Yet another Snape Theory

[Gen]

No: HPFGUIDX 2139

> 
> When Snape was a kid he was a cheerful boy who's driving ambition 
was 
> to learn all the magic there was to learn. His first course at 
> Hogwarts was "charms", they were learning love potions. The 
students 
> teamed up to give charms to each other, by pure chance Snape's 
> partner was Lilly Riddle, Harry's future mother. Normally this is 
> harmless, the sort of charm a kid could make would only last a few 
> minutes at best, and even the charm made by a adult wizard could be 
> reversed without much difficulty. However Lilly was a magical 
genius, 
> an absolute powerhouse especially in the area of charms, at the 
time 
> nobody understood this, least of all Lilly. The charm caused Snape 
to 
> fall madly in love with Lilly and the effect was permanent and 
> irreversible. Lilly always felt very guilty about this, after they 
> graduated Lilly even offered to marry Snape but he knew she did not 
> love him and so would be unhappy, Snape could not stand the thought 
> of her being unhappy. Lilly married James Potter instead.
> 
> Snape couldn't hate Lilly but he could hate James, Harry looks like 
> his father so Snape hates him too. Snape finds that the charm makes 
> him incapable of loving anybody else and is embittered, he becomes 
a 
> death eater. Lilly has developed a charm that she thinks will 
counter 
> Voldamore's Avadra Kedavra death curse, that's why he wants to kill 
> her. So far she's only made enough for one person so she gives it 
to 
> Harry. When Snape finds out that Voldemore is trying to kill Lilly 
he 
> switches sides and becomes a spy for Dumbledore, that's why he 
trusts 
> him so much, Snape hates Voldemore as much as harry does. Snape 
> fought courageously to save Lilly but failed. By the end of book 6 
> Harry and Snape don't become friends exactly but at least learn to 
> respect each other, after all, Harry has his mother's eyes.

My thoughts:

I like your theory...I think somewhere many moons ago this topic was 
discussed in the Yahoo chatgroup messages...for the life of me, I 
can't remember the other reasons that were discussed as to why it 
can't be this "love Lily" reason. 

I tend to subscribe to the Snape/Lily love theory as well because I 
believe it had to be something extremely emotional that struck Snape 
right to the core that has flamed his hatred all through the years. 
Maybe he swore his undying love for Lily which was an irreversible 
spell. I'm not sure about the bewitching charm which you said Lily 
could have performed but I feel fairly certain that Snape hated Harry 
from the beginning because as you say, he is the spitting image of 
James and Snape hates James we know because the latter was popular 
and Lily simply has to be a big factor here. To rub salt into the 
wound as it were, Harry has his mom's eyes which perpetually reminds 
Snape of the love he had lost. It's like, Harry could have been his! 
(Urgh...just picture this..Harry with green eyes and GREASY hair like 
Snape's...yuck!!!). 

To add to your theory, maybe, just maybe he in fact HELPED Lily 
create the potion that can throw off the AK curse. After all, he is 
the Potions Master. He must have been gifted at this in school as 
well. Maybe it was a special potion that needed both of them to do it.

Another point - may have been raised before - why do you think  
Voldemort told Harry that "your mother needn't have died" ? Seems far 
fetched that V had any soft spot for Lily as he appears to be 
incapable/devoid of any positive emotion. He may have asked Lily to 
switch to the Dark Side and she refused but I can't see Voldemort 
being the sort to be merciful and giving people a choice actually.

If Snape actually openly fought to save Lily from V, then it's going 
to be tough for him to do whatever it is Dumbledore intends for him 
to do in Book 5. It would appear from Dumbledore's words in GoF that 
Snape must somehow be seen to be with V, continue to be a spy for 
Dumbledore. I can't imagine V trusting him....as he is close to 
Dumbledore. Another thought - could it even be conceivable that 
Snape's hatred for Harry is a cover up , although from the many 
instances in all four books so far, his hatred is genuine enough. 
Maybe that's why Dumbledore doesn't seem to stop Snape from being 
nasty to him. Could Lily have somehow secretly made Snape Harry's 
second godfather ?

Gen