I shall read him with pleasure in a I-hope-not-too-far-future.
I don't think that fandom will die completely: there will remain a lot to play with even after the end, but then I would think so, as I'm used to work and play with books that have been forgotten a long time ago.
What will die -and fortunately so- is the stupid belief that Rowling is the best author ever. Even for her, it should be annoying.
At the moment, she is trapped between the two opposite reactions created by popularity: labeled as rubbish or genius. She is neither, but only book 7 will tell the real value of the serie.
Of course, I'm not a fanfic writer, so my view of it isn't the same as your and it is hard for me to evaluate what is fandom for you, as I discovered it only after HBP. My time's investment is far less important and I don't know a lot of persons.
From my point of view, the real discussion will only begin after the final revelation. Because, to me, Rowling achieved fame mainly by using mystery -a mystery slowly explained on 10 years-, but the value'll come by the nature of the moral message she is trying to tell.
She has proven that she can built a story, that she can be funny and serious at once, but she has yet to prove that she can write a moral book -as she claims to- adapted to the fucked world we live in.
She's already messed up for a great part with Voldemort's character (not in term of mystery writing, but in term of morality), it remains to see what she'll do with Snape.
I think she'll fail utterly at that - I've seen no sign of any sort of moral centre to the books other than Gryffindor= good, Slytherin = bad, even when they do the same sorts of acts.
If, Slughorn is supposed to be the *good* Slytherin she has promised to provide, there is a problem. Not that he is evil, but he is nonetheless too self-serving to be seen as good or to make a real difference.
Wormtail is the only weakness of Gryffindor, but then again he was despised openly by his supposed friends, who valued him as a mirror in which to look at their own greatness.
Lupin is described as a marvellous individual by Rowling, when he is as coward as Slughorn when it comes to admit his past mistakes.
Perhaps I'm too much of an idealist, but I think that there is still room for her, even if I highly doubt she'll take those ways, to limit the damages.
To me, the only satisfying answer about Snape would be that he's never been a real DE, but that he used what he was -a bad looking, despised lover of the Dark Arts- to help Dumbledore from the beginning, from his own choice and not because Dumbledore asked him.
Another possibility would be showing a good character who turns against Harry. Ron would be nice in this role, with all his jealousy.
If it is a teacher, I bet on Flitwick.
Anyway, it is probably wishfull thinking from my part. I'm not sure she'll take any risk to displease her fans.
My views changed a lot when I discovered fandom -the part dedicated to theories, not so much fanfictions-. For instance, many fans do not want Snape to be good in his own right, they want him to be reedemed, by the love of a woman, saved by the almighty grace of Lily.
I have difficulty thinking that he's self-serving, because if he is, he's bloody bad at it. He really isn't this uber-Slytherin plotter - neither is Lucius, who is a bit of a thug - but a bad tempered person who seems to be rather badly trapped.
It's a common trope - redeemed by the love of a good woman, or deciding to reform because you've lost your wife, or son. That's not redemption, that's emo angst. Redemption should be about the rational realisation that you've been wrong.
Well, yes, but I think he is in the mind of Rowling. God, she has described Draco as a clever bully, when he is always one step behind all Gryffindors, when all he can think of are miserable petty insults. He is clever in HBP, when he isn't bothered to be a bully anymore.
I agree totally, but this is not a popular idea.
I want Lily to be the core of the fall of the Marauders, not the reason why Snape changed side.
And I want Hermione to tell a huge "no" to Ron, for which Rowling gave me hope when she said to a kid that HBP gave only a half of the answer about shipping.
I want Lily to be the core of the fall of the Marauders
How so? I'm intrigued by this. :) I've seen the Lily thing all over the place and I admit that it appeals to me- not because I think it ought to play into a remorseful Snape begging Dumbledore's forgiveness and help, but because I think it's probable that Snape had a thing for her in school. "Snape's Worst Memory" was not the worst because he was being taunted by the Marauders- they'd been doing that for years, probably with worse embarassment- but because he alienated Lily by calling her a Mudblood. I'm wondering if that wasn't the final straw for him, an event that decided his leaning toward joining the Death Eaters.
It's all speculation, anyway, until book 7 comes out. *g* Personally, I'm banking on my own crackpot theory: Dumbledore's really a House Elf and didn't die but is instead hiding out in the kitchens with Dobby and whassername; Winky. And Kreacher. Drinking the school's supply of medicinal brandy and nicking Trelawney's sherry.
I've written a delirius post about this some weeks ago, I'll find it and copy the relevant part.
To me, if the *Worst memory* isn't about humiliation (and it can easily be about it), it can be so because Snape saw a bit of the power of sectusempra and was ashamed of it. Snape is after recognition and respect, not power. We know he loathed Lockhart and could have used a spell to really humiliate him, but he used a simple desarming spell: no show of power or ability. More than that, we had had no fucking proof, in all the six books, that Snape ever used a dark spell on someone, except in the *Worst Memory*. He killed fly, but well...
Rowling had a lot of occasions to show the darkness and the power of Snape, but she never took them. In more than 3000 pages, she has never shown anything. It is revealing, to me at least. And it would have been easy to feed the dark image: Snape is the only DE in the testimony of Karkaroff who isn't associated with a crime; Bellatrix accuses him to always slip out of the action; Remus and Sirius have nothing worse to say that he *knew* a lot of dark magic. Even, in his detention in HBP, Harry could have found a card relating old mischief of Snape. But there is nothing and it can't be for the sake of the suspens, because we know he has been a DE: there is no suspens.
In term of mystery writing, I see this lack of proof as a possibility created by the author to reverse totally the situation in the end. Why making the loyalty of Snape one of the biggest issue of the serie, if not because it has never been an issue at all. But I'm far from a specialist of mystery, so it is just a personal view of things.
As for Lily, I'm ambivalent. I find it funny that, apart the members of the Order of the Phoenix, those who were in contact with James have nothing really positive to say about him. For instance, Slughorn doesn't mention him and Flitwick, in PoA, limits his commentaries to the recognition that James and Sirius were inseparable. But the two same teachers praise Lily, Flitwick in PS and Slughorn, obviously, in HBP.
From Flitwick, it is even more surprising that, in OotP, he decided to conserve a little bit of the Weasley's swamp, as of example of good magic. So he doesn't condamn mischief makers.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that Lily was the remarquable person of the lot and that she was seen as so by everybody, while the Marauders weren't. As one of her fellow students, Snape could have been charmed as were Flitwick and Slughorn. But I think that the young Snape had far too much personal issues to resolve to be available for love. Perhaps frienship, though. I can't be wrong, but the unrequited love's motif wouldn't add to the story at this point, because Rowling has already given ebough reasons to Snape to explain the way he is, bitter and asocial.
I'm not very bothered with the "mudblood": Snape was in a highly embarassing situation, because James was trying to impress Lily. The best way Snape had at this moment to reach James was to insult the object of his desire and what could he say about Lily, if not "mudblood"? She was pretty, clever, popular, nice, kind. The fact that she was a muggleborn was the only thing he could attack. If Lily was as clever as the books show, she could have understood it.
I do not condone it, but I'm obligated to recognize that racial insults are very frequently used in our world, even by people who aren't racist at the core. Why should it be different in fiction?
And if we must condamn Snape because he used "mudblood" when he was a teenager, what should we do with Hagrid -the so sweet Hagrid- who told to Harry, back in PS, that Slytherins were a bad lot? Prejudice for prejudice, Hagrid isn't better than Snape.
Anyway, I can complain like that for the eternity, so I'll pass to the fall of the Marauders.
I copy here, what I wrote, without editing the text. So perhaps some things aren't clear or repeat what I've just written.
So, I'll admit, first, that I loathe Sirius Black, really. I've been loathing him since I discovered HP fandom. When I first read the books, he didn't bother me, as I saw him as a minor character, with no more importance than a chair: a chair is usefull, but not very interesting. It was a shock to see how, for many persons, Sirius Black incarnates the idea of a "good guy", flawed, yes, but with flaws that are almost "cute". Hey, the man can send another human being to his death, but it's okay, because Sirius was just a "boy" and "boys" do this kind of things. If he died, it wasn't because he was idiot enough to taunt Bellatrix instead of paying attention to the fight, but it was Snape's or Dumbledore's fault. Anyway...
So, I loathe him and seriously wish the worst outcome possible for him in the final book. The best place to write this outcome, I think, would be the so anticipated explanation about the Shrieking Shack's incident. So, what is the worst thing that can happen to Sirius there? Why, of course Harry to learn what an arsehole his godfather was. With this in mind, I've tried to find the horridest motivation for him to send Snape there, which doesn't contradict canon.
This motivation has little to do with his hatred of Snape, but a lot to do with his loyalty to James, because, frankly, if he did it solely against Snape, people will always find a way to justify it and he'll remain a shining hero, which I don't want. I don't mind Snape being an arsehole, I like him that way and it even crossed my mind that he has been sent to the Shrack in retaliation to the fact that he feed Lily a love's potion, but I can't stand Sirius the Hero. And anyway, I can't stand too the unrequited love from Snape's theory: it is a dull theory and doesn't bring more about personal choices in a serie supposed to be about them. If Snape, in addition to be poor, ugly, unpopular and the target of the Golden Boys of his years, didn't even stand a chance with the girl he loved, who can seriously blame him to have listened to his bitterness when joigning the DE? He was, afterall, just a "boy" and "boys" do this kind of stupid things. What a turn off it would be if it turns that Snape is loyal to the right side because of an undying -but unrequited- love. I think I'll vomit.
So, I loathe intensely Sirius and I've decided that he sent Snape to the werewolf to have Lupin expelled, because he was a threat to James' love life. Rowling said, in the Leaky Cauldron's interview, that if Lupin was indeed very fond of Lily, he didn't compete with James. Well, there is such a thing as women whims and desires in our world. Women don't always wait, looking pretty, to the men to make a move. So Lily, who knew that Lupin was in love with her, decided to make the move, because James was arrogant and idiot, and Lupin was cute and shy.
Rowling said too, in another interview, that the PoA movie anticipated a lot on later instalments. Many have been speculating that the involontary clues were in the scene where Lupin talks with Harry. And what Steve Kloves had to say about his work on PoA? I quote the Baltimore's Sun of June 4 2004 :
"Kloves says that when he first met Rowling, he told her he intuited that Lily "was quite special" and that James "was complicated." And in the bridge scene, Lupin "illuminates Harry about his mother - the most wonderful thing about her was that she was understanding toward Lupin at a time few were. She saw something special about him when others, including himself, couldn't." Kloves admits, "I think he was in love with her in many ways."
I can fairly well imagine him making the same kind of stupid speeches he made with Tonk: "I'm too dangerous, Lily, and James is my friend. I don't deserve you". But Lily is a strong willed girl and insist, saying that there is nothing between James and her, which is true at this moment. While weak Lupin struggles against himself, James and Sirius, who are nosey little gits, watch all the scene from under the invisibility cloak. (note : I suppose there is a reason why Harry received this cloak from James, as he can easily have bought it. And we haven't seen this reason yet). James, hopefully, is heartbroken, but touched by the way his friend remains loyal to their frienship ; Sirius, knowing that the flesh is weak, doesn't want to take a chance and decides to take the matter in his own hand. Sirius is too loyal to his friends for doing this to Lupin ? No, he is loyal to James and James alone, which was confirmed by Rowling when she wrote -on her website I think- that his redeeming quality was his love for James, and later for Harry. She explicitely wrote James and Harry, not "his friends". Sirius thought that Lupin was the traitor, not Pettigrew, there must be a reason for that too.
And one night, Sirius sees Snape observing Madam Pomfrey leading Lupin to the Whomping Willow. He find there the best way to get rid of Lupin, without hurting him or confronting him openly. Snape, for his part, doesn't count, he is just a despicable little oddball, not even a real enemy: he is easily expendable for the sake of James' happiness. The job done, Sirius returns to the common room, where poor little James is depressed over the fact that his dream girl wants another guy, so Sirius, to make him feel better, tells him that the other guy won't be a problem anymore. But James is too noble to accept to obtain Lily this way, and the rest of the story is history. They don't even need to tell Lupin the real reason why Snape has been sent to him.
Do I think that this will be verified in book 7? No, but I would like it a lot.
V. interesting idea. I don't think I would have connected those dots on my own, but there is certainly a validity in the connections you've drawn. I think my biggest uncertainty regarding it is that it seems a little too complicated for a children's series, but then again, there are other complex plot lines in the text, so it's more a personal reservation than anything I can back up.
I will have to think on it before I can really discuss it, I suspect-- and possibly read the books again. *g* It's been a while.
Also-- I may have missed something in reading them the first time (I do skim quickly, as I mentioned before-- what is this about Snape giving Lily a love potion?
(A thought in support of your idea, brought by your mention of Sirius' mistrust of Lupin when the possibility of a traitor was first brought up-- Lupin was ready enough to think Sirius a mass murderer, up until the climax at the Shack in PoA. Potentially telling, I think, about their friendship.)
Oh, I'm not sure about anything in this, but I can have imagination to write all sorts of things when I want to flee boring jobs.
What I'm almost sure of is that the Marauders are less inocent than they claim to be, and not all by the fault of Pettigrew. So yes, you are right, it is telling that Lupin thought this of Sirius.
The Love potion was just an example to support the fact that I've thought of many things to explain de Shrieking Shack's incident. It was more that Sirius sending Snape there for no good reason, apart making a joke or being annoyed at the nosey Snape.
Sirius might have had a pretty good reason to do it. But what?
There are some possibilities:
Love potions: they took far too much space in HBP to not be significant later and I don't think that Merope was enough to justify the speech of Slughorn, the failed attempt to slip one to Harry, etc. Could Snape have given one to Lily? Perhaps, but I don't think so. But if he did it could justify why Dumbledore didn't take any disciplinary mesures toward Sirius, while he deserved to be expelled.
Regulus: His young brother could have been to close to Snape, who was seen by Sirius as a bad influence. Again, unlikely, apart if Regulus and Snape were lovers. Rowling can certainly bring homosexuality in children's books, but she won't do so, as she has far enough serious themes at the moment.
Lily and Snape were close to each others. Possible. I do think, like you, that they had some sort of connexion. I think the "awful boy" of Petunia's admission was Snape. Now, what kind of connexion and when was it formed? It was surely formed after the *Worst Memory*, as Lily *almost smiled* at Snape's misery. If you are friend or lover, you won't smile at this kind of humiliation, never. Did Harry and Ron smiled at the teeth of Hermione in GoF? And it was less humiliating than what Snape had to live.
To me, if it was love, it had to be shared, with Severus-obsessed-by-James making a mess of it because of his silly needs to achieve social recognition above anything else, which would be coherent with the answer of Rowling when she said that "he has been loved and that makes him more culpable than Voldemort in some ways".
"More culpable"? What does it mean? Surely not guilt in the sense of being commited with the DE. An author won't build carefully a character, passing six books without giving away their true loyalty to let slip it in an interview. No way.
From the beginning, in interviews, she accuses Snape of being cruel, so I think that it can really be the *crime* of Snape in her mind: to have been too coward to take a chance with love, thus allowing himself to become the bitter man he is.
But Rowling made too a comment where she admitted that Lily was probably already fond of James by the time of the *Worst Memory*, so it is tricky.
I would love too a love story between them, but not if he didn't stand a chance -which I find cruel as he had enough issues without it- and not if it is the reason of his redemption. If he need to be reedemed, it must be all by himself and for the good reasons, not because of someone else.
Friendship? Perhaps.
Another possible reason I thought about is that Sirius and Snape could be half-brothers, because I'm annoyed with the "Half-Blood Prince" business. The interpretation of it as a rejection of his muggle parentage does seem to simple: it is already the story of Tom Riddle. But it can mean very simply that Tobias Snape isn't really his father, thus the rejection of his name (more than his person). If Eileen got married with Tobias when she was already pregant, who is the father? I see tree possible candidates for the role:
-a Krum: the physical features are amazingly semblable and Eileen did participate in inter-schools competitions of gobstones.
-a Longbottom: it would explain the werewolf essay set by Snape in PoA not as an act of pettiness, but as a retaliation to the clue given by Lupin while suggesting to cloth Snape like Neville's gran.
-Sirius' father: it would explain why we only see a portrait of his mother (as the father would be the shouting man Harry saw in occlumency lessons), and why Snape talked about the "mother's house" of Sirius, instead of family's house or father's house. But, of course, using mother's house reminds of the accusation used by children that others hide in their Mother's skirt, so is worthy of Snape.
If Sirius and Snape shared the same father, attempting to kill Snape would represent a symbolic murder of what Sirius loathed in himself. Now, the question is: Was Sirius really capable of murder at this point? I don't know. His attitude toward Pettigrew seems to suggest that he was.
In the end, I do prefer the idea the it had, finally, little to do with Snape, but a lot to do with the internal problems of the Marauders.
I don't think that fandom will die completely: there will remain a lot to play with even after the end, but then I would think so, as I'm used to work and play with books that have been forgotten a long time ago.
What will die -and fortunately so- is the stupid belief that Rowling is the best author ever. Even for her, it should be annoying.
At the moment, she is trapped between the two opposite reactions created by popularity: labeled as rubbish or genius. She is neither, but only book 7 will tell the real value of the serie.
Of course, I'm not a fanfic writer, so my view of it isn't the same as your and it is hard for me to evaluate what is fandom for you, as I discovered it only after HBP. My time's investment is far less important and I don't know a lot of persons.
From my point of view, the real discussion will only begin after the final revelation. Because, to me, Rowling achieved fame mainly by using mystery -a mystery slowly explained on 10 years-, but the value'll come by the nature of the moral message she is trying to tell.
She has proven that she can built a story, that she can be funny and serious at once, but she has yet to prove that she can write a moral book -as she claims to- adapted to the fucked world we live in.
She's already messed up for a great part with Voldemort's character (not in term of mystery writing, but in term of morality), it remains to see what she'll do with Snape.
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If, Slughorn is supposed to be the *good* Slytherin she has promised to provide, there is a problem. Not that he is evil, but he is nonetheless too self-serving to be seen as good or to make a real difference.
Wormtail is the only weakness of Gryffindor, but then again he was despised openly by his supposed friends, who valued him as a mirror in which to look at their own greatness.
Lupin is described as a marvellous individual by Rowling, when he is as coward as Slughorn when it comes to admit his past mistakes.
Perhaps I'm too much of an idealist, but I think that there is still room for her, even if I highly doubt she'll take those ways, to limit the damages.
To me, the only satisfying answer about Snape would be that he's never been a real DE, but that he used what he was -a bad looking, despised lover of the Dark Arts- to help Dumbledore from the beginning, from his own choice and not because Dumbledore asked him.
Another possibility would be showing a good character who turns against Harry. Ron would be nice in this role, with all his jealousy.
If it is a teacher, I bet on Flitwick.
Anyway, it is probably wishfull thinking from my part. I'm not sure she'll take any risk to displease her fans.
My views changed a lot when I discovered fandom -the part dedicated to theories, not so much fanfictions-. For instance, many fans do not want Snape to be good in his own right, they want him to be reedemed, by the love of a woman, saved by the almighty grace of Lily.
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It's a common trope - redeemed by the love of a good woman, or deciding to reform because you've lost your wife, or son. That's not redemption, that's emo angst. Redemption should be about the rational realisation that you've been wrong.
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I agree totally, but this is not a popular idea.
I want Lily to be the core of the fall of the Marauders, not the reason why Snape changed side.
And I want Hermione to tell a huge "no" to Ron, for which Rowling gave me hope when she said to a kid that HBP gave only a half of the answer about shipping.
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It's practically shipping, that.
That would be an intriguing reason behind the fall of the Marauders. It has potential ..
Oh yes.
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Because.
We are bitches, aren't we?
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How so? I'm intrigued by this. :) I've seen the Lily thing all over the place and I admit that it appeals to me- not because I think it ought to play into a remorseful Snape begging Dumbledore's forgiveness and help, but because I think it's probable that Snape had a thing for her in school. "Snape's Worst Memory" was not the worst because he was being taunted by the Marauders- they'd been doing that for years, probably with worse embarassment- but because he alienated Lily by calling her a Mudblood. I'm wondering if that wasn't the final straw for him, an event that decided his leaning toward joining the Death Eaters.
It's all speculation, anyway, until book 7 comes out. *g* Personally, I'm banking on my own crackpot theory: Dumbledore's really a House Elf and didn't die but is instead hiding out in the kitchens with Dobby and whassername; Winky. And Kreacher. Drinking the school's supply of medicinal brandy and nicking Trelawney's sherry.
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To me, if the *Worst memory* isn't about humiliation (and it can easily be about it), it can be so because Snape saw a bit of the power of sectusempra and was ashamed of it. Snape is after recognition and respect, not power. We know he loathed Lockhart and could have used a spell to really humiliate him, but he used a simple desarming spell: no show of power or ability. More than that, we had had no fucking proof, in all the six books, that Snape ever used a dark spell on someone, except in the *Worst Memory*. He killed fly, but well...
Rowling had a lot of occasions to show the darkness and the power of Snape, but she never took them. In more than 3000 pages, she has never shown anything. It is revealing, to me at least. And it would have been easy to feed the dark image: Snape is the only DE in the testimony of Karkaroff who isn't associated with a crime; Bellatrix accuses him to always slip out of the action; Remus and Sirius have nothing worse to say that he *knew* a lot of dark magic. Even, in his detention in HBP, Harry could have found a card relating old mischief of Snape. But there is nothing and it can't be for the sake of the suspens, because we know he has been a DE: there is no suspens.
In term of mystery writing, I see this lack of proof as a possibility created by the author to reverse totally the situation in the end. Why making the loyalty of Snape one of the biggest issue of the serie, if not because it has never been an issue at all. But I'm far from a specialist of mystery, so it is just a personal view of things.
As for Lily, I'm ambivalent. I find it funny that, apart the members of the Order of the Phoenix, those who were in contact with James have nothing really positive to say about him. For instance, Slughorn doesn't mention him and Flitwick, in PoA, limits his commentaries to the recognition that James and Sirius were inseparable. But the two same teachers praise Lily, Flitwick in PS and Slughorn, obviously, in HBP.
From Flitwick, it is even more surprising that, in OotP, he decided to conserve a little bit of the Weasley's swamp, as of example of good magic. So he doesn't condamn mischief makers.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that Lily was the remarquable person of the lot and that she was seen as so by everybody, while the Marauders weren't. As one of her fellow students, Snape could have been charmed as were Flitwick and Slughorn. But I think that the young Snape had far too much personal issues to resolve to be available for love. Perhaps frienship, though. I can't be wrong, but the unrequited love's motif wouldn't add to the story at this point, because Rowling has already given ebough reasons to Snape to explain the way he is, bitter and asocial.
I'm not very bothered with the "mudblood": Snape was in a highly embarassing situation, because James was trying to impress Lily. The best way Snape had at this moment to reach James was to insult the object of his desire and what could he say about Lily, if not "mudblood"? She was pretty, clever, popular, nice, kind. The fact that she was a muggleborn was the only thing he could attack. If Lily was as clever as the books show, she could have understood it.
I do not condone it, but I'm obligated to recognize that racial insults are very frequently used in our world, even by people who aren't racist at the core. Why should it be different in fiction?
And if we must condamn Snape because he used "mudblood" when he was a teenager, what should we do with Hagrid -the so sweet Hagrid- who told to Harry, back in PS, that Slytherins were a bad lot? Prejudice for prejudice, Hagrid isn't better than Snape.
Anyway, I can complain like that for the eternity, so I'll pass to the fall of the Marauders.
I copy here, what I wrote, without editing the text. So perhaps some things aren't clear or repeat what I've just written.
Warning, it is a little bit long...
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So, I loathe him and seriously wish the worst outcome possible for him in the final book. The best place to write this outcome, I think, would be the so anticipated explanation about the Shrieking Shack's incident. So, what is the worst thing that can happen to Sirius there? Why, of course Harry to learn what an arsehole his godfather was. With this in mind, I've tried to find the horridest motivation for him to send Snape there, which doesn't contradict canon.
This motivation has little to do with his hatred of Snape, but a lot to do with his loyalty to James, because, frankly, if he did it solely against Snape, people will always find a way to justify it and he'll remain a shining hero, which I don't want. I don't mind Snape being an arsehole, I like him that way and it even crossed my mind that he has been sent to the Shrack in retaliation to the fact that he feed Lily a love's potion, but I can't stand Sirius the Hero. And anyway, I can't stand too the unrequited love from Snape's theory: it is a dull theory and doesn't bring more about personal choices in a serie supposed to be about them. If Snape, in addition to be poor, ugly, unpopular and the target of the Golden Boys of his years, didn't even stand a chance with the girl he loved, who can seriously blame him to have listened to his bitterness when joigning the DE? He was, afterall, just a "boy" and "boys" do this kind of stupid things. What a turn off it would be if it turns that Snape is loyal to the right side because of an undying -but unrequited- love. I think I'll vomit.
So, I loathe intensely Sirius and I've decided that he sent Snape to the werewolf to have Lupin expelled, because he was a threat to James' love life. Rowling said, in the Leaky Cauldron's interview, that if Lupin was indeed very fond of Lily, he didn't compete with James. Well, there is such a thing as women whims and desires in our world. Women don't always wait, looking pretty, to the men to make a move. So Lily, who knew that Lupin was in love with her, decided to make the move, because James was arrogant and idiot, and Lupin was cute and shy.
Rowling said too, in another interview, that the PoA movie anticipated a lot on later instalments. Many have been speculating that the involontary clues were in the scene where Lupin talks with Harry. And what Steve Kloves had to say about his work on PoA? I quote the Baltimore's Sun of June 4 2004 :
"Kloves says that when he first met Rowling, he told her he intuited that Lily "was quite special" and that James "was complicated." And in the bridge scene, Lupin "illuminates Harry about his mother - the most wonderful thing about her was that she was understanding toward Lupin at a time few were. She saw something special about him when others, including himself, couldn't." Kloves admits, "I think he was in love with her in many ways."
(to be continued)
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Sirius is too loyal to his friends for doing this to Lupin ? No, he is loyal to James and James alone, which was confirmed by Rowling when she wrote -on her website I think- that his redeeming quality was his love for James, and later for Harry. She explicitely wrote James and Harry, not "his friends". Sirius thought that Lupin was the traitor, not Pettigrew, there must be a reason for that too.
And one night, Sirius sees Snape observing Madam Pomfrey leading Lupin to the Whomping Willow. He find there the best way to get rid of Lupin, without hurting him or confronting him openly. Snape, for his part, doesn't count, he is just a despicable little oddball, not even a real enemy: he is easily expendable for the sake of James' happiness. The job done, Sirius returns to the common room, where poor little James is depressed over the fact that his dream girl wants another guy, so Sirius, to make him feel better, tells him that the other guy won't be a problem anymore. But James is too noble to accept to obtain Lily this way, and the rest of the story is history. They don't even need to tell Lupin the real reason why Snape has been sent to him.
Do I think that this will be verified in book 7? No, but I would like it a lot.
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I will have to think on it before I can really discuss it, I suspect-- and possibly read the books again. *g* It's been a while.
Also-- I may have missed something in reading them the first time (I do skim quickly, as I mentioned before-- what is this about Snape giving Lily a love potion?
(A thought in support of your idea, brought by your mention of Sirius' mistrust of Lupin when the possibility of a traitor was first brought up-- Lupin was ready enough to think Sirius a mass murderer, up until the climax at the Shack in PoA. Potentially telling, I think, about their friendship.)
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What I'm almost sure of is that the Marauders are less inocent than they claim to be, and not all by the fault of Pettigrew. So yes, you are right, it is telling that Lupin thought this of Sirius.
The Love potion was just an example to support the fact that I've thought of many things to explain de Shrieking Shack's incident. It was more that Sirius sending Snape there for no good reason, apart making a joke or being annoyed at the nosey Snape.
Sirius might have had a pretty good reason to do it. But what?
There are some possibilities:
Love potions: they took far too much space in HBP to not be significant later and I don't think that Merope was enough to justify the speech of Slughorn, the failed attempt to slip one to Harry, etc. Could Snape have given one to Lily? Perhaps, but I don't think so. But if he did it could justify why Dumbledore didn't take any disciplinary mesures toward Sirius, while he deserved to be expelled.
Regulus: His young brother could have been to close to Snape, who was seen by Sirius as a bad influence. Again, unlikely, apart if Regulus and Snape were lovers. Rowling can certainly bring homosexuality in children's books, but she won't do so, as she has far enough serious themes at the moment.
Lily and Snape were close to each others. Possible. I do think, like you, that they had some sort of connexion. I think the "awful boy" of Petunia's admission was Snape. Now, what kind of connexion and when was it formed? It was surely formed after the *Worst Memory*, as Lily *almost smiled* at Snape's misery. If you are friend or lover, you won't smile at this kind of humiliation, never. Did Harry and Ron smiled at the teeth of Hermione in GoF? And it was less humiliating than what Snape had to live.
To me, if it was love, it had to be shared, with Severus-obsessed-by-James making a mess of it because of his silly needs to achieve social recognition above anything else, which would be coherent with the answer of Rowling when she said that "he has been loved and that makes him more culpable than Voldemort in some ways".
(to be continued)
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From the beginning, in interviews, she accuses Snape of being cruel, so I think that it can really be the *crime* of Snape in her mind: to have been too coward to take a chance with love, thus allowing himself to become the bitter man he is.
But Rowling made too a comment where she admitted that Lily was probably already fond of James by the time of the *Worst Memory*, so it is tricky.
I would love too a love story between them, but not if he didn't stand a chance -which I find cruel as he had enough issues without it- and not if it is the reason of his redemption. If he need to be reedemed, it must be all by himself and for the good reasons, not because of someone else.
Friendship? Perhaps.
Another possible reason I thought about is that Sirius and Snape could be half-brothers, because I'm annoyed with the "Half-Blood Prince" business. The interpretation of it as a rejection of his muggle parentage does seem to simple: it is already the story of Tom Riddle. But it can mean very simply that Tobias Snape isn't really his father, thus the rejection of his name (more than his person). If Eileen got married with Tobias when she was already pregant, who is the father? I see tree possible candidates for the role:
-a Krum: the physical features are amazingly semblable and Eileen did participate in inter-schools competitions of gobstones.
-a Longbottom: it would explain the werewolf essay set by Snape in PoA not as an act of pettiness, but as a retaliation to the clue given by Lupin while suggesting to cloth Snape like Neville's gran.
-Sirius' father: it would explain why we only see a portrait of his mother (as the father would be the shouting man Harry saw in occlumency lessons), and why Snape talked about the "mother's house" of Sirius, instead of family's house or father's house. But, of course, using mother's house reminds of the accusation used by children that others hide in their Mother's skirt, so is worthy of Snape.
If Sirius and Snape shared the same father, attempting to kill Snape would represent a symbolic murder of what Sirius loathed in himself. Now, the question is: Was Sirius really capable of murder at this point? I don't know. His attitude toward Pettigrew seems to suggest that he was.
In the end, I do prefer the idea the it had, finally, little to do with Snape, but a lot to do with the internal problems of the Marauders.
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