But He Called Her a Mudblood

BUT HE CALLED HER A MUDBLOOD

By JoTwo

I am a firm believer in the theory that Severus Snape was in love with Harry's Mum. I've even written an essay about it. It's called S.S. loves L.E. and it gathers together all the evidence that backs up this idea. However, I know that to some fans this theory is anathema. In this follow-up to my earlier essay I propose to look at the counter-arguments against a connection between Snape and Lily, and explain why I don't think these are valid.

The main piece of evidence quoted against some form of Snape/Lily relationship is the following part of Snape's Worst Memory (Chapter 28, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix).

In this scene, if you recall, James and Sirius have been bullying Snape in front of a crowd of people. Lily is the only person who has intervened.

"'LEAVE HIM ALONE!' Lily shouted. She had her own wand out now. James and Sirius eyed it warily.

'Ah, Evans, don't make me hex you,' said James earnestly.

'Take the curse off him, then!'

James sighed deeply, then turned to Snape and muttered the counter-curse.

'There you go,' he said, as Snape struggled to his feet. 'You're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus -'

'I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!'

Lily blinked.

'Fine,' she said coolly. 'I won't bother in future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus.'"

I can understand why some people interpret this scene as showing that Snape did not like Lily. This is the construction that Harry puts upon it.

'And he didn't think my mother was worth a damn, either,' said Harry, 'because she was Muggle-born ... "Mudblood", he called her ...'

(Chapter 29 The Phoenix Lament, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)

However, I think Harry and some of the readers have misinterpreted this scene by taking it at face value. Instead, I think we should read between the lines.

The first thing to notice about this passage is that Snape does not speak directly to Lily. He did not say I don't need help from a filthy Mudblood like you. The comment was not aimed at her.

Instead he says it to James. James, who has just been bullying and publicly humiliating him, and is now saying that he's only ending his sport and letting him go as a favour to Lily. For the angry, humiliated Snape this is tantamount to James saying that he can't stand up for himself and has to be defended by a girl. This is the final indignity for a teenage boy. It is a swipe at his competence, even his masculinity. Therefore Snape is provoked into saying something - anything - to try and save face.

(Lashing out after being humiliated is a trait JKR attributes to 16-year-old boys elsewhere in canon. Although the situation is different, this is how Ron reacts after Ginny taunts him for not being experienced. He nearly curses his own sister. He then quickly takes up with the willing Lavender Brown partly to prove he is a real man.)

As this remark is made during a situation where feelings were running high, it is not necessarily Snape's considered opinion on Lily.

Another reason for Snape not really meaning what he says in this scene is his own background. When readers first read this scene in OOP I suspect that the majority assumed that Severus was a pure-blood simply because he grew up to be Professor Snape, Head of Slytherin. After HBP we all know that assumption was wrong.

Therefore we can no longer draw parallels between Snape-the-teenager and Draco Malfoy, who calls Hermione a filthy Mudblood. Unlike Snape's comment in SWM, Draco says it to Hermione's face, not just about her. Another difference is that Draco is often calm and in control when he insults Hermione, for example when he is throwing his weight around as a member of the Inquisitorial Squad, not in an emotionally disturbed state, as Snape is here. The context in which the same words are used is thus completely different.

Furthermore, Draco has been brought up to be a pure-blood supremacist and to despise Muggle-borns. Snape was not. His mother was a pure-blood witch who wed a Muggle. The fact that she did this means that in the eyes of prejudiced wizards she was a blood traitor who married beneath herself. Marrying a Muggle hardly suggests that Eileen shared the prejudices of other pure-bloods. Therefore Severus would not have learned words like filthy Mudblood at his mother's knee.

So if Snape did not learn prejudice against Muggle-borns at home, then he must have picked it up in Slytherin house. Therefore it is not something that has been bred into him. As such, it is more likely that he just pays lip service to the view that Muggle-borns are inferior rather than believing in it himself.

There is canon evidence to back up this interpretation that Snape only outwardly conformed to the belief in the superiority of pure-bloods. This scene takes place in the fifth year, the time when we know from the sixth book that Snape was already improving potion recipes and inventing spells in his Advanced Potions book. And the nickname that Severus gave himself at this period of his life, was, of course, the Half-Blood Prince.

Harry claims that using the name Prince proves that Snape was playing up his pure-blood side. However I think that if Snape were trying to do this then he would just have called himself a Prince. Teenage Severus was not, IMHO, asserting his superiority through his mother's blood status by using this moniker. He is not claiming to be something he is not (unlike Tom Riddle claiming to be a Lord). Snape is explicitly acknowledging to himself that he is a half-blood. Being a half-blood does not impress fanatical pure-bloods, as we see from Bellatrix Lestrange's outrage when Harry insults Voldemort in the Department of Mysteries. Therefore if anything this proves that Snape was not interested in the ideology of pure-blood supremacists at this age. Therefore he has no real reason to look down upon Lily. The fact that she is Muggle-born would not prevent him from having feelings for her.

So far I have analysed Snape's role in this scene. What about Lily? Again, on the surface she appears to dislike Snape as she makes a nasty comment to him and calls him by a cruel nickname. However, the fact that she stands up for him in the beginning suggests that he has never been actively hostile to her previous to this scene. She would not defend him if he had. Lily's response of blinking and saying she won't bother in future suggests that she is surprised, which supports the interpretation that he has never shown any prejudice towards her before.

The scene continues with James yelling at Snape to apologise. Lily then tells James that she doesn't want him to make Snape apologise. She criticises James's behaviour and then storms off. The interaction between Snape and Lily is thus left hanging. The reader is meant to assume hostility and that there is nothing more to it. However, there are two possible interpretations of a Snape/Lily connection that could fit this canon.

The first is that Snape and Lily were on reasonably friendly terms up to this point, but because Snape used the M word he offended her forever and lost her friendship or sympathy. This would fit with the chapter title being Snape's Worst Memory. It was his worst moment because he blew it with the girl he liked.

Alternatively, any Snape/Lily friendship or relationship could develop after this encounter. After all, from this scene it appears that Lily did not like James, but she ended up marrying him. Therefore at some unseen point after this event they obviously buried the hatchet. The same thing could well have happened between Lily and Snape too. This scene took place in fifth year. In sixth year Snape and Lily would have definitely been thrown together in NEWT level Potions classes, and probably in the Slug Club as well. There is thus opportunity for an off page making-up to occur between OWLs and seventh year when Lily starting going out with James.

The only other objections I've seen to Snape and Lily being friends or dating have nothing to do with canon. They are subjective arguments, and as such I do not think they hold water. The first objection is the shallow and narrow-minded complaint that Snape is too ugly for anyone, let alone Harry's Mum, to like. Personally, I find this view offensive and plain silly. Fair enough, Professor Snape is not described as attractive. But people who are not beautiful or handsome have partners or friends in real life. If you could only get a boyfriend or girlfriend if you look like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie then the vast majority of people in the world would be doomed to be single. So not being handsome doesn't rule out Snape having a friend or love interest. Maybe Lily could have overlooked his appearance and liked his personality.

This leads on to a further objection, that of Snape being too nasty to have a girlfriend or even a friend. Again, I concede that Professor Snape is often sarcastic and rude. But that's not the personality he had as a teenager. The Half-Blood Prince was clever and funny. Harry loved his company. So by that reasoning Harry's mother may have liked the Half-Blood Prince, as a friend at the very least.

To conclude, I think that there is no evidence against Snape being in love with Lily. However, I'm sure that JKR wants the reader to assume that he did not like her. I found this quotation from JKR about Jane Austen, which I think is a clue to what JKR is trying to do.

"I love a good whodunnit and my passion is plot construction. Readers love to be tricked, but not conned. The best twist ever in literature is in Jane Austen's Emma. To me she is the target of perfection at which we shoot in vain."

For anyone who has not read Emma, there is a character called Frank Churchill who constantly criticises another character called Jane Fairfax. The heroine, Emma, and the reader are thus both led to believe that Frank doesn't like Jane. Imagine the shock when it is revealed that far from not liking her, Frank and Jane are secretly engaged. As JKR admires this book so much I would not be surprised if she borrowed this technique. Imagine how shocked Harry and most of the readers will be if Snape turns out to have been in love with his Mum. Or should that be, when...