[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape/Petunia Connection

[Carol Bainbridge]

No: HPFGUIDX 44595

JOdel wrote:
>I have been giggling behind my hand at this whole thread, which strikes me as
>one of those gloriously silly digressions wherin one attempts to prove
>logically that black is white and white is red. Thank you all for some fine
>entertainment.

Glad to have contributed to your entertainment.  Personally, I think it's 
fun to try to fit what we know from the books into theories of what might 
have happened and what will happen.  As far as I know, the HP series is the 
only series to get such attention while the story is still in progress.  We 
know more information is coming, but we can only guess at what it is.  It's 
interesting to see how people put together its and pieces from canon to 
come up with both predictions and explanations.

I'm not one who believes in a Snape/Petunia connection, but the theories 
aren't all that outlandish, and I don't see them as either digressive or 
silly.  They are based on canon and help explain parts of the story line 
and attitudes of characters.  They also lead to certain predictions.

JOdel continued:
>Now, as to "Perseus Evans"; I suspect that if he ever existed (and, yes, I
>know he does in fanon), isn't it a lot more likely that he was an identity
>assumed by Snape than the other way around?

*More* likely?  Not necessarily.  It's certainly another possibility, but I 
don't know that I see it as more likely.  Like many aspects of HP, we 
simply don't have enough information to be sure.  Some of us see things one 
way, others see something else.

>Now, really, wouldn't it have
>appealed to Snape's rather spiteful sense of humor, when exercising his
>cleverness in creating an anagram identity for himself, to deliberately adopt
>a throughly "Gryffandoresquely" *heroic* name like *Perseus* coupled with the
>family name of that Muggle-born Evans?

One thing I never attributed to Snape was a sense of humor -- of any 
kind.  I agree he's spiteful, but where's his humor?  And why pick Lily's 
name?  Because she married James?  I would think it more likely for him to 
choose Black's name to work with.

JOdel again:
>He was probably snickering up his
>sleeve when it dawned on him that the letters of his own name could be pushed
>into that arangement.

Now there's an image that never arose in my mind!  Snape snickering!  The 
best I can come up with is an evil grin.

More from JOdel:
>Which leads me to suspect that the name (if it ever was used) was adopted
>originally in Voldemort's service, since the adoption of such a Muggle family
>name as Evans might have been useful in confusing any tracking.

Yes, it might, but again why would Snape choose that name?  Why single out 
Lily?  I think it is possible that Snape might have picked the name Perseus 
Evans to use in service of Voldemort, but even that theory has 
problems.  It rather begs the question of why he picked that name to being 
with.  It also leads me to wonder what old Voldie would think about one of 
his followers hiding behind a pseudonym.  Voldemort doesn't strike me as 
the kind of guy who would appreciate that.  We know that he had the kindest 
words in GoF for those followers of his who refused to deny their 
allegiance to him.

JOdel again:
>(Although
>given the commoness of the name there might, for all we know, actually be
>some wizarding Evanses, even if no connection to Petunia and Lily.)

Maybe.  But this too begs the question of why Snape would choose that 
particular name.  The thing that got me wondering about the names is the 
fact that it's way too coincidental.  I'm having a hard time imagining that 
JKR could have used these names purely by coincidence.  Even if Snape used 
name of some wizarding Evans family, he still had to do so for some reason, 
particularly since he doesn't strike me as a stupid guy and must have been 
fully aware that Evans was the name of James Potter's girlfriend/wife.

Hopefully, we'll learn more when book five comes out (impatient glance at 
calendar). JKR did say, I believe, that we'll learn more about Lily and 
James and what they did for a living.  Maybe it will also shed some light 
on the relationship, whatever it may be, between Snape and James and Snape 
and Lily.

Carol Bainbridge
(kaityf at jorsm.com)

http://www.lcag.org