Doing it for Lily? was Re: Snape and Harry and expulsion LONG

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 188905


> 
> Carol responds:
> 
> I think we can rule out that he was doing it for Harry, at least! But I agree with you that it would require mental gymnastics to convince himself that he was doing it for Lily. In effect, DD is now asking him to *stop* protecting Harry, as he has done since Lily's death so that her death will not be in vain, and send Harry to his death.

Pippin:

I agree he wouldn't undertake to  convince himself. But, and I realize I am modifying my theory here, I think something happened to convince him. A huge emotional upheaval, a state of such pity and fear that Snape's core assumptions would be shattered and rebuilt. A catharsis.

So, is there a such a moment  between the time Snape receives Dumbledore's instructions and the time he carries them out? Is there an opportunity for Snape to re-experience the tragedy of Lily's loss? Is there a huge emotional upheaval as a result?

There sure is -- Lily's letter.

The letter was found at Order headquarters, in the possessions of an Order member, and it makes clear that Lily was just as much an Order member in her own right as Molly was. 

 After reading that letter, Snape couldn't think that Lily had left her home open to potential spies out of deference to James, or trusted Dumbledore only because James did, or that she'd joined the Order because she belonged to James, and if she'd belonged to Snape things would have been different. 

"So that her death will not be in vain" -- I agree that's the key. But as we realize when we see the statues of James and Lily at Godric's Hollow, and I think Snape realized when he found the letter, she didn't just die to save Harry. She died  to help the Order stop Voldemort, and she always knew  that it might cost her life and her family's lives to do it. 

The last page had Lily's signature and her love. But it also affirmed her faith in Dumbledore. Snape took that with him too. 

We know that Harry believes that Snape was brave and faithful to both Dumbledore and Lily, and that is only possible if Dumbledore and Lily wanted the same thing. Harry doesn't much concern himself with how that happened. But I think we can see how it did. 


Pippin