Lily's Patronus (WAS: Re: Patronus question again)

[zanooda2]

No: HPFGUIDX 187202

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

> The reader never sees Lily's patronus, but when Harry views 
> Snape's last memories in the Pensieve in DH, Snape casts his 
> doe patronus in Dumbledore's office and says something to 
> the effect that it's the same patronus as Lily's.  
> So the implication is that Snape saw Lily cast her 
> doe patronus at some point during her lifetime.


zanooda:

It was not Dumbledore who said that, it was Harry during the last confrontation with LV: "Snape's Patronus was a doe, the same as my mothers, because he loved her..." etc. How exactly Harry knows that is unclear, but I guess we are supposed to take everything Harry says after his return from the limbo as the truth :-). I think Harry saw his mother's doe when he was a baby, that's why she seemed familiar to him in the forest, and after Snape's memories and the limbo it just all clicked :-).

As for Snape ever seeing Lily's Patronus, I'm not sure it was necessary. I think if he never saw it, the result would be the same. Unlike many readers, I believe that Snape got Lily's doe patronus only after she died - either his patronus changed, or he never cast one before. 

I don't like the idea of Severus having the same Patronus as Lily while she was alive. First of all, that would mean two people had identical patronuses. Isn't it supposed to be unique for each person? Secondly - Lily's Patronus symbolizes her love for James, and for Severus to have this Patronus while both Potters were alive feels kind of, erm, perverted :-). Strange, anyway.