Snape and Lucius ages Re: [HPforGrownups] Re: "Lapdog" and "snivel"

[onnanokata]

No: HPFGUIDX 115057


Dharma replies:
relationship with Lucius.  I'm guessing that Severus had an
attachment to Lucius at school that was similar to the attachment
Peter had to James.

Feklar wrote:

I always thought the LM/SS childhood relationship was fannon and the 
lapdog comment referred to LM being an infamous and powerful DE.  I 
think SB thinks LM was probably as powerful as a DE as he clearly is 
in everyday life, and Snape was probably a potions-making nobody much 
as he is in real life.  On JKR's  FAQ she says Sirius went into 
Azkaban at age 22 (1981).  Assuming SS and SB are roughly the same 
age, that means when Harry was in his fith year SS was 36.  In OOTP, 
Lucius is 41--five years older than Snape.  When snape was 11, LM was 
16, that's a hell of an age gap to overcome, especially for a
teenager who is more likely to be both socially selfish and self-
conscious.

Dharma replies:

I think that you are probably right about Snape's relationship to 
Lucius.  I thought the Malfoys were the couple that he was hanging 
out with in school, but it was the Lestranges, according the Sirius 
in the GoF chapter 27.  Rosier, Wilkes and Avery are the other people 
mentioned who turned out to be Death Eaters.

Feklar wrote:

In my RL experience, I can't think of a 16 y-o I knew who would 
willingly spend time with an 11 y-o for anything other than money 
(i.e. babysitting).
While I can imagine an 11 yo might idolize an older student, I can't 
see why a 16 y-o LM would have any interest in a kid, any kid, five 
years behindhim.  LM would have graduated in SS's second or third 
yearwhich doesn't really leave much time for

Dharma replies:

This is actually another reason why I thought, mistakenly, that Snape 
had an attachment to Lucius that was comparable to Pettigrew's 
attachment to James.  From what we have seen in OotP and what 
McGonagall told us in PoA, Peter idolized James.  There did not to 
seem to be much in the way of reciprocity going on there.

Feklar wrote:
 
This seems to be reflected in canon as well.  The only older kids who 
cross age lines to have significant social contact are the Weasleys 
and they only do so to talk to their siblings (and friends) (who are 
only one year behind)and later to test their products, but they don't 
have any real social interaction with their guinea pigs.  Percy 
doesn't have more than peripheral contact even with his siblings.  
Even the older members of the Quidditch teams don't seem to have much 
social contact with the much younger Harry. It seems that the DA is 
big enough that it might actually foster some cross-age (and inter-
house) friendships if it continued.

Dharma replies:

I agree with your analysis.  The kids really do seem to stick with 
others in their year.  Perhaps the some incarnation of the DA will 
introduce some new age dynamics
but I guess that this really would 
depend on how the original group continues to interact.  Without 
Umbridge, or some oppressive interloper, interfering inside the 
school, I wonder if they will have the same kind of unity.