Did Snape Love Lily?

[gadfly22]

Was Lily particularly good at Potions while at Hogwarts because of natural talent? Or maybe because Snape went out of his way to help her?

If I recall correctly, Lily was adamant about defending Snape from bullies (including her future husband). Could Snape not have developed a strong affection for her because of that?

And if Snape did love Lily, would he not be completely grief-stricken that he had carried the prophecy back to Voldemort and, in effect, caused her death? (Plus the additional animus against James -- and Harry as his son -- caused by pure jealousy.)

And would that grief not be a prime motive for trying to atone for that failure -- i.e., trying to protect Harry -- and for Dumblefore's faith in Snape?

Just wondering.

[Froggs]

Maybe Lilly was the good one at Potions and Snape copied what she did down in his book.

[xXxFawkesSong]

I don't think so but it could be possible =o

[gadfly22]

Maybe Lilly was the good one at Potions and Snape copied what she did down in his book.

That's possible, of course. But it appears that Snape was the innovator. I doubt Lily would have troubled to create a spell that was useful "against enemies".

[Mistress Siana]

Hehe, I guess there's no theory out there that I hate as much as this one.

Unfortunately, the fact that Lily exelled in potions adds some spice to it. And Snape being a half blood rather takes the wind out of the 'he called her a Mudblood!' argument. Actually, when Harry first looked into his potions book, I thought "How sweet, he's got Snape's old book...no, please don't let there be 'I love L.E.' written in it or something!"
I guess HBP made that theory a little more likely than it seemed after OotP, but I still refuse to believe it unless I read it from JKR.
I don't think it's a necessary explanation anyway, and apart from that, it would be much too clichéd. Honestly, if someone attacked me four against one with my own spells, I wouldn't need a crush on his sweetheart to absolutely hate his guts.
Also, as we now know that Snape is/was a Death Eater although he is not a Pure-blood, couldn't it be that his jealousy on James and Sirius resulted of the fact that they were what he so desperately wished to be?

[digby202]

Maybe Dumbledore trusts Snape because he admitted he loved Lily, and since Dumbledore has this thing about love, he believes Snape. Im not going to try and link this idea with Snape killing Dumbledore because I have no clue.

[crystallised_pineapple]

i really don't think that is all there is to it, DD always insisted he 100% believed snape, and surely there has to be something more than him admitting he loves lily, DD knows snape was good at occlumency and was a DE, so surely DD must have had proof of snapes changing sides

i'm just hoping as i hate the idea of snape and lily.

[digby202]

yeah there better be some concrete proof that Snape is good, or at least WAS good. I couldnt bear for DD to be wrong about anything.

Oh yeah this thread is about lily. . . I wouldnt like that either, dont worry Lily mentioned in earlier books (3?) that she hated Snape too But Snape seems like the stalker type guy

[Tanuki]

Yes, because you always refer to the person you're obsessed with in the most insulting way possible to her face. can people just accept the fact that Snape is a racist w***er and be done with it

[Mistress Siana]

No, because that would mean that I also accept that JKR, whom I considered to be a good writer, a) turned an interesting character with many shades into a cheap, stereotyped plot device, b) suddenly forgot everything about literary rules and plot development and gave her main plot twist away in chapter two, c) wrote a book completely without those little hints she's so famous for, d) contradicted her own message and e) wrote a plot with as many holes as swiss cheese.

I'd advise you to actually read all those clever theories posted in this forum, and you'll see that Snape being truly evil is as obvious as Harry and Hermione being destined for each other.

[thestral]

i think the events of HBP have given rise to the new era of shipping. no longer will it be the harry/hermione vs the harry/ginny and hermione/ron shippers, but the dawn of a new age of shipping. the "good" snape shippers and the "evil" snape shippers.

let the battle commence....

[Mistress Siana]

Muhahahahaha!

*sharpens knives*

No, honestly, I guess the reason I get so emotional about the Snape/Lily connection and the question of Snape's loyalities is that I so badly want to convince myself...because I'm far from sure about them. Hm...actually, I could rather live with SuperEvilBabyEatingDeathEater!Snape who gets finished off by Neville than with Snape having loved Lily. Urgh! But honestly, wouldn't things be boring the way they seem now?

Voldemort: Killed Harry's parents, he and Harry have a score to settle in book 7. Official.

Bellatrix: Killed Harry's godfather, she and Harry have a score to settle in book 7. Also official.

Snape: Killed Harry's mentor, he and Harry have a score to settle in book 7. WTF?

Apart from that, in one of the interviews JKR has recently given, she talked about the subject of love in the HP books. She said she didn't want to stick to that old rule saying that in criminal story (for HP is written with the structure of a criminal story), love has no place other than serving as a red herring. But still, she certainly enjoys using love as a distraction as she did with Tonks and Lupin. I guess the now over-obvious hints at Snape/Lily are most likely such a red herring, anything else would be cheap.

*wow, that was the worst structured post I've ever made, hehe*

[Dacre]

I'd advise you to actually read all those clever theories posted in this forum, and you'll see that Snape being truly evil is as obvious as Harry and Hermione being destined for each other

[Froggs]

I'd advise you to actually read all those clever theories posted in this forum, and you'll see that Snape being truly evil is as obvious as Harry and Hermione being destined for each other

Is it obvious though? Life is like this to some degree, someone seems one way, acts another, you think you've got this complex character figured out, and then it turns out you were reading to much into it...and that person was just what they appeared to be from the get go.

[Tanuki]

No, because that would mean that I also accept that JKR, whom I considered to be a good writer, a) turned an interesting character with many shades into a cheap, stereotyped plot device, b) suddenly forgot everything about literary rules and plot development and gave her main plot twist away in chapter two, c) wrote a book completely without those little hints she's so famous for, d) contradicted her own message and e) wrote a plot with as many holes as swiss cheese.

I'd advise you to actually read all those clever theories posted in this forum, and you'll see that Snape being truly evil is as obvious as Harry and Hermione being destined for each other.

You're problem is that you continue to look for the twists, hoping for one more in Snape's favor. Maybe the twist here, is simply that there is no twist