Snape and Lily - school connections?

[snow15145]

Snow said (previously):
> Or if I can make another suggestion:
> Snape (like Draco to Granger) overheard and fiercely watched Lily
> while she made her potions, writing down all that she had done
> which is why the notes were in the book) so he could be as good as
> her. Maybe Snape's secret wish was to become an Auror and he needed
> to pass potions (just an aside).

Judy replied:
Oh, my! I don't think I can handle the idea that Snape needed help
just to pass potions! I think canon is pretty clear that Snape --
whatever else he may be -- is excellent at potions. He made the
Wolfbane potion, which Lupin says few wizards can do. Lily certainly
didn't show him this, because it was invented after they left school.
Snape is also able to to figure out exactly what steps a student did
wrong just by glancing at their cauldron. Dumbledore hired him to
teach Potions, and Dumbledore may be implying that only Snape can
save him from the green goo at the end of HBP. It also seems pretty
clear that Snape had some special skill (although not necessarily at
potions) that saved Dumbledore when the Ring Horcrux injured him.

 
Snow:

Very good point about the Wolfsbane buttttttt
what if Lily were 
already working on that particular potion before her demise? Lily 
would be someone I would think would attempt to make a potion to help 
her boyfriend/husband's best bud more so than Snape. This is not to 
say Snape actually invented the potion but if anyone had been 
interested in making a potion to `help' poor Lupin I would think it 
would have been someone who really cared two sickles for Any person 
who had been bitten by a werewolf and would want to help them. So far 
Lily has two up on Snape; Lily has been referred to as very good at 
potions and she has a friend in a great deal of need for such a 
potion as Wolfsbane. Snape is a Potions Master who, according to 
Lupin, is better at potions than himself (not saying much) and claims 
to be the Prince who wrote in an old Potions book (and yet his name 
is Snape
where did that come from, shouldn't his last name be 
Prince?) All too suspect for me. 

Judy:
And remember, this is the evidence that's left even if everything
Snape wrote in his text and everything Slughorn saw him do was
actually due to Lily's help -- which so far, we have no canon at all
to support.

Snow:
Canon, did you say Canon? You wouldn't be referring to the fact that 
Tom Riddle's Mother had a brother that was imprisoned for murders he 
didn't commit? Canon can only take us so far with this Wondrous 
Woman, and then you're on your own. >bg<

Me again previously:
Anyway the Snape/Lily referencing reminds me very much of the
> Draco/Hermione one. Snape and Draco both call their adversaries
> Mudbloods, of which they both were and both very talented witches.

Judy:
Yes, that I noticed, too. There are those who think Draco picks on
Hermione to conceal the fact that he likes her. Hmmmmm...
("Lollipops" theme starts playing in background.)

Snow:

Eww
No not romantically, even Herself put an end to that ship, T.G. 
I simply think that Draco like Snape would do anything to obtain the 
glory to achieve their end result. Snape, IMO, really needs that 
Order Of Merlin for some reason to lift whatever plight is upon him 
but I'm not so sure what end Draco needs to obtain, although we can 
see that he is not above using Granger or the late great Moaning 
Myrtle to achieve his goal
both Mudbloods whom he claims he despises. 

Judy:
And, while we're on the topic of Snape & his potions book, several
people asked why Snape wrote the corrections directly into the book.
To me, it makes perfect sense. JKR seems to model many of her
characters after typical teachers -- maybe ones she knew when she was
teaching. Snape is the type of professor who can't *stand* it when
people get things wrong. The textbook is wrong, wrong, wrong! So, he
has to cross out the mistakes and write in the correct information.
Er, speaking as a pedantic academic type myself, I tend to do the
exact same thing. (As for writing the *spells* in the book -- can
you say "plot device?")

Snow:

But wouldn't this be true if the book was wrong and Lily was right? 
Snape, sitting beside Lily notices that she is always right even 
though he does everything the book says and Yet his potion never gets 
the better grade as Lily even though he explicitly follows the books 
directions (I think I remember that with Draco, Harry and Hermione).

Snape (being very observant) continues to watch Lily and copies 
everything she does and gets the better grade. Wouldn't he then start 
to make notations of proper procedure in his book? Wouldn't Snape 
then many years later, after being the book-secured-person that he 
once was, before Lily taught him otherwise, make comments to Hermione 
Granger such as an inferable know-it-all, when books aren't always 
right. (Snape always teaching just not obviously) 

Snow (Previously) signed off as:
> still recovering from too many deaths in the family
not on
> much since

Judy:
Ooo, I am very sorry to hear this. My condolences, and I hope the
future brings happier days.

Snow:
Thanks very much for your thoughts. Just wanted to let everyone know 
that I wasn't intentionally being rude, simply overwhelmed. 


-- Judy, who should be working, but feels compelled to say nice
things about Snape

Snow:

I really like him too
which took me awhile to get to where Snape was 
coming from until JustCarol on the `main' allowed my thickhead to 
truly go beyond the obvious, until then I was a fence-sitter. 

I still don't think Snape was ultimate in Potions till the Lily 
influence :-)

Snow