Misunderstood Snape

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 135226

<justcarol67 at y...> wrote:
> -Cindy asked:
> As for the idea that Severus and Lily were Potions partners, which
> I've been encountering in a lot of posts lately, the only time we 
see
> students from other houses working with the Gryffindors is in
> Herbology, which they have with the Hufflepuffs. We never see
> Slytherins and Gryffindors working together except in unusual
> circumstances (e.g., Draco's injured arm and Ron ordered to cut up
> Draco's roots). We never see Slytherins and Gryffindors as study
> partners, mostly because of the enmity between the houses but partly
> because of logistics: they have different common rooms and the only
> place they could study together would be the library. I can't see
> Severus, the Half-Blood *Prince,* braving the contempt of his
> Slytherin classmates by studying with a "Mudblood."
> 

zgirnius:
Hi! I've been following this discussion and wanted to add my own 2 
cents...

First, I agree with you entirely about Snape's abilities. I am 
convinced he is a very powerful wizard, and especially gifted in the 
academic areas of Dark Arts/DADA and Potions. I don't doubt he 
developed the potions improvements and hexes in the book. But I am 
not willing to trule out Snape and Lily having been potions partners. 

You base your argument on two premises, the first being that Sluggie 
could be exaggerating Lily's abilities. Oh, he would, of course, to 
get on Harry's good side. However, we have the fact that he invited 
her into the Slug Club whan she was at Hogwarts. Since he's clearly 
trying to hook up with the future up and comers of the magic world, 
there had to be a reason for this decision on his part. Since she was 
a Muggle-born, the reason could not have to do with her family 
connections, which leaves exceptional magical ability. And as Potions 
instructor, that's what he'd tend to see the most in her, since she 
is not in his house. This does not give us any basis to compare the 
relative merits of Snape and Lily as potions-makers, but it is a 
reasonable basis to suppose that Lily was the other Potions star in 
that year.

Your second argument is that they would not hook up as study partners 
because of the relative isolation of the two houses. However, it 
*does* seem that Slytherins and Gryffindors take Potions together, so 
that Snape and Lily would have seen each other in action on a regular 
basis. I also think we cannot assume students do not work together in 
class across house lines. To me it seems that having students work 
together is a decision of the individual instructor. Sprout tells 
them to, so they do. And we do actually see students working together 
in other classes-Care of Magical Creatures sometimes, DADA NEWT level 
classes with Snape, Divintation... In  those classes we are not told 
all the groups, we just see Ron, Hermione, and Harry work together. 
Sometimes instructors even break up groups (like Snape having Draco 
and Harry practice duelling in CoS). Also, we've never seen Sluggie 
run lower-level classes. Maybe he does have students work together 
like Professor Sprout does.  I do agree that lots of time meeting out 
of class might be difficult...we just don't know. We do know that 
Lily would not have cared about this, she's perfectly happy to stand 
up to James and Sirius (popular Gryffinfors) for picking on a 
Slytherin. And we do not know what Snape's position was in his 
Slytherin gang. His half-blood status might have made him someone on 
the fringes...but on the other hand, his reputation could already 
have been such that his classmates would cut him some slack (for fear 
of the possible consequences to themselves, if for no other reason.) 
We certainly see in Snape's interactions with his fellow DEs that 
*now* they all appear to have a healthy respect for his abilities. 
(And many of them are his former housemates...)

You could be right, of course! But for those of us who are thinking 
the secret reason DD trusted Snape was that he knew Snape had loved 
Lily-well, it is a bit of a stretch to think he could have fallen for 
her so hard without some personal interaction. A schoolboy crush, 
sure. But *Love*?