Lily shutting the door WAS: Re: Dumbledore Disgusted

[julie]

No: HPFGUIDX 175922


> >
> > > > Alla:
> > > > 
> > > > Sure if Lily had something to answer for, I would agree that 
> > > > characters in Potterverse at sixteen are held to it. But Lily 
> is 
> > > > culpable? I find it truly mind boggling.
> 
> Mim:
> 
> I see all this talk about Lily not forgiving Snape and she doesn't 
> really have to answer for that in my book. I'd like her to answer 
as 
> to why she didn't truly interfere in the worst memory. Because we 
> have her wandless friend, who has not yet called her a mudblood, 
> choking on soap bubbles on the ground and Lily doesn't bother to 
> lift the spell. Then her friend who has not yet called her a 
> mudblood, is turned upside down and she's amused. She's too busy 
> doing her little mating dance with James to truly do much. And 
after 
> her friend does call her a mudblood she insults him in turn and 
then 
> leaves him to his fate, namely James removing his pants. She 
doesn't 
> interfere magically and she doesn't, from what we can tell, alert a 
> teacher. All in good fun.


Julie:
In retrospect, this scene reflects badly on Lily. JKR wanted
to keep Lily and Snape's relationship a surprise for Book 7,
so on first reading we can't even tell that Lily and Snape
*know* each other, let alone have been friends for years.
I believe there was even a moment where she suppressed a 
smile (as if admitting "It is amusing that you're making
fun of this creepy little weirdo, but even so I have to 
maintain my higher moral position here.") I have to admit,
if Snape had brought up this part of the incident ("That's
what you call being a friend?") my sympathy would have been 
with him. (But Lily did get screwed here by JKR's devotion
to plot over character.)

mim:
> 
> Then Snape begs her forgiveness but she's already made her choice. 
> And it looks like she had made her choice before, anyway. She's 
sick 
> of making excuses (to her friends, I presume who can't see why she 
> would hang out with someone slimy, unpopular and bigoted). Lily 
> isn't a saint and the mudblood incident is a perfect chance to end 
> the friendship while on the moral high ground.

Julie:
I wouldn't say she's sick of making excuses about Snape's 
lack of popularity or "slimy" looks, as she's never cared 
about that before. The bigotry though has been canonically
bothering her, and Snape calling her a "Mudblood" was the
final straw (on top of a lot of other straws relating to
his bigotry, choice of friends, and reverence of Voldemort
and the DEs).

However, I think blaming Lily for ending the friendship is
too harsh. Here I am with Alla. Yes, Lily walked away, 
leaving Snape sputtering. But...but *if* Snape had wanted
to prove her wrong, to show he hadn't chosen that different
path from hers, he could have. If he had abandoned his 
junior DE friends, and proved by actions that he valued
her friendship over the DEs, I fully believe she would
have forgiven him and their friendship would have recovered,
probably grown stronger. 

This would have been a huge choice for Snape, of course,
and he wasn't capable then of making that choice, of
abandoning his comfort zone among the Slytherins for
a chance with Lily. By the time he understood what he'd 
given up, when he might have found that courage and 
ability to change, it was too late. At which point he
steeped himself in self-recrimination and bitterness at
his fate and at the world. 

But none of that was Lily's fault, IMO.

Julie