Severus and Lily

[Joey Smiley]

No: HPFGUIDX 189114

Catlady wrote:

> Bart wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189098>:
> 
> << True, he pushed her away. But there were implications that their friendship wasn't all that open, not the least of which being Snape's reaction when she defended him, and the lack of recognition of their friendship on the part of Potter, Lupin, and Black when she defended him. >>
> 
> Yes, but how much of that was Rowling's need to keep the readers and Harry from knowing that Severus and Lily had been childhood friends?

--- In HPforGrownups@ yahoogroups. com, lui <lui_rhys_01@ ...> wrote:

> Is this about Lily? I don't think she was ASHAMED 
> of Snape being his friend, going as far as defending him 
> from the Marauders. 

zanooda wrote:

>She didn't defend him the way you defend a close friend though. She >defended him the way you defend someone you barely know or maybe >don't know at all. If Hermione saw Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle attack >Harry (or Ron) and do to him what James and Sirius did to Severus, >I'm pretty sure she wouldn't negotiate with them. She would hit them >with some good spells and free her friend without much talk :-).

Joey:

I agree that Rowling's need to keep the readers and Harry from knowing that Severus and Lily had been childhood friends must have been pretty intense when writing the SWM chapter of OoTP. Also, I agree with Zanooda's observation regarding what Lily's defence of Snape seemed like and Bart's observation regarding what Snape's reaction to her defence seemed like. 

Yet in The Prince's Tale chapter of DH, when I read the conversation between Lily and Snape (post the "Mudblood" incident that we see in SWM chapter), Lily *did* sound *fed up* with Snape in terms of his Death Eater friends and ambitions. This seems to indicate that they might have had *many* bitter / heated arguments in the past and that their friendship was already on the *verge* of breaking. Snape calling her "Mudblood" seems to have been the *last straw* for Lily. I guess that is why their reactions during the SWM incident looked out of character for a strong friendship. 

Cheers,
~Joey :-)