The worst is yet to come

[Karolina]

No: HPFGUIDX 80894

Kneasy wrote:
> *If* Snapey had the hots for Lily (shudder), there must be at 
least two 
> horrible memories. First, when he realised he'd no chance, second, 
when 
> she marries James.(Cringe)

Kneasy, it's sweet of you to entertain the possibility of a ship in 
your post. I'm not a shipper myself (well, I try not to be, publicly 
^_^) but I have a few thoughts on this.

The memory Harry sees in the pensieve might be the one in which 
Snape realizes he has no chance and James and Lilly start on the 
road to becoming an item. 

We might assume from the way he reacts to the Maurauders' attentions 
that Snape has been harassed by them before. So why is this 
particular memory, according to the chapter title, the "worst"? 
Well, it seems to be the first time Lily steps in between James and 
Snape. That, in itself, might be a terrible thing for the young 
Severus - having a mudblood girl rescue him from the class bullies. 
Notice how vicious Snape is towards Lily. This could be hate, pure 
and simple, but it could also be frustration and helplessness. He 
has just been abused and humiliated in front of everyone, <shipper 
hat on> including that one special girl and he can't think of 
anything to do but to spit venom all around him. In the process of 
ranting and raving, he insults Lily and in this way pushes her away 
from him. James is told off by Evans and starts reconsidering his 
actions. He quits beating up on Severus cold turkey, and changes his 
life so he can better impress the girl. 
This leads to very little or no contact between Severus and the 
future Potters - Lily wants nothing to do with him, and James is 
trying not to pick on him anymore. Snape keeps his distance, and 
eventually receives secondhand information that the two have wound 
up together. Traumatic, but perhaps not so much; I expect Snape had 
suspected it from the time of the events seen in the pensieve, as he 
had inadvertently been the catalyst that brought the two together on 
that day, making it his worst memory.</shipper hat off> 

Me, shipper? Perish the though!

I agree that Harry doesn't see _all_ of SS's bad memories - after 
all, he sees only one. In the passage, Snape removes memorieS 
(plural) from his mind and places them in the pensieve. I'm sure the 
Whomping Willow werewolf memory is in there, and we can only guess 
what others Harry misses out on.

By the way, when I first read the chapter, I assumed that, at the 
end of the memory, the "flash of light" Harry saw before the vision 
of Snape in his underoos signified switching between different 
memories. I took it as a reminder that the previous memory had not 
been the only one in the pensieve. Had anyone else understood it 
that way?