Slytherins in love Was: Wasted potential in Pettigrew

[clio44a]

No: HPFGUIDX 173632

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...> 
> 
> Clio wrote:
> > And Snape and the reinforcemnt of his story through the Bloody
> Baron's background teaches us what? Don't trust a Slytherin, even if
> he is in love with you. They are all obsessive, sick stalkers, who
> will kill you?   
> > 
> Carol answered:
> I still don't see stalker Snape. He left her alone after she refused
> to forgive him and begged both Voldemort and DD to save her. I'm quite
> sure he would not have come near her, knowing that she would despise
> him as a Death Eater. He only wanted her alive, not understanding how
> terrible life would have been for her without her husband and son. His
> love was selfish at first, but I don't think it was ever sullied. And
> wouldn't you, coming upon a photograph of the person you had loved and
> lost in the home of a dead man, have at least been tempted to take
> that photograph and signature? They were all he would ever have of
> her. It wasn't an admirable act, but he had devoted his life to her.
> 
> As for the Bloody Baron, surely he's meant to contrast with Snape. The
> Baron murdered the woman he loved; Snape tried and failed to save
> Lily, whose death was in large part his fault, and spent the rest of
> his life repenting that sin and the last seven years protecting her
> son and secretly fighting her murderer, at terrible cost to himself.
> Snape's love starts out selfish, but it's never as selfish as the
> Bloody Baron's. Nor will Snape spend eternity groaning and clanking on
> the Astronomy Tower. ;-)
> 

Clio:
I agree with you Carol in almost everything you wrote about Snape
(which I had to cut from your post). I, too, dearly loved him as a
fictional character and would have loved to see more from him in DH,
especially a confrontation scene with Harry. Well, I am happy with the
story arc as it is, and I must admit it moved me to tears when I read
'The Prince's tale' and when I went back and read again 'Look at me'
in the chapter before.
Still, I am not so sure if you and I read and see Snape the way it is
intended by the author. I am all for 'sweetly in love' Snape, but I
have to admit his love for Lily has an obsessive quality. I'm not so
sure if he would have left Lily alone had the Dark Lord spared her. As
for the letter he takes in Sirius old bedroom, I wouldn't see that as
sick stalking either, but as the very human act of a desperate and
verly lonesome man. Has I been in his shoes, I would have done
exactely the same. 
I have to disagree with you on the role of the Bloody Baron. He is not
meant as a contrast to Snape. I think he and Snape have a lot in
common. Snape may not be 'groaning and clanking on the Astronomy
Tower' as you put it, but he is all through the HP series sulking in
the dungeons, flaying himself for Lily's death and obviously hating
everything happy and light around him, and especially dead!James
Potter and his offspring. And had Ddore not shown him a new goal in
life (help Harry survive), I am not sure if Snape had not killed
himself just like the Bloody Baron. I think both examples are meant to
show how love can turn from a good thing into something dangerous and
destructive. Just in Snape's case the destruction is channeled by
Ddore for a noble cause. Isn't Ddore (or Slughorn?) telling Harry in
HBP 'never underestimate the power of obsessive love'? I bet Ddore had
Snape in mind when he said that.
Coming to think about it, Merope Gaunt certainly qualifies as a person
hopelessly and obsessively in love, too. Do you see, how all these
people are Slytherins? Gives me the chills, and I wonder if that was
intended by JKR.
The point remains, Snape's love isn't something pure and shining, but
obsessive, desperate and selfish. Just, I think this is realistic and
human to the extreme, and therefore to me Snape is the best character
JKR has written. Like it or not, Snape is not Saint Severus. Actually
he is one of the few people in the series who don't act 'For the
Greater Good' which we were told to fear in DH, but out of human feelings.

Clio,
who thinks in her next post she should aim for 'Saint Severus,
protector of all wayward sons of desperate mothers'