Courtly love in Potterverse WAS: What triggered ancient magic?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 187142

Carol:

JKR says in an interview that he thought that Lily would admire him if he joined the DEs. That sounds ridiculous; he knew that she hated Avery and Mulciber, the DE wannabes, and actually referred to Mulciber (the future Imperious specialist) as "evil." Could Snape, usually so logical (at least as an adult) really be that dim? 

Pippin:
It's ridiculous if you think Snape loved a pure, idealized image of Lily. But I don't think his patronus shows us that. Harry's patronus does not change when his image of James gets deflated a bit. Though it is a symbol of James, it is  a projection of what's best in Harry, not James. 

Snape knows all too well that people are impressed by a show of strength, and he could see that Lily was impressed by James's power whether she wanted to be or not. Look at the way Ginny reacts to Harry's sectum sempra, or the way Harry is proud of Hermione's jinxing ability. And then there's  Harry's crucio. Or Molly AK-ing Bella. Something in people loves a kickass, and JKR won't let us forget it. 

"Sectum Sempra" is marked "for enemies" not "for picking on people." If Snape didn't think it was very wrong to use the Dark Arts on people who deserved it, he had lots of company. As for Avery and Mulciber, that was "only a bit of fun" not serious dark magic. He wouldn't expect Lily to be impressed by that. 

Harry has it partly wrong in HBP, but only partly: "He'd play up the pure-blood side so he could get in with Lucius Malfoy and the rest of them...He's just like Voldemort. Pure-blood mother, Mugggle father---ashamed of his parentage, trying to make himself feared using the Dark Arts, gave himself an impressive new name -- *Lord* Voldemort -- the Half-Blood *Prince* '

Harry is wrong that Snape is just like Voldemort and only wanted to be feared, and wrong that the person he wanted to impress most was Lucius Malfoy. But the rest of it agrees with JKR's  remarks. "Death Eater" is after all an even more impressive title than "prince". 

I think JKR plays down the issue of Snape's motives in the story because her characters have a lot of different reasons for becoming DE's, and she does not want Snape's reason to become *the* reason. But it is in there, if somewhat obscured by Harry's misreading of events. 

I think we can also see that Snape  hated some Muggles personally, and would have reason to resent the fact that they were under Ministry protection. But once they were out of his life, it probably didn't matter to him any more. 

As for Muggleborns, he didn't have anything against them personally, but they were a convenient scapegoat, convenient, that is, in the sense that both pureblood and  halfblood Slytherins could unite in disdaining them. 

And since it wasn't personal for him, he could easily shift away from it, both in thinking it was obvious that Lily wasn't like *them*, and in finding other scapegoats instead. 


Pippin