[HPforGrownups] Re: JKR's answer to "Was Snape ever loved?"

[IAmLordCassandra at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 134728

 
Rebecca: 


I  believe that it is the only source of remorse and culpability, and 
an  extremely important one.

Snape loved Lily ... she was kind to  him,  she was everything he 
wasn't -- popular, happy, the kind of  shining star Sluggy like to 
collect.    Maybe he even devoted  himself to potions and to 
developing all those things written by HBP in  the textbook in 
order to impress her or form a bond with her.  We  hear over and 
over that she was a natural at potions.

Snape loved  her obsessively.

And he hated James.  Even before Lily and James  were 
together, he hated James.  Imagine how much more Snape 
hated  James after Lily and he fell in love and married.

Snape would have been  furious.  It would have pushed him over 
to the dark arts -- always an  interest of his, but not something he 
had really pursued (remember that  the writings of the HBP aren't 
tinged with a mean or evil-minded  undercurrent).  And Voldemort 
would have used Snape's obsession to  his own ends.  

Snape betrayed the Potters by telling LV about the  prophecy (I'm 
still undecided about whether Snape knew it pointed to the  
Potters and actively wanted James killed, or if  he only found out  
later it was about the Potters).  LV killed James and Lily ... Snape  
is filled with heart wrenching guilt and remorse... he has caused 
the  death of his object of obsessive love.  

He hates Harry really and  truly - because Harry looks and (at 
least in SS's opinion) acts like James  and because Harry 's 
presence constantly reminds Snape of  his own  greatest and 
most regretted misdeed.

A small supporting point ...  at the end of OotP LV talks about 
Lily's death and is scornful about how  unnecessary and silly it 
was ... it would be a gross overstatement to say  he regrets killing 
her,  but he doesn't seem to relish her death or  to have been 
pleased with it.  Why not?  Because her death had  
consequences he didn't like.  One nasty consequence of her 
death  is that  Harry is protected, but another is that he loses one 
of his  most trusted servants, the one who in GoF he says "will 
never  return."


Variation on this theory:  Snape was a double agent  in the old 
days as well.  And his loyalty to the Order was rooted in  his love 
for Lily.  James joins the Order too and their work brings  Lily and 
James together.  Snape begins to waver in his double agent  role 
a bit and gets a bit reckless, acting independently and not  
always following or waiting for DDs orders.  Sharing the 
prophecy  with LV is part of this acting out and it has the profound 
consequences  outlined above.


Cassie: 
 
I really don't want to sound dumb.  I've been more of a lurker until  
recently.  But where did you get the idea that Snape was in love with  Lily?  I've 
seen other people say this, but I don't know what canon  supports it. 
 
~Cassie~ 


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