Deatheater Snape

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 100236

> Marianne:
> 
> No, the word "loner" never comes up from Sirius.  He merely said that 
> Snape arrived at Hogwarts knowing more curses than half the kids in 
> seventh year.  And that he hung out with a bunch of Slytherins who 
> all became DEs.  This implies to me that Snape was not a friendless, 
> complete loner, as many want to believe after seeing the "Worse 
> Memory" scene. On the other hand, Sirius may not be the best source 
> of unbiased info on Snape.  
> 
> Marianne


Carol:
It does appear, though, that at least some of those "gang" members
were older than Severus (we know from OoP that Bellatrix is three
years older and it seems a reasonable assumption that the Lestrange
brothers are closer to her age than his). Lucius Malfoy (admittedly
not mentioned in the "gang" passage but a known associate of all the
group members) is five or six years older (41 at the end of GoF). It
seems likely that most of the group had left school by the time of the
Pensieve incident. And I can't see the likes of Walden Macnair
offering a helping hand against the Marauders even if he was still in
school. (As for Regulus, he may or may not have been Severus' friend,
but he was a child of about twelve when the incident happened.)

So, no, Severus wasn't friendless, but he wasn't part of a tight
clique of friends his own age as James and Sirius were. And he may
have become a loner as his older friends left him behind, one by one.
That would help to explain his present withdrawn personality (as would
his having few friends who *didn't* become Death Eaters).

Carol