Why did Snape call Lily a 'Mudblood'?/ Drama triangle

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 177868

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jhenderson9" <jhenderson at ...> wrote:

jhenderson:
> Beginning with the Levicorpus spell rather than the exchange of
> name-calling, a key to the scene being SWM may come in answering the
> question, "If Snape invented Levicorpus as a non-verbal spell, how did
> James Potter know it was Snape who was using it and then learn its
> secret to be able to use it himself?
> 
> Lupin told Harry that spell popularity comes and goes, and the
> Levicorpus spell became quite popular. For the scene to be SWM,
> however, it must not yet have been popular or Snape's humiliation
> would not have been so keen.  The fact that Snape was livid about it ,
> may not just have been that he was embarrassed in front of the whole
> school, but that he was revealed as its creator and had his own spell
> used against him. Perhaps Snape had used Levicorpus several times, but
> since it was non-verbal and he was so secretive, I suggest that not
> only was he was never detected before, perhaps wasn't even suspected.
> James, by exposing Snape and his secret, would not be such the bully
> after all that Harry seems to take from the scene. James still
> wouldn't be quite heroic, but he could be more justified for revealing
> the culprit. Especially if afterwards he shares the spell so that, as
> Lupin reports, it then became widely popular.
> 
> I can't think of many good theories of how James would have acquired
> the spell, other than either that James or another Marauder stole the
> book (which seems unlikely) or that Snape confided in Lilly, and she
> shared it with James. With the latter explanation, the scene being a
> "worst memory" is even more emphasized, because Snape would have felt
> not just embarrassed but betrayed. Betrayal, not humiliation could
> have prompted the response of Mudblood name-calling. 

Montavilla47:
I've been wondering about that since HBP--specifically, how James
would have learned a non-verbal spell that Snape would never
in a million years teach him.

Along with the inconsistency of SWM taking place in fifth year, when
the spell is written down in a sixth year text.  If we didn't have Snape
specifically tell Harry that he invented the spell, the natural conclusion
would be that he obsessed over the spell after SWM, and the 
mass of scribbling and crossouts was him reverse-engineering the 
spell a year later.

Which is in keeping with the idea of Snape as someone envious of 
James's magical ability and scrambling to keep up.

But the revelation about Snape *inventing* the spell that James 
used turns all that on its head.  We're left to wonder how James
stole that spell from Snape.

The most direct line from one to the other is through Lily Evans.

If she and Snape were friends prior to SWM, then he could have 
plausibly taught her his fun trick.  We also know that prior and
(during) SWM, Lily insists that James is a "toerag" and that she
scorns him.  

If Lily did teach James that spell, then it's a double betrayal.  
Not only is she letting someone else learn Snape's secret 
spell, but she must be considerably more friendly with 
James than she pretends to Snape.  At least from Snape's
POV.

Of course, she may have done no such thing.  Perhaps she
taught the spell to Mary MacDonald, who taught it to 
Sirius, or Lupin, or Peter, who taught it to James.

If it was that popular in fifth year, there probably were a 
lot of kids who learned it.

I don't see James's use of the spell as exposing Snape as the
inventer, though.  There's no hint or clue about that in the 
text, and for the exposure to have happened, there would
need to be some kind of recognition of that.

Montavilla47