[HPforGrownups] About Lily's character (WAS: Snape/Lily thought...)

[pigwidgeonthirtyseven]

No: HPFGUIDX 33185


 
  Eric Oppen <oppen at cnsinternet.com> wrote: 
>You know, I have been wondering:  A lot of people on here think that Snape
>was in love with Lily and resented James (and by extension Harry) because of
>that, but what if it was just the opposite?  We don't know what Lily was
>like at school other than that she was Head Girl (a St. Trinian's cartoon on
>this subject pops into my mind, but I shall repress it).  Head Girl does
>_not_ equal "nice," or "kind," or much of anything other than "good at her
>studies and in good with the faculty."

>For all we know, Lily might have been extremely cruel to Young Severus, and
>deliberately humiliated him in front of his peers once, or more than once.
>Whether with or without James' assistance, a popular, lusted-after girl in a
>school can easily do this to an unpopular, overlooked boy, as in pretending
>interest to get his hopes up, only to yank the rug out from under him at the
>worst possible moment.

Unfortunately, we don't know anything about the school days of Lily, Snape and the Marauders, except for very few things told by (very prejudiced) Sirius and (mildly prejudiced) Lupin. In fact, we don't even know for sure that Snape *was* an outsider. It only serves the purpose of explaining how he could have become the person he is now and it certainly seems very logical. But what does "Hanging out with a gang of Slytherins", as Sirius puts it, really mean? From the Gryffindor and especially from Sirius's POV, even an innocent group of friends would immediately be categorized as "gang", due to the attitude towards the other house. But it's not clear whether they *were* friends, or a group simply sharing certain interests, whether Snape was a part of the group or just tolerated- it's all very vague.

Anyway, I've always had the feeling (and it's no more than just some gut-feeling) that Lily was *not* a nice person, at least not in her school days and maybe not even afterwards. Being capable of dying for your own child doesn't automatically make you a nice person. It's a sign of strength and of the ability to love selflessly, but not necessarily of being a nice person (whatever that means, as I suppose each of us has their own idea). Of course, Harry idealizes her, but then he never knew her. So, what else do we have about Lily? Petunia's angry rant of PS/SS, which might contain a grain of truth, biased though she doubtlessly is. And Hagrid's statement that Harry's parents were great wizards, which means power, but nothing else. On the contrary, IMO it is rather significant that he doesn't tell Harry anything along the lines of "She was a powerful witch and one of the kindest persons I ever met", because Hagrid is very sensitive about those positive human qualities in other persons ("Great man, Dumbledore" or what he says about Hermione). 

I could imagine Lily as an extremely powerful witch and woman, very sure about what she deems to be right and wrong, and ruthlessly determined once somebody dares to cross or contradict her. In a cliché-ed way, she could be described as the classical lioness. Hmmm... somehow I don't really like her. But you're welcome to disagree or send howlers.

Susanna/pigwidgeon37

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