An Understanding between Harry and Snape

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 190796

 Kemper:
> Grammar aside, the scene ends with Dumbledore questioning Snape:
> "After all this time?"
> It doesn't make sense to me that he is referring to Lily because Snape has already displayed to Dumbledore some sort of undying pining love for Lily by making a terrible sound (like a wounded animal) when he learned of her death.  It would be like DD was astonished that Snape still feels anything for her 'after all this time'.  What an offensive question that would be!  What DD seems astonished about and so questions, is Snape's feelings for Harry 'after all this time' being such an unrelenting d!<k to Harry.
> 

Pippin:
As far as I know, there is no way for anyone to tell from the intensity of  the display  whether grief  is going to persist or not. IMO,  Dumbledore supposed that Snape could get over it, just like Aberforth assumed that Albus had gotten over Arianna. Meanwhile, for sixteen years, Snape  had to bottle his feelings and play the part of someone who was always indifferent to Lily except as an object of lust. 

 Dumbledore knows that is a sham, but  he tends to leave people to deal with their emotions as best they can -- Snape's actual feelings are not something he would have discussed with Snape unless Snape broke down in front of him. 

Now, though, Dumbledore asks if Snape has after all come to care for Harry, after treating him badly for so long, and, IMO, Snape is so outraged by the idea that he breaks character and shows his real feelings -- for Lily. There is still no one that matters more to him than her. Then Dumbledore realizes that Snape has been grieving for her all this time,  and Dumbledore, who knows the burden of never-ending grief himself, is moved to tears. 

I was hoping that maybe Snape would come to care for Harry in his own right. But I think tearing the photo of Lily away from her husband and child shows that he never did. Snape's ideal world would have been one where Lily was his and Harry and James never existed. 

Pippin