Bear in mind that what we learn about the Patronus is told by Remus Lupin (an unreliable source in general) who's deliberately oversimplifying to try to teach a thirteen-year-old boy something that's normally learned (if at all) by much older and more emotionally-sophisticated people.
If Severus's Doe symbolizes Lily, then the Patronus is NOT powered by happy memories.
I had someone I loved, and the most joyous times of my life were some of the times I spent with him--listening to music, talking intensely, walking in the garden and touching an occasional flower.... I ended up driving him away due to my own insecurities, and those memories then became my most painful. I spent a decade unable to listen to classical music because he had introduced me to it, unable to read Jane Austen because when he did marry he honeymooned in England, etc. It was embarassing. Like that absolutely stupid, sickly Linda Ronstandt(?) song, "Please, Mister, Please" ("Don't play 'Sweet Seventeen,' it was our song, it was his song, and it's over.... I just never want to hear that song again.")
So Severus's memories of Lily may be precious to him, but they would not be happy.
The Patronus, Lupin tells Harry, is "a guardian... a kind of positive force, a projection of ... hope, happiness, the desire to survive... [that]cannot feel despair".
One can project positive emotions by remembering a "very happy memory".
Or one can simply generate them; as one does, for example, by singing in the dark.
As to the form, it would be whatever symbolizes protection against despair to one, not necessarily one's true love. (No wonder Tonks's was "weak,"--Remus was a source of despair to her, not protection against it.)
Severus chose to live, when he wished he were dead too, to honor his love for Lily by protecting her child. The doe is the projection, not of Lily, but of his own capacity for love, honor, and determination. And it's that determination that he draws on to cast the Patronus, not his memories. What truly happy memories could Severus have (outside Bohemian's fics, of course)?
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The Patronus
Date: 2009-08-12 06:34 pm (UTC)If Severus's Doe symbolizes Lily, then the Patronus is NOT powered by happy memories.
I had someone I loved, and the most joyous times of my life were some of the times I spent with him--listening to music, talking intensely, walking in the garden and touching an occasional flower.... I ended up driving him away due to my own insecurities, and those memories then became my most painful. I spent a decade unable to listen to classical music because he had introduced me to it, unable to read Jane Austen because when he did marry he honeymooned in England, etc. It was embarassing. Like that absolutely stupid, sickly Linda Ronstandt(?) song, "Please, Mister, Please" ("Don't play 'Sweet Seventeen,' it was our song, it was his song, and it's over.... I just never want to hear that song again.")
So Severus's memories of Lily may be precious to him, but they would not be happy.
The Patronus, Lupin tells Harry, is "a guardian... a kind of positive force, a projection of ... hope, happiness, the desire to survive... [that]cannot feel despair".
One can project positive emotions by remembering a "very happy memory".
Or one can simply generate them; as one does, for example, by singing in the dark.
As to the form, it would be whatever symbolizes protection against despair to one, not necessarily one's true love. (No wonder Tonks's was "weak,"--Remus was a source of despair to her, not protection against it.)
Severus chose to live, when he wished he were dead too, to honor his love for Lily by protecting her child. The doe is the projection, not of Lily, but of his own capacity for love, honor, and determination. And it's that determination that he draws on to cast the Patronus, not his memories. What truly happy memories could Severus have (outside Bohemian's fics, of course)?