Severus Snape: The grudge and the very long LOLLIPOPS biography...

[mnaper2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 111391

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "aboutthe1910s" 
<aboutthe1910s at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "brandy" <porcupine88 at y...> 
wrote:
> > --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tabouli" <tabouli at u...> 
wrote:
> snip
> But instead he flips out and 
> > calls her the dirtiest name in the WW.  How can we reconcile that
> with the idea of him 
> > having a crush on her? Or maybe the crush didn't start until after
> this event, when he 
> > realized that she was the only person being nice to him?
> > 
> > -Brandy

> aboutthe1910s:

> I've often wondered if his reaction to Lily isn't what made that
> memory Snape's *worst* (assuming that the chapter is objectively
> titled by Jo, instead of according to Harry's assumtion, which it 
may
> or may not have been, though it seems unlikely to have been Harry's
> assumption because Harry doesn't ever really make that assumption in
> the chapter) rather than what James did to him.  I sincerely believe
> that he must have known he had no chance with her anyway, but I've
> considered the possibility that he blames himself for saying what he
> said to her that day for ruining the chance that he has, in 
hindsight,
> created for himself.
> 

Ally:

I also think that its possible that the whole reason this is Snape's 
worst memory is because it somehow affected his future.  If Lily was 
the closest thing to a caring friend Snape had in school and she felt 
betrayed and this drove a wedge between them - well, who knows where 
Snape might have ended up if he had had the kind of support group 
Harry has?  The only people with clearly bad home lifes in the books 
are Sirius, Harry and Snape, and I don't think its by chance that 
Sirius and Harry - both clearly heroic - are the ones with a tight 
circle of supportive friends.

As for Snape having a crush and calling Lily a mudblood - I don't see 
these as inconsistent AT ALL.  In fact, its a pet peeve that people 
dismiss the Lollipops theory based on that reason alone.  

When you're in love, everything is magnified - good feelings and 
bad.  People say some of the most hurtful and hateful things to the 
people they care about the most, especially in the heat of an 
emotional moment and especially if they aren't very emotionally 
mature.  For someone like Snape, who was young and not exactly well-
versed in the emotion of love or the ability to control his emotions, 
to blurt out such a hateful comment is not only totally in character, 
but to me fits perfectly with the idea that he may have cared about 
her more than anyone else he knew at the time (whether in romantic 
love or friendship). 

I don't know if I explained it very well, but there's a movie that 
perfectly illustrates this point - A Bronx Tale, directed by Robert 
DeNiro.  In the movie, the young Italian kid falls for a black girl, 
but all his friends and even his father are against the idea of 
interracial relationships.  He grew up in an environment where hating 
folks because of the color of their skin was common, even if he 
didn't necessarily believe it.  During a very passionate argument 
with the girl, who he's in love with, he blurts out the N-word 
without thinking.  It's a terrible mistake he immediately regrets, 
but it doesn't change the fact that he could love her and still lash 
out at her with a terribly hateful word.  I think Snape quite 
possibly did the same thing to Lily in that scene.

Ally