The Continuing Tragedy of Severus Snape: Will Snape live or die and why?

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 164598

Carol responds:
> I'd say that about three-quarters of the DDM!Snapers agree with you
> (and I know of at least one Snape-hater who's considering the
> possibility). I see no evidence of any Snape/Lily relationship, only
> an absence of evidence that he hates her, which can easily be
> explained by her noninvolvement in the so-called Prank, which,
> according to Dumbledore as well as Snape, could have resulted in
> Teen!Severus's death. I think he genuinely tried to prevent her
> death and Harry's because he was appalled by Voldemort's 
> interpretation of the Prophecy and James's death because he didn't 
> want James to die with the life debt unpaid...

Jen: It's taken me a long time to warm up to the idea of a Snape-Lily 
connection, over three years to be precise & only with the addition 
of HBP <g>.  The idea of combining Snape's story with Lily's, when we 
already have Snape and James intertwined, sounds like overkill to me--
the Potters practically shaped his whole life?  He had no other 
people who influenced him so much?  And even knowing JKR can make me 
believe almost anything (the exception being the big thud of the 
prophecy), I'm expecting a huge suspension of disbelief if/when Harry 
learns about a Snape-Lily connection of any sort and *accepts* it.  
It's one thing to find out your hated rival also hates your Dad, it's 
another to find out he might have liked or loved your Mom.  (Can't 
get past thinking about Snape mooning over Lily and having to *read* 
about it.)

There are two things that give me hope we might not be heading in 
that direction:

1)  Rowling's interview comment, when she was willing to speak about 
either the Lupin-Lily or Snape-Lily speculation and ended up 
answering only about Lupin in the end.  Before anyone points out that 
she employed classic JKR diversion, I *know*.  But a woman can grasp 
at straws, right? :)

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/#static:tlcinterviews/jkrhbp3
(scroll past midway)

2)  Lily's story can influence Harry's perceptions about Snape 
regardless of whether there was any personal connection between them 
or not.  The fact that Lily sees the world in a different way from 
James just means that Harry can be influenced by both parents in the 
way he views other people and the WW.

But here is the main deterrent when I start leaning too far in the 
direction of there being no connection:  Why did Dumbledore call 
Voldemort targeting the Potters Snape's 'greatest regret'?  
Dumbledore's defense only included the information that Snape didn't 
know 'which boy' or 'the parents he would destroy', not that Snape 
felt regret for Voldemort's decision to go on a murderous quest to 
kill an infant and his parents.  So Voldemort's plan to murder a 
family was not Snape's greatest regret, his greatest regret was that 
it was this *particular* family.  If it wasn't the murder aspect of 
the situation, and it wasn't the fact that an infant was involved, 
and Snape did hate the father involved but didn't want him dead 
because of a life debt, there are only two options left imo, given 
the story we have so far:  either the Mom or the life debt were the 
reason for his regret.

When I start down this road, parts of Neri's life debt theory look 
appealing.  It would explain Dumbledore's comment from PS, 'Professor 
Snape couldn't bear being in your father's debt', among other 
things.  I don't believe Snape is OFH as Neri's theory proposes, but 
do see how the life-debt could be a reasonable alternative to the 
Lily connection.  Say targeting the Potters caused a chain reaction 
that led Snape back to Dumbledore, i.e., the realization that 
Voldemort was targeting James brought the life-debt into focus, which 
in turn caused Snape to analyze the reasons why he became a DE in the 
first place, and this finally led him to realize he couldn't be on 
Voldemort's side and would 'return' to Dumbledore.  

So his 'greatest regret' led eventually to the remorse rather than 
being a simultanous process.  This process fits with how logical 
Snape is in canon and we don't have any rock-solid evidence for 
friendship or romantic interest motivating him (as of yet).

Jen, wondering if someone has a quick link to Neri's theory they can 
send her off-list?