> life he likes?  Or is he interested  because something has happened
> to him (some Dark Art thing) and he is trying to find a way out of it.
> I have to believe he lost someone close to him also.  I can think of
> so many other questions but I don't have the time right now.
>
> Now Amanda, don't write back and tell me the person he lost was
> Lily.  You know I don't believe that theory!  LOL

Now, now. Just because one thing was causative doesn't mean there's only
been one causative event in his life.....

Actually, you have a point. I'm betting he was sensitive and impressionable,
and I can see that the Dark Arts can be made to appear glamorous and
alluring if packaged correctly. I mean, I was the girl who always wanted
Dracula to win in the old Hammer movies.....perhaps in Snape's youth he had
an adolescent crush (and I am not implying anything physical, here--I mean
the emotional, identification kind of thing) on some practitioner of the
Dark Arts (who indulged or encouraged him), and then got a glimpse of what
it's *really* like. That's an emotional shock, and one sufficient to turn an
idealist into a cynic (those are the correct polar opposites).

--Amanda
he did *too* love Lily! neener, neener