Snape still gives off that stalker vibe to me

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 172476

<bookworm857158367 at ...> wrote:

> I'm glad Snape turns out to be (sort of) good, 
> but he still comes across as mighty creepy in the 
> end. He was willing to sacrifice Harry and James so 
> Lily could live (and presumably come back to him.) 
> He saved Harry for Lily's sake, but didn't love her 
> enough to actually be KIND to her son. And why, for 
> heaven's sake, couldn't he take a bath and wash his 
> hair? He's not the bravest man Harry has ever known, 
> not by a long shot. He's an obsessive stalker who 
> never moved past his teenage crush and has spent 
> twenty years doing good behind the scenes while 
> torturing students and being incredibly unpleasant.

houyhnhnm:

" . . . thought we were supposed to be friends?" Snape 
was saying.  "Best friends?"
"We are, Sev . . . ."

Note the question marks.  Without the question marks, 
Snape's words could be heard as sarcasm or whining,  
but with them, he's asking her a question.  "Are we 
friends, best friends?"  And Lily says yes, we are.
Stalkers are not interested in the feeling of their 
victims.  They don't ask, "Are we friends?"

In Snape's earliest memory of Lily, the two children 
were only nine or ten years old.  If Snape looked at 
Lily greedily, it was only the innocent longing of a 
lonely, neglected little boy for a friend.  From what 
we know of Mr. and Mrs. Evans, Lily had a loving home, 
and no doubt that radiated from her.

Finally, stalkers do not sacrifice their lives for a 
child begotten by another man.  Lily had not only 
rejected Snape, she had married his most hated rival.  
A stalker would not have felt desperation when he found 
out Lily was targeted by Voldemort.  He would not have 
tried to save her or felt remorse when she died.  A 
stalker would have felt she got what she deserved. 

His initial response to finding out Voldemort was after 
the Potters *was* selfish (as was the "love", initially,  
of most of the teenagers we observed in the Potterverse).  
"You disgust me," Dumbledore said.  And Snape did not 
argue.  He didn't whine. He accepted Dumbledore's 
judgement and offered to do *anything* to keep all 
three safe.

Snape loved Lily with as honorable and unselfish a 
love as any depicted in the books, in my opinion.

These are life and death issues, salvation and damnation.  
What on earth does a hairdo have to do with any of it?