What triggered ancient magic? WAS: Re: James and Intent

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 187034

 
> Alla:
> 
> As an aside of the sorts, do you really consider what Snape did to Lily to be story about love?
> 
> I mean putting aside  my belief that without Snape giving the prophecy to Voldemort they may not have needed any hiding, any protection and may have survived, do you think that the fact that he went to ask for her life at first to *Voldemort* not *Dumbledore* is story about love?
> 
> When I first read it, I think I felt as if I want to take a shower, so EWWWWW this made me feel. I mean, if Snape went straight to Dumbledore, sure this would have been about atonement and about trying to save the woman he still loves for me.
> 
> But he went to Voldemort, what exactly Snape thought that he will do? What if Voldemort indeed made sure that Lily survived? Did Snape think that Lily will rush in his arms, what with her husband and baby's graves are still fresh? 

Pippin:
 Toerag!James is the only James Snape ever knew. Even Harry couldn't understand how Lily could have fallen for him and wondered once or twice if she had been forced to marry him. A parent rejecting the child of an unloved parent isn't outside Snape's experience either. Why wouldn't Snape think that Lily would long to be free of James and the child she'd been forced to give him? Perhaps he couldn't really think that Lily loved Harry until she died to save him. 

Anyway, if the silver doe doesn't convince you that Snape's feelings for Lily were honorable, I'm not sure what would.  

"Snape was Dumbledore's, Dumbledore's from the moment you started hunting down my mother. And you never realized it, because of the thing you can't understand. You never saw Snape cast a Patronus, did you, Riddle?"

How can it not be about love? 

 Harry insists that Snape loved Lily since childhood and that he was Dumbledore's spy "from the moment you [Voldemort] threatened her." Harry is exaggerating a little, but I'm sure the intent is to make the reader feel that Voldemort lost Snape's allegiance the moment Snape realized that Lily was in peril. Snape obviously did not understand Lily's needs at all, but he did know they counted more for him than Voldemort's.

It took a while for Snape to realize that Dumbledore was his only chance, but it was always love that motivated him to try to save Lily, IMO. Whatever hopes he cherished for himself, he gave them up without hesitation when Dumbledore insisted that he choose between them and Lily's life. Would an obsessed person do that? 

As for Snape not daring to ask unless he thought Voldemort owed him something, what did he have to lose? Lily pleaded with Voldemort to spare Harry and even said she'd do anything. Is that supposed to mean she was a loyal DE and thought Voldemort would reward her?

Pippin