Snape's plant imagery

[kempermentor]

No: HPFGUIDX 124167


So I'm re-reading Snape's Worst Memory when I come to passage that 
happens immediately after Harry 'falls' into the memory.  Harry is 
looking for Snape.

"And there he is, at a table right behind Harry.  Harry stared.  
Snape-the-teenager had a stringy, pallid look about him, like a plant 
left in the dark."  (OoP, soft, 640)

'Plant' not 'weed'.

Like a plant left in the dark.
The plant, a symbol of life, is Snape.
Left in the dark, left out of the light.
Left to survive in the dark rather than thrive in the light.

Snape-the-adult tells Umbridge he's worked at Hogwarts for 14 years.  
Assuming he got the job shortly after embrassing the light that means 
he has spent more of his life living in the dark (or with the dark)
than he has in the light.

Perhaps the plant is still adjusting to life with light. 

Just something that caught my eye.

-Kemper