Snape killing flies WAS: Re: Lily WAS: First lesson

[zanooda2]

No: HPFGUIDX 185740

> Montavilla 47 wrote:
 
> But what are we to make of that second memory? It is just to show
> us that Snape was horrible at riding brooms? Is that Lily laughing >
at him? Or a random girl? I find that people tend to focus on 
> either the first or the third memory and gloss over that second one.


zanooda:

But the broom memory *is* the third one :-). Those memories were not
in a chronological order, they appeared randomly. And it couldn't be
to show Snape was horrible at riding brooms - he wasn't riding it in
that memory, just *trying* to mount it, which was impossible because
the broom was bucking. It looks to me like one more humiliating memory.

 
> Carol responds:

> I agree that the memory is ambiguous, especially the behavior of the
> girl. Is she laughing at him in the sense of making fun of him? That
> doesn't say much for Lily


zanooda:

Yeah, but sometimes you can't help but laugh when someone unwillingly
does something funny, even though you are aware that the other person
wouldn't like it :-). It's not so easy to control - you can try to
suppress laughter, but still, you won't be able to conceal what you
are doing. 

If the girl was Lily, she could have laughed quite innocently, just
because it was a funny scene, but for little Sev, who probably wanted
to show off and intended to impress her by riding that broom (not
knowing it was jinxed), it was a humiliating experience, that's why it
ended up among his bad memories (it just doesn't feel like a happy
memory to me). 

At that stage of his and Lily's relationship *he* was the one who knew
everything about magic and WW, and he probably enjoyed his role of a
leader, he liked it that Muggleborn Lily was his "protegee". He wanted
to show her his magical skill by flying, but ended up trying to tame
the bucking broomstick and making Lily laugh - not exactly what he
wanted to achieve :-).


zanooda, still not sure that the girl in the memory was Lily ...