Snape's turn to DEs (Re: The Prince interpreted)

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 173318



Sssusan:
IMO, these scenes from Snape's memories were included by JKR to 
provide **just that evidence** that Snape HAD been drifting towards 
his 'little Death Eater friends.'  I cannot fathom where it has been 
shown that he was doing no such thing, nor that he hadn't yet done 
anything beyond turning a blind eye!  

Rather, it appears to me that what Jen has stated is the case -- Lily 
appears to be all that's tethering Snape to a different path.  It 
appears to me that Snape simply didn't have the courage (or 
interest?) to choose that different path!  Even with how much 
he 'loved' her.

Julie:
Exactly. I said this earlier too, that Snape either didn't have the
courage or the desire to choose Lily over his Slytherin loyalties. 
I do think this would have taken tremendous courage on Snape's part;
he has two more years to go and he would be ostracized and tormented
by his Housemates, probably would receive little or no support for
sticking with Lily from anyone else at Hogwarts (would the Marauders
really be able to change their minds about Snivellus after years of
mutual enmity), and he would have to make great strides within himself
to change beliefs set in place throughout his miserable childhood and
5 years among fellow Slytherins at Hogwarts. 

Like I say, this would be take tremendous fortitude and courage from
anyone, let alone from someone with as little self-esteem as Snape.
So it's no surprise at all that he can't conceive of giving up what
amounts to everything else to remain her friend--and only her friend,
as he hasn't had the courage to tell her how he feels which would mean
taking the chance of finding out that she does not feel the same way (as 
believe to be the case). Snape only has to look in the mirror I'm sure
to believe he'll never be worthy of her!

s



Sssusan:
No, the memories show that the point had arrived when it was no 
longer any good pretending that at the CORE there wasn't something 
very, very wrong with what Severus was doing, in Lily's view.  It 
wasn't a suspicion of things to come; it was a being fed up with what 
had already come.

Julie:
And as I recall (don't have the book with me), Lily had already been 

let Snape know that she didn't approve of his friends. So they had 

reached the endpoint, where it was her or his DE friends. 

Sssusan:
One final remark.  As to Snape loving Lily, and not in a 'silly 
crush' kind of way, as had been the case with Harry concerning Cho... 
I will agree with you that Snape loved Lily, but I don't think it was 
something to glorify.  It sounds as if Harry is being insulted with 
that remark, that he only had this 'puppy love' kind of thing, 
whereas Snape had 'REAL Love' about Lily.  But it just wasn't 
healthy!  It was an *obsessive* love, not what I would term 'real 
love.'   

Julie:
I do think Snape loved Lily, as much as he could love someone. To
me the love became truly obsessive after she died, because Snape
couldn't forgive himself for his role in her death. I wonder if, 
say, Neville Longbottom had been the Prophecy boy and thus Lily
hadn't been killed because of Snape's revelation to Voldemort,
where would that have left Snape? He loved Lily from afar essentially,
he never tried to take her from James, so would he slowly have lost
interest in her, and both would have gone on to live their individual
lives? Or if Lily had died later fighting against Voldemort's tyranny,
would Snape have been as distraught as he was by being personally involved
in her death? Or would he have mourned silently that she'd picked the
"wrong" side in the war, and if only she hadn't be so stupid to marry
James Potter she might have lived? It seems he might have gotten over
her or rationalized away her death and meaning to him eventually *if*
he hadn't had a direct hand in her death. It was her death that 
basically froze Snape in position, the position of being unable to
let go of his love because he couldn't let go of his guilt.

Julie, who isn't minimizing the fact that Snape *did* love Lily, or
that it led to his redemption and perhaps even a true change in his
principles, but that it all had as much to do with guilt as with love.



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