Eileen Prince & Grandma Longbottom

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 156453


> Carol responds:
> 
> At any rate, I'm pretty sure that Augusta (Neville's gran) was a
> Gryffindor in Mcgonagall's year because McGonagall knows that she
> failed her charms OWL. 

Potioncat:
I think so too. It would be so helpful to know what Minerva's and 
Augusta's maiden names were. Given the little speech Augusta made 
about the Weasleys, I don't think she was a Weasley and possibly not 
a Prewett. Of course, we don't know if Minerva is a Mrs. or a Miss---
darn unfortunate, all that Professor business.

I suspect a Gran-Snape connection as well, with the Boggart scene 
something of a foreshaddowing. Except I don't think Neville knows of 
any relationship.



Carol:
 I happen to think that
> Eileen was a Slytherin, simply because it's so hard to explain
> Severus's knowledge of so many hexes and his early interest in the
> Dark Arts if she wasn't.

Potioncat:
Why oh why do I insist upon defending the House of Slytherin? I only 
like two of them anyway...no three. Given all the hexes James seem to 
have known as a 5th year, and the ones Hermione excells at in her 5th 
year, I'd like to point out Slytherin does not have a exclusive right 
to hexes.

I'd say it's expected that Eileen was in Slytherin, but I don't think 
it's a given. I wonder who was more surprised at the result of 
Severus's sorting---the boy or the mother?



Carol:
 And whether or not
> Tobias was the man in Snape's memory, I think he was out of 
Severus's
> life before the boy was eleven. 

Potioncat:
Accidentally "evanescoed" by a young boy seeing his mother being 
harmed? Oops, sorry, wrong list. I think you're right, whether by 
choice or not, I suspect Tobias wasn't around.

Carol:
>snip<and I expect that he had more
> than a bit of encouragement from his mother. (I think she's the one
> who loved him. If she's alive and in her right mind, maybe she loves
> him still.)

Potioncat:
I think so too. Although (just for the record) I don't think she's at 
Hogwarts.

> 
> Carol, who used to think that the dog-faced woman (Agnes) was 
Snape's
> mother and that her wicked husband cursed her, but JKR has thrown
> Vanishing Potion on that speculation by making Tobias a Muggle and
> giving the two women different first names

Potioncat:
Me too. We can call ourselves the order of St. Agnes----or did Kneasy 
have some sort of Agnes theory unrelated to this situation?

Now for my own little way out there theory. I suspect Eileen Prince 
was related to either the Lestranges, or the Rosiers or the Averys 
and Severus was part of his cousin's circle of friends which included 
those above and Bellatrix. Because I don't think there is an error in 
Sirius's comment---at least not one made by JKR. He could have been a 
younger cousin who had to be endured and who picked up curses and 
hexes from the teens. 

I know my youngest has picked up a few curses from his teenaged 
siblings.