Biggest DH dissapointment - Lily and Snape

[zanooda2]

No: HPFGUIDX 180399

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "leslie41" <leslie41 at ...> wrote:

> <snip>
  
> Sirius and Remus. They certainly would have known 
> that Lily and Snape were best friends, even if they didn't think 
> that Snape loved her.  And everyone could see that he did.  
> Everyone.   
> Why on earth would Remus and Sirius hold back something like that? 


Hi, Leslie! I'm afraid I can't offer you a really convincing theory, 
but I have a few ideas that you may find usable :-).

1. Bart has a point, Lily and Severus's friendship ended in their 5th 
year, but she started going out with James only in their 7th year, so 
it's not like Sev and James were actual rivals, fighting for Lily's 
attentions, and she chose James over Severus. 

By the time she chose James, Lily's friendship with Snape was long 
over. Sirius and Lupin didn't say anything to Harry because for them 
the two things are not connected: there was an entire school year 
between them, a year when possibly Lily dated some other boy(s) - 
surely such a beautiful girl would have had more admirers than just 
James and Severus :-).

2. Another thing: I don't think that many people at school knew that 
Snape was in love with Lily. It's not like he sang serenades under 
her window :-). I believe he was very discrete about his true 
feelings. He certainly was smart enough not to admit them to Lily, 
knowing that she didn't feel the same way and he would only scare her 
away if he told her. He was waiting patiently, hoping that maybe she 
would come to love him at some point (this is JMO, of course). 

I think that only very few people could find out that Snape had more 
than friendly feelings for Lily. I don't know if she herself knew – 
girls usually can feel these things, but I'm not sure. James guessed, 
I think, and this was one of the reasons of his dislike for Snape. I 
don't believe that others knew, they just thought Lily and Snape were 
friendly, but parted ways at some point.

3. You will probably disagree with me, but I believe that Lily and 
Sev called each other "best friends" more out of habit than anything 
else. Being in the different houses, they just couldn't spend enough 
time together to stay best friends. Harry and Ron *are* best friends –
 they go to the same classes, they eat at the same table, they sleep 
in the same dorm, they are practically inseparable. How often could 
Lily and Snape meet? I don't know, they might have one or two classes 
together (not every day), they could meet during the lunch break, or 
after classes (in the library, for instance) – but again, not every 
day, I think.

I believe they saw a lot of each other at the beginning, but, as the 
time passed, he got his Slytherin friends, she got her Gryffindor 
friends, and they drifted farther and farther apart. It was easier 
for them to meet at home, during holidays, but I think that at school 
other kids didn't see them as *that* close, just friendly. Maybe some 
kid would ask "What's the deal with Evans and this Slytherin geek? 
What does she have to do with him?" and the answer would be "Oh, I 
heard they just know each other from before school, they are 
neighbors or something".

To sum up: Black and Lupin could have known that "maybe" Snape was at 
some point in love with Lily, but only "maybe" – there is no way they 
could be sure. Maybe they didn't even know Lily and Snape were "best 
friends" – they believed that those two just used to be on good terms 
(being neighbors outside school), but stopped to be so long before 
James and Lily started dating. 

I'm not sure you will be satisfied with my answer (I am not exactly 
satisfied myself :-), but it's the best I can do :-).


zanooda