The Twenty Memories of Severus Snape

[princessofsnark]

Note: All quotes, characters, locations, etc., cited here are taken from the US Scholastic edition of the Harry Potter series, and are the work and property of J.K. Rowling. I use them only as reference. Citations are from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: “The Prince’s Tale,” unless otherwise noted.

Memory #2

The scene dissolved, and before

Comments

[shyfoxling]

Could I suggest an LJ-cut? This is long and for some reason half of it is a significantly bigger font than everything else on my flist.

Lily Evans - For the first time we’re told that Lily has dark red hair

First time in this book, you mean? Without doing a more indepth search, off the top of my head, that was already mentioned in OotP in Snape's Worst Memory. ("It was one of the girls from the lake edge. She had thick, dark red hair that fell to her shoulders, and startlingly green almond-shaped eyes - Harry’s eyes.")

(But peeps, pay attention! Lily is not ginger.)

So, it seems someone other than a professional has cut Severus’ hair since the last scene, more than likely his mother or father.

I would think almost certainly his mother (presumably without magic, although perhaps she's just bad at that kind of spell!).

seem to indicate that it is warmer weather and, therefore, probably later in the same summer as the First Memory. That detail alone could still take place within the same week, just happening to be a warmer day. I

[shyfoxling]

which makes Sirius Black’s statement about him knowing more about the Dark Arts when he arrived at Hogwarts than a Seventh Year much less likely.

Sirius's statement is that Severus knew more curses than (half the) seventh-years. (Which, since JKR never makes clear just what a well-educated seventh year would come out of Hogwarts knowing, doesn't tell us a lot; from what we do see, ickle Severus wouldn't have to know much at all to know more than half the seventh-years.) While Sirius does seem to be making this statement in a context of smearing Severus's image, curses aren't necessarily Dark magic in the senses of illegal or of evil; Harry picks up several besides the Unforgivables (e.g. Reducto). The sentence with "Dark Arts" says that he was fascinated by them and that he was famous for that at school