Snape the Half-Blood Prince WAS RE: Page-filler Lupin

[Alec]

I know! Sirius' remarks in GoF were pretty definite, and gave me the 
impression that Bellatrix was a contemporary of Snape. In fact, I 
even concluded from that (and the family tree in OOTP, where 
Andromeda is shown as the middle sister) that Narcissa must have 
been the eldest.

The trouble is that HBP contradicts that directly. We have 
Dumbledore's own assurance that Bellatrix was the "eldest" - which 
means she was older even than Andromeda, and (by implication) means 
that the names of the sisters on the family tree begin with the 
oldest on the left, and the youngest on the right - which makes 
sense, I suppose. 

Of course, this makes nonsense of Sirius' remarks in GoF, but unless 
JKR has made a mistake, I think we must conclude that what Sirius 
tells Harry was rather biased, and that if he did go round with all 
of this gang, it was either a case of hanging on to some much older 
boys and girls, or else he went round with them "after" school. That 
is in fact not unlikely - Snape does seem to be a loner, when he's 
glimpsed in the pensieve scene - and doesn't seem to have a gang 
that will come round and support him, either then or later. There 
seems to be no prospect at all of that!

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Eileen Rebstock" 
<erebstock at c...> wrote:
>
> Alec wrote:
> >Yes, that "is" an intriguing idea! But do you get the impression 
> >from HBP that Snape ever had that degree of closeness with the 
much 
> >older Bellatrix? He was always closer to Narcissa, it seems.
> 
> *frowns* Just because JKR forgets GoF canon, it doesn't mean you 
should
> too! 
> 
> It's GoF, when Sirius Black reminisces about his school days to the
> trio. Snape, he said, hung out with a "gang of Slytherins" who 
included
> Rosier, Avery, Wilkes, and "the Lestranges - they're a married 
couple."
> I mean, honestly. I didn't write that fic out of nowhere. 
> 
> No mention of Narcissa, which is very odd, given HBP. Perhaps 
Snape and
> Narcissa became friends later? Narcissa *does* call him her 
husband's
> old friend, which makes me wonder if they got to really know each 
other
> after Narcissa's marriage and through the DE connection, even if 
they
> were at Hogwarts together. 
> 
> Of course, JKR's timelines are so muddled it's rather difficult to
> theorize about exactly when what was going on. 
> 
> >The "lily's handwriting" idea comes from Hermione's suggestion 
that 
> >the handwriting in the diary looked like a woman's, the fact that 
> >using the diary made Slughorn think of the way "Lily" made 
potions, 
> >rather than Snape, and the probability that Snape and Lily had 
known 
> >each other in the Slug club, and the possibility that Slughorn 
might 
> >have paired his two star students together - he "did" try and 
make 
> >connections among his proteges, didn't he? 
> 
> I see. I'm not convinced. Well, not about the handwriting bit, I 
mean.
> I'm convinced that Snape loved Lily. The real problem with this 
theory
> is not that it's shaky - a lot of my favourite theories are - but 
that
> it really seems to make Snape into a wuss. Who makes their 
girlfriend
> write all their notes for them? Honestly? 
> 
> Eileen
>