Lily and Snape

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 140383

 Auria writes:
>> As I wrote in an earlier message, why does everyone assume 
that Snape only took notes from one source, or that he made 
them ALL himself?  It could be a mixture of both! It's possible 
that Lily was also good at potions, that Snape not only made 
notes using his own intellect but also wrote down tips taken 
from other students?  Or perhaps they even worked together at 
times, swapping ideas? <<

Magpie:

It's certainly possible (which is why I said *if* it was one 
person helping the other--there's no proof anyone was helping 
Anyone at all), but so far there's no reason to assume anything 
beyond what we have in canon, which is that Harry got Snape's 
old textbook and Snape had made lots of his own notes in them, 
some of which reflected his dark nature.  We don't know where 
Snape got his inspiration for his ideas, but so far I don't see 
any reason to start looking for or inventing anyone else for the 
storyline.  Perhaps the book was where Snape wrote everything he 
and his future-DE gang came up with together, but the only person 
canon has so far linked with the notes in the textbook is Snape.

Auria:
>> Snape perhaps later became more involved in the dark arts 
and started meddling with stuff like Sectum Sempra.  This 
doesn't detract from the fact that Lily was good at potions.  
I don't buy the argument that Slughorn was just saying that 
to butter Harry up. <<

Magpie:

Lily could certainly be good at Potions.  My own suggestion (that maybe Lily was like Harry in that Slughorn thought Lily was better 
at Potions than she was) came into my head only because we're 
hearing about Lily's great gift at Potions the same time we're 
hearing about Harry's gift for it.  But I've got no real reason 
at this point to believe that Lily couldn't be just as good at 
Potions as Slughorn says she was.  (And I do take Sirius' word 
that Snape showed up at school already interested in the Dark 
Arts.)

Auria:
>> Whether Snape was also good at the time of being a student, 
or whether he gradually learnt and then found his own genius 
later on is what we should be debating. <<

Magpie:

May I ask why, though? I mean, why should we be debating whether 
or not Snape was good at the time of being a student when the 
storyline in HBP from what I can see was that Snape's student's 
textbook contained notes in his handwriting that suggested he had 
a special talent at that age?  It just seems like that was an 
answer given at the end of HBP (the Half Blood Prince was Snape) 
and there's no real reason to look for the "real" HBP (meaning 
the person who was really the brains behind the notes) beyond 
Snape.

Not that I think the conversation is pointless at all.  With all 
the emphasis put on Lily being good at Potions it does seem like 
it's going to go *somewhere*, and a friendship or partnership 
between Lily and Snape makes sense.  It just doesn't seem like 
there's any reason for Book VII to revisit the Half Blood Prince 
Mystery to show that Snape wasn't really the guy Harry thought 
he knew from the book, that Harry was really learning from a 
group of people mostly his mother.  It just seems to destroy one 
of the main storylines of HBP, which was that of Harry and Snape 
working together through the book.

I do think we're going to learn something about a relationship between Lily and Snape.  It just seems like the Half-Blood Prince 
storyline is over.

-m