Snape And Lily - Was There More Than What We Were Lead To Believe?

[Narya]

****WARNING! SPOILERS!!!****

IF YOU HAVEN'T READ HALF BLOOD PRINCE YET, STOP RIGHT NOW!
IF YOU HAVE...WELL THEN...continue...it's a good theory, I promise!


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I've been brewing a theory ever since HBP came out and the fact about Snape overhearing the Prophecy was revealed.


Analyzing that scene, it occured to me that:

1. Snape heard the Prophecy in full. (Proof of this is that Trelawney saw him. She couldn't have if she was still in a Trance. So Trelawney already said the Whole Prophecy when she saw Snape)
2. Snape told Voldemort the Prophecy partially - otherwise why would the Dark Lord try to steal it in OotP?

How does this connect to Lily?

Well, we all know that Voldemort didn't intend to kill Lily. He gave her all the chance in the world to escape with her life - which is very little knowing mothers would not normally abandon their children to death to save their own lives. Why did Voldemort do that for Lily? Surely not because he felt something for her. Voldemort hardly knew her. But Snape did. He knew her well, perhaps too well, because not only were they classmates - THEY WERE BOTH PART OF THE SLUG CLUB. So did Snape tell Voldemort NOT TO KILL HER?

Imagine the scene:

Snape hears the Prophecy entirely goes to Voldemort and tells him the prophecy partially - omitting the most important part. He knew that the Prophecy could refer to either the Potters or the Longbottoms since he knows Lily IS DUE IN JULY. He tells Voldemort to go after the Potters, why? He hates James, and he just found a way to get rid of James and his son. But NOT Lily.

If you notice, whenever Snape made nasty remarks to Harry, more often than not, he'd compare him to James - NEVER TO LILY - he has never said anything bad about Lily all throughout the books (well there was the one time in the pensieve - but they were still in school then, he never made remarks after that). The fact that Lily also excelled in Potions leads me to believe that perhaps Snape had some kind of "Crush" on her - but concealed because she was a "MUDBLOOD". However, I don't think this kind of attraction faded in time - rather it grew. Perhaps to the point where he might have courted Lily. That's why he hates James (and Harry) that much. James "stole" Lily from him.

So he tells Voldemort about the Prophecy and warns him NOT TO KILL LILY, on the basis of Ancient Magic that he may know. Or, and this is a long shot, Snape could have given Lily a spell or potion, or something that would protect her from harm - even against the Killing curse. But of course he does not say this to Voldemort. Instead Snape tells Voldemort that if he kills Lily, something will go wrong. But underneath it all, Snape just wanted James out of the way.

That is why he felt so remorseful, as Dumbledore pointed out, because Voldemort still went ahead and killed Lily

[Noldor_returned]

What you said makes sense, except I wouldn't agree entirely with you on the part where Snape only compares Harry to James. Five reasons why not:

Everybody compares Harry to James more often than Lily
The only thing we know Harry and Lily are similar in is their eyes
Harry is male, so is James
There are more similarities to compare Harry with James than with Lily
Harry tries more often to be like James than LilySo your logic and thinking was working well, except for that one small section. Otherwise, I would have to agree with you.

[Eledhwen]

Having read The Deathly Hallows, the Snape/Lily thing certainly has more in it than we are told initially. We also learn more about Petunia's bitterness, and Snape's involvement in it.

[Noldor_returned]

Yes, and that was one section I was dissappointed in. It worked but wasn't all that great to read. The fact that Lily and Snape grew up together didn't work well once we were initially told, and although later on it was effective, that small section overshadowed the remainder of the memory (IMO).

[Majimaune]

After finishing Dallows about three hours ago I thought this. I don't like the ending. That whole stuff between those two I didn't like all that much.

[Barliman Butterbur]

The connection between Snape and Lily is that he was in (unrequited) love with her all of his life. And Dumbledore used that love to turn Snape into his (unwilling? resentful?) secret agent among the Death Eaters. Snape was a tragic hero forced to do terrible things, and the two elements eating him simultaneously, making both his inner and outer lives a hell on earth, were his love for Lily and his hatred/jealousy of James and Harry.

Barley

[Eledhwen]

Interesting point, that, about Snape's love for Lily and hate for James/Harry. It occurs to me that every time Snape looked at Harry he saw James; but he also saw Lily's eyes. I think that most of Snapes look of hatred when he glanced at Harry was for himself and what he had done to Lily. Harry, of course, starkly represented the fact that the hated James got Snape's girl in the end. Lily's eyes, looking out from the James-like Harry must have been torment and, as Narya points out, Snape tried to deal with this dissonance by majoring on the fact that Harry was like his father and ignoring any similarity to Lily (Dumbledore picked up on this too - pensieve scene).

[Majimaune]

Yes yes. Snape didn't want to like Harry because he survived where Lily didn't and plus all that stuff about James.

[Josephine]

I was just wondering whether anyone else spotted the inconsistency between Snape's memory in DH and Petunia's answer to Harry in HBP. She says she knew what Dementors are because she overheard James tell Lily, but in the Pensive, we see that actually, she overheard Severus tell Lily. So why doesn't she say so (except for the obvious reason that JKR couldn't have told us at that stage)? Yes, she could have mixed it up in her memory, but I don't think that's very likely. If she remembered the content of the conversation, she'd probably also remember the people taking part in it. Maybe she wants to protect Harry, but what from? Does she even know that Snape teaches at Hogwarts?

[Majimaune]

No she doesn't say James but says "That horrible boy" or something of that nature. Harry presumes his father.

[Josephine]

Hey, that's true. I've just looked it up, and she just says "that awful boy". Of course Harry thinks she means James because she never says anything nice about him either. It's a good example of how JKR plays with the readers by making them see things through Harry's eyes. Thanks for pointing it out to me!

[Majimaune]

Any time, everyone does it for me.

JK is a good writter but can she write something else?

[Josephine]

JK is a good writter but can she write something else?

The question is not whether she can write something else (I'm sure she can), but whether people will want her to write something else. I think it was L.Frank Baum who tried to write about other topics after the great success of the Wizard of Oz, but people didn't want to read it, and in the end, he simply wrote one Oz sequel after the other. I don't believe it made him too happy, though. I hope JKR will manage to do it better.

[Majimaune]

I heard somewhere that she will be attempting a murder mystery. That might turn out alright.