Lily WAS: First lesson

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 185706

> Alla:

> Say you are right, I mean I disagree, but for the sake of the 
> argument say you are right and Lily is concerned about her coolness 
> with the friends and how her friendship with Snape will affect her 
> coolness.
> 
> To me, if it is true (and please, please let me stress I am not 
> **conceeding** that it is), the fact that Lily maintained said 
> friendship despite her wanting to be friends with her other friends 
> for years, speaks tons in Lily's favour. That she stood up to peer 
> pressure, etc.

Magpie:
I get the feeling from the series that JKR's views on "wanting to be 
popular" are that people who care enough to not be nice to someone 
because they aren't cool, are not good guys. Good guys can have 
moments of wishing they were "with cooler people" like Harry does 
when he's with Luna and Neville, because they look particularly odd 
at that point too. But she would also have Harry publically claim 
both of them as friends to make a statement with it.

I would think JKR would say neither Ginny or Harry care about being 
popular. They'll be friends with Luna, look down on the Slug Club, 
stand up for Neville. They're popular because they are cool naturally 
and part of their coolness is that they don't focus on their social 
status that way. The difference between them and Romilda is obvious.

I took Lily's "my friends don't understand why even talk to you" to 
refer to Snape being awful, to hanging around with DE bullies (and 
being one of them). From what we see it seems like Slytherin has its 
own separate social circle anyway, but I took Lily to be putting them 
down for their violent political views and the fact that they want to 
join Voldemort. A guy who's totally anti-Muggleborn. Snape's friends 
also have a rep for being anti-Muggleborn. She's accusing him of 
freely using or hearing terms like Mudblood when he's not with her.

No wonder her friends wonder she even speaks to him--she's Muggleborn 
herself! I do think there's probably some element of Snape being a 
creep, ugly, socially awkward etc. in her friends' comments, but 
Lily's own comments (saying that she's been making excuses for him 
and she doesn't know why she does anymore) are about him becoming a 
nasty DE supporter. If it was just a case of Snape being awkward she 
would have continued to defend him and probably not tell him she was 
having to do it.

At least that was what I thought JKR was trying to put across with 
Lily (and Harry and Ginny).

-m