First lesson WAS: Re: Marietta, was Slytherin's Reputation

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 185691

Magpie wrote:
><snip>
> As for whether his friendship with Lily shows he doesn't care, sure 
> he wants to be friends with Lily. But if we're talking about bigotry 
> (and JKR seems to want to think she's making this book about that if 
> it's a plea for tolerance) then it's perfectly common for a lonely 
> kid raised around bigoted ideas to nonetheless want to be friends 
> with a kid he likes even if they're not the right group. In Snape's 
> case Lily was a fellow witch, which would make her seemingly the one 
> special kid he knew besides himself. He likes Lily, despite already 
> doing stuff like carelessly remarking that Petunia being hurt doesn't 
> matter since she's "only a Muggle", and the hatred of Muggleborns 
> comes from their being Muggles. <snip>

Carol responds:
Actually, the prejudice against Muggleborns comes from their having
Muggle *blood*, not from their being Muggles, which they are clearly
not. Severus distinguishes between Lily and Petunia perhaps partly on
unstated factors like looks, behavior, and age, but primarily and
overtly because Petunia is "only a Muggle." She can't do magic, which
distinguishes her from Severus and Lily. She won't go to Hogwarts with
them. She's "Other." Lily, however, is like Severus, a magical child.
He specifically states that she's a witch and that his mother is also
a witch. Petunia, in contrast, is a Muggle like his mundane,
unmagical, and apparently abusive father. The fact that Lily is
Muggleborn, having two Muggleborn parents rather than one like himself
is, IMO, irrelavant to his feelings toward her. It's Us (Sev and Lily
and Eileen) vs. Them (Tobias and Petunia).

I do wonder, however, what would have happened if Petunia were the
Witch and Lily the Muggle. Would he still have watched them in the
playground and wanted to make friends with just the Witch? Or would
the pretty little Muggle have changed his mind about the superiority
of magical people over nonmagical people?

Carol, who sees a clear anti-Muggle prejudice (somewhat justified by
his own experience) in little Severus but no hint yet of prejudice
against Muggleborns