Why did Snape call Lily a 'Mudblood'?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 177639

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "montavilla47" <montavilla47 at ...> wrote:

> Having examined this scene obsessively for about two years prior to 
> the publication of DH, I didn't find it a surprise that Lily and Snape
> were friends.  But I agree that it's weird for friends to act the way they
> did to each other and I had to do quite a bit of wanking on it to make 
> it work.

Pippin:
I don't think it needs much wanking in the context of the poisonous
atmosphere Voldemort was creating. It's like the breakup of Liesl and
Rolf in The Sound of Music.  Rolf couldn't resist the lure of Nazi 
propaganda, and his relationship with Liesl ended when she found 
that he had joined them. (Interestingly, the stage version contains
a Snape-like redemption for Rolf, who secretly aids Liesl and her 
family to escape.)

Snape's use of the M-word brought home to Lily how close to the
young DE's he had become. We see that she's a little attracted to
James in spite of herself, but I don't think James would have stood
a chance if Snape hadn't alienated her by becoming a DE wannabee.

Montavilla47:
> Post-DH, it's harder to buy her reaction.  Unless he's a lot better at 
> hiding his insecurities than he seems to be in those memories.  How
> can she not understand how desperately poor he is and how 
> humiliated he is at that moment?  

Pippin:
Of course she understands, that's why she stuck with him so long.
She could have forgiven him for the word, I think, but not for
his refusal to take her concerns about the DE's seriously. Of
course the connection between race-baiting and genocide which
is obvious to us, and to Lily, would be more obscure to people
in the WW for whom The Holocaust was as remote as goblin 
rebellions are to us.

Pippin