That Horrid Boy (was: Re: [HPforGrownups] Re: Harry's summer in the 6th book)

[meriaugust]

No: HPFGUIDX 101175

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Lanthiriel S 
<isilvalacirca at y...> wrote:
> Batchevra wrote:
> >There was one more thing I was thinking of, which is
> >Lily and James got 
> >together in their 7th year, we don't know when this
> >conversation that Petunia heard took place. Was it
> >before or after Lily started dating James. It is too 
> >vague and the fact that Petunia never answers
> >Harry's challenge that makes me think that it might
> >have been someone else.
> 
> 
> When I first read that part of OotP, I put my book
> down for a moment, looked at the ceiling and cried:
> "We were right! We were right!" I was referring, of
> course, to those of us who are unrepentant believers
> in Snape/Lily. Only after I'd had a moment to take a
> breath did it occur to me that Petunia might simply
> have been referring to James. But somehow I don't
> think so. I'm going to stick with my initial reaction
> on this one. I mean, doesn't greasy Snape strike you
> as the kind of boy the immaculately clean Petunia
> would define as "horrid"?
> 
> Lanthiriel S


Meri here: I don't know. "Horrid" just might be a word she used in 
reference to any boy from the WW, whether he be "greasy" like Snape 
or, presumably, relatively clean like James, slightly ratty like 
Peter, handsome and dashing like Sirius, etc. She does, after all, 
call Lily her "dratted sister", so I'm thinking that this is one of 
JKR's red herrings: we are meant to wonder who she is referring to, 
but it is almost certainly James. (And if you want another reason 
why I think it is almost certainly *not* Snape, just reread 
the "Snape's Worst Memory" chapter. I don't think that even 
kindhearted Lily would have had anything to do with Snape after 
that.) 
Meri - wondering now just exactly what else Aunt Petunia knows about 
the WW (I had to read that line about Azkaban three times to make 
sure that Aunt Petunia had really said it!)