Lily's letter (was What triggered ancient magic? WAS: Re: James and Intent

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 187066


Carol wrote in post 187057:
> > I think we need to consider the circumstances. It's not as if, like Mundungus, he had immediately gone to Order Headquarters to steal what had been Sirius's property and sell it for personal profit. He only comes there (apparently after the Seven Potters incident though it would make more sense to me if it were just after the death of Dumbledore), he's in desperate straits. He's just taken part in the Seven Potters chase on Dumbledore's orders and has accidentally Sectumsempra'd George Weasley's ear in saving Lupin. Dumbledore expects him to protect the students of Hogwarts and maintain seeming loyalty to LV while the rest of the WW hates him as the supposed murderer of Dumbledore. 
> 
> 
> Potioncat:
> Why do you think this happened after the Seven Potters? I was certain it happened immediately after killing DD. I'll try to look later, I think JKR has said so in an interview.
>
Carol responds:

Although it would make sense for it to have happened sooner, almost immediately after his "murder" of Dumbledore, for example, the memory appears *after* he's ordered to confund Mundungus and to "play his part" in the Seven Potters chase (but before he's sent to deliver the Sword of Gryffindor to Harry). If the memories are in chronological order, then he must have already Sectumsempra'd George's ear, which would explain his emotional state, along with encountering "Old Dusty"  (though, I agree, having just killed DD on DD's orders would be an even better explanation).

If it happened immediately after he killed DD, we have to wonder why JKR placed that memory out of sequence and whether others are out of sequence as well (though they don't seem to be).

Anyway, my point is that the burden DD has placed on Snape and his need for emotional support from Lily--the need to have some small reminder of her--explains why he would take her signature and her part of the photo. Obviously, he wouldn't have wanted a photo of her with James, and he didn't need a reminder of Harry. I think he was surprised to find the letter, it moved him deeply, and he didn't think about its not belonging to him, only that it was a bit of her to comfort him and encourage him in his dangerous mission to help her son. As I said, unlike Harry, he doesn't have friends working with him and providing him moral support. I'm not trying to excuse him, only to explain why I think he did it. Lily was everything to him--the reason he was still alive, the motivation for the risks he took.

Carol, thinking how dangerous the Mirror of Erised would have been for Snape