Snape's gang/ Lily's motive (was: snape the lapdog/Neville the lackey)

[frumenta]

No: HPFGUIDX 71622

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "oh have faith" 
<rshuson80 at y...> wrote:
> Mim says:
> 
Faith's girl said:> 
> Slytherins don't strike me as the type to make allegiences for no 
> reason - or to pick up a fight they know they can't win.  Maybe 
> Snape did have some secret sympathisers, but none brave enough to 
> take on James and Sirius, who appear to be very skilled at what 
they 
> do.  Much as it pains me to say - as I'm Slytherin to the core and 
> by no means immoral - it took  Lily Evans of Gryffindor to do that 
> (although she probably knew how unlikely it was that James would 
> hurt her).  Also, this may be an isolated incident in which Snape 
> came off worst.  Maybe he was usually much better at defending 
> himself?  I like that you used the word "joined" though - strikes 
> me, any effective band of future DEs didn't take dead weight, so 
> Snape would have had to prove himself before they'd let him in the 
> circle.  I agree an incident like this could have been strong 
> motivation for him to get involved in such a protective band, 
> though, and so become involved in DE type activities, until he was 
> so deeply embroiled he didn't know how to get out, even though 
he's 
> not a killer by nature, and so the story unfolds... ^_^
> 
> etc!
> 
> Faith's Girl
> 
> xx

Excellent points you're making there... I do suspect other 
Slytherins would not want much to do with Snape had he been that 
pathetic in all fights he'd ever been in. However, the fact that the 
moment James and Sirius see him they know they can have some fun and 
they don't seem to worry at all about what he may do to them, really 
makes me wonder. And we have Remus (or was that Sirius?) telling 
Harry that Snape was always *trying* to curse James. *Trying*? 
Doesn't look too good to me.

So perhaps Snape did join afterwards. Had to prove himself to get 
in. Or he was already wanted (what gang wouldn't want a Slyth who 
knows more curses in first year than the seventh years?) but he had 
been resisting so far (perhaps well hidden morals?) or he simply 
didn't buy into that whole mob mentality. However, since it is a 
fact that he once belonged to a gang of Slytherins and I doubt that 
it was in his fourth year and they were all seven years who had 
graduated at the time of the incident, after the attack Snape did 
join, one thing led to another and here's yet another thing for 
which to hate James Potter, Sirius Black and their cronies.

As for Lily, the brave Gryffindor stepping in to save Snape... What 
were her motives really? Weren't they as much to get in James' face 
than anything else since there was an attraction there? Of course, 
after Snape calls her a "mudblood" perhaps it would have been too 
much to expect her to continue defending him, she does after all 
thing he's as bad as James. But did she, say, call a teacher? Just 
do something other than sit there and laugh, call him Snivellus and 
comment on the state of his pants? 

Her version of flirting with James was as much a motive for 
interfering as anything else. However, James probably did try to be 
less of a jerk in order to win her heart since we do learn that he 
did his Snape-bullying in private while dating Lily.

Just a few thoughts. Don't get me wrong, i like Lily. And I do 
accept that squealing on James and Sirius to a teacher wouldn't have 
been a very wise thing for any Gryffindor to do in that situation.

Mim