Why Snape's worst memory?

[Marianne S.]

No: HPFGUIDX 137224

greg wrote:
So is this Snape's worst memory, not because of what we saw, but what
we were about to see? We know that Snape pulled Harry out of the
memory before it reached its conclusion. Is there something
additional that we're missing?

vmonte wrote:<snip>

This memory leads into the night of the prank. In the penseive memory
Harry sees Snape looking over his notes, while James and gang are
joking about question ten: on how to spot a werewolf.
This is when we think that Snape realizes what Lupin is (as if his
name isn't a big clue)

Marianne S: I have been wondering recently (because my mind
keeps straying to all that we don't know about Lily not to mention the
power of Love) if this perhaps the worst memory for Snape 
because of the way he treated Lily? Perhaps at that time he 
already had feelings for her and was buoyed by the fact that she
 seemed to hate James as much as he did... but he was so 
embarrassed that she had to stand up for him that he blurted out t
he "mudblood" thing to try and save face. Not only that, but
perhaps Lily was the one person who knew that Snape was 
not a pureblood... 

I like the theory that Snape may be looking at his notes and 
thinking about Lupin. And yes, it is true that both Remus
and Lupin are names associated with wolves.(Not to 
be condescending, but if people actually don't know....
in Roman Mythology, Romulus and Remus were the twin 
sons of Mars, God of War,left abandoned by a river and 
raised by a wolf until rescued by a shepherd,  and Lupin is
 of course derivitave of "Lupine" which means wolf like)
However, I do wonder why Lupin's parents named him
Remus Lupin if he was not a Werewolf at birth... didn't he 
say Greyback bit him when Remus was 5? 

As for the prank, it is a pet theory of mine that the prank 
happened much later in their school career, perhaps 7th
year. A while ago I posted that I think that Severus loved
Lily and, even if she didn't return or even know his feelings, 
he was at least comforted by the fact that Lily hated James.
But, again in my theory, it is the very fact that James saves
his worst enemy's life that gets Lily to change her mind 
about him, so not only does Snape owe James a Life Debt, 
but he loses the girl he loves to him. I put this event in their
7th year because that's when Sirius and Lupin said that
 James and Lily started going together. Nevertheless, I won't
mind being proven wrong; I just hope that exactly
what happened during the prank (as well as what happened
at Godric's Hollow and why Dumbledore trusted Snape) are
three memories I would like JKR to show us in book 7. 

Marianne S.