Lily and Tuney and Sev, Oh My

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 176400

Jen: 
> Aw, that's sweet Mike, hehe. Unless Eileen was the one who thought 
it was okay to let Sev run around in the smocklike shirt, then she 
gets some character deductions in my book *Jen takes out her tally 
sheet, noting Eileen's practically blank column because her entire 
characterization is off-page.*

Ceridwen:
We see Eileen once, "a thin, sallow-faced, sour-looking woman" beside 
a "slightly hunched" Sev.  This sounds to me like neither Snape 
wanted to be there.  Eileen almost sounds like she is standing on her 
dignity alone, and expecting someone to attack her (verbally, of 
course).  Sev sounds embarrassed.

I think Eileen had no choice in how Sev was dressed.  They were poor, 
this is what they had.

Jen: 
Hey, I'm with you, that 'smocklike shirt' did it for me, poor guy. 
Actually, I have to say adult Snape doesn't seem so offensive to me 
now that we have a reason for his actions. Give me a rationale and 
I'll gladly rationalize. ;)

Ceridwen:
I have a pic of my dad in a "smocklike shirt" at the age of five.  
Bear in mind that would have been 1907.  The rest of his clothes 
remind me of the clothes worn by Rip van Winkle the younger - his 
father's old coat and trousers.  The van Winkle family was dirt poor.

Mike:
> And poor Sev, he "had been planning this moment for a while, and it
> had all gone wrong" (665). Ahh the angst of a pre-adolescent boy
> trying to make a good first impression and blowing it completely. I
> know from where you heart hurts, young Sev. We just aren't equipped
> to talk to girls until we reach the age of,... oh I'd say around
> 35, but maybe that's a little optimistic. ;)

Jen: 
Here's a question: Was Sev mainly interested in Lily because
he'd never expected to meet a fellow magical person in Spinner's End
or was it that he already had a crush on Lily or a little of both?
And was it a crush, definitely, because of the spying part, or was
that just Sevvy's *thing* from a young age, spying? Just curious
what others think.

Ceridwen:
He could have been trying to get up the nerve to talk to her.  
Socially, he was not that proficient and there were two of them to 
one of him.  Petunia's reaction to him gives an idea:  "*I* know who 
*you* are.  You're that Snape boy!  They live down Spinner's End by 
the river." (US 665).  She mentions the location like it was the 
wrong side of the tracks, which it probably was.

He only popped out when Petunia asked how Lily had made the flower 
open and close.  He scared Petunia, and he "seemed to regret his 
appearance." (US 664).  I think he saw someone else like him, and was 
eager to become friends with her.  Rowling uses the 
adjective "greedy", and a lot of people have commented about that, 
but the same adjective has been used by other writers to show 
profound desire for something a person doesn't have, like the child 
who looks "greedily" into a candy store window.

I don't think young Sev had many friends.  He might have driven them 
away with accidental magic, like the tree branch, or he may always 
have been an object of ridicule because of his clothes and 
his "stringy" appearance.  Class comes in because of what Petunia 
says.

Ceridwen.