|
Joined: 19 Jul 2005
Posts: 9
|
It may be a stretch, but I think I've found a tiny piece of evidence that Snape and Lily were better acquainted during school than has been let on (in an effort to support claims that Lily and Snape were pseudo-chums and that Snape perhaps had feelings for Lily, which is why he turned double-agent after the Potters' murders).
Please take note of pages 31-32 in Chapter 2 of OotP [American hardcover version]. After he and Dudley have been attacked in the alleyway, Harry is trying to explain Dementors to the Dursleys and Aunt Petunia shocks everyone by saying that they guard the wizard prison, Azkaban.
-----
"How d'you know that?" he [Harry] asked her, astonished.
Aunt Petunia looked quite appalled with herself. She glanced at Uncle Vernon in fearful apology, then lowered her hand slightly to reveal her horsey teeth.
"I heard – that awful boy – telling her about them – years ago," she said jerkily.
"If you mean my mum and dad, why don't you use their names?" said Harry loudly, but Aunt Petunia ignored him. She seemed horribly flustered.
-----
Okay, so call me crazy, but I think that the "awful boy" that Petunia referred to was Snape, not James.
I suppose it is possible that Lily brought James home at some point and the discussion about dementors came up because the first war with Voldemort was heating up. But I'll propose another possibility.
Since the sisters were not close, and probably didn't see each other very often, if at all, after Lily graduated and married James, let's assume that this conversation about Azkaban was overheard while Lily was at home on holiday between school terms. Petunia refers to a "boy" not a man (although the term 'boy' is a bit age-ambiguous...it could refer to a male anywhere from toddler to twenty-something). It is established later in the book, after viewing Snape's "worst memory" (calling Lily a mudblood, IMHO), that Lily detested James and did her best to ignore him. She didn't start dating him until seventh year. So it really isn't very likely that she had him over for a visit to her Muggle parents' house while still in school.
However, we do know that Lily was an excellent potions student, as was Snape. Spinner's End was probably Snape's childhood home, and if he lived in muggle London he must have had knowledge of muggle transportation. So, is it possible that Snape and Lily had become something like friends during Potions class and that he visited her one summer? This probably would have occured before the incident in the pensieve, since I doubt that their friendship flourished after Snape called Lily a mudblood. It also wouldn't be too surprising that a topic like dementors would come up, considering that Snape was "up to his eyes in the Dark Arts" and probably didn't talk about much else, aside from Potions.
So...does this theory have legs to stand on or am I a crackpot?
Oh, and just as a side note, Lily's reaction to being called a Mudblood by Snape seems to make more sense if you imagine that they were something like friends before he said it:
---
"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!"
Lily blinked. "Fine," she said cooly. "I won't bother in the future. And I'd wash you pants if I were you, Snivellus."
---
Sounds like she was a bit hurt, if you ask me. |
|
|
Moderator
Joined: 27 Dec 2004
Posts: 164
