Why Lily didn't have to die.

[mompowered]

No: HPFGUIDX 137652

Eggplant wrote:
We know that Lilly didn't go out with James until the 7th year so in
the 6th she must have been going out with somebody else. Snape and
Lilly must have been in the same potions class in their 6th and the
term "Half Blood Prince" sounds like a pet nickname a girl might give
her boyfriend. Perhaps Lilly was the real potions genius and Snape 
was
flunking out so Lilly wrote all that stuff in Snape's book to help
him, Hermione did say it looked like a girl's writing and the notes
never said "I am the Half Blood Prince" it said "This book is the
property of the Half Blood Prince".

Cheryl:

Lily was a popular girl, but it doesn't follow that she was 
necessarily dating anyone just because she didn't date James until 
later.  I, too, wondered about Hermione's comment about the writing 
being like a girl's, but then the invented spells, including the 
ones modified and crossed out until they were "right" are also, 
presumably, in the same handwriting, and Snape admitted to them 
having been his "inventions," so I am thinking they, and the potion 
modifications were, in fact, Snape's.  I was inclined to think that 
he wrote them to help Lily out, but it seems this textbook was used 
in the sixth year and I doubt that Lily would have accepted Snape's 
help after him calling her "mudblood" in their fifth year, so maybe 
not...or maybe Snape was using this text as he was advanced in 
potions, or because his mom happened to own a copy.

Sherry wrote:

My big problem with the whole idea of lily and Snape ever having 
dated is
the worst memory scene. He called her a mudblood in fifth year. We 
are
given to understand that the word "mudblood" is a filthy word. I 
equate it
to being as horrible as the word "nigger" from a white person to a 
black
person. I can't imagine anyone being called that one year and then 
dating
that same person the next year. I know it's one thing that could 
explain
Voldemort offering to let lily live, but I just can't believe she'd 
go out
with someone who called her that. I sure hope the whole why save 
lily issue
is resolved in the last book.

Cheryl:

I agree with your conception of the word mudblood:  in the WW, it is 
a horrible, racist word.  However, I think that there may be a 
chance that they were friends (see my prior posts about whether it 
was possible they were childhood friends) or slightly more at some 
point before this incident.  I think Lily's reaction to being 
called "mudblood" may have been similar to Harry's reaction to 
learning what the Sectumsempra spell really did: "He felt stunned; 
it was as though a beloved pet had turned suddenly savage."  When 
Snape calls here this, her reaction almost seems like surprise to 
me, a fitting reaction if Snape is someone who had been a friend in 
the past.