Thank you very much for saying that. I've already been starting to think that it is only me clinging to straws who can come up with this explanation to get a normal, reasonable Severus Snape out off the last book's wreckage. There's nothing unusual or pathological obsessive about a man like Severus feeling deep remorse about his part in endangering his best childhood friend and first love. This is even normal, if he had been the one who broke up their relation. One can stop loving someone romantically and still feel extreme loyalty. Severus as I have read him in the books certainly can. The memories Severus gives to Harry IMO are less a testimony of undying love than a confession. Not one of them presents the Saint!Lily he is supposed to love; they show his mistakes. I interpret the casting of the doe patronus in Dumbledore's office as an act of almost childish defiance. 'No, I don't care for the boy. Look!'If a patronus always represents the casters true love, what about Dumbledore's phoenix, Harry's stag and Ginny's horse? I prefer to believe that patronusses are a bit more complex. BTW if the two patronusses are indeed similar, who got it first. A doe is a symbol for protective female power. It's not even the right consort for a stag and why on earth should Severus remember his one and only true in the form of his enemy's female consort anyway?
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Date: 2009-08-07 05:20 am (UTC)There's nothing unusual or pathological obsessive about a man like Severus feeling deep remorse about his part in endangering his best childhood friend and first love. This is even normal, if he had been the one who broke up their relation. One can stop loving someone romantically and still feel extreme loyalty. Severus as I have read him in the books certainly can.
The memories Severus gives to Harry IMO are less a testimony of undying love than a confession. Not one of them presents the Saint!Lily he is supposed to love; they show his mistakes. I interpret the casting of the doe patronus in Dumbledore's office as an act of almost childish defiance. 'No, I don't care for the boy. Look!'If a patronus always represents the casters true love, what about Dumbledore's phoenix, Harry's stag and Ginny's horse? I prefer to believe that patronusses are a bit more complex. BTW if the two patronusses are indeed similar, who got it first. A doe is a symbol for protective female power. It's not even the right consort for a stag and why on earth should Severus remember his one and only true in the form of his enemy's female consort anyway?