Rating:
G
House:
HP InkPot
Ships:
Lily Evans/Severus Snape
Characters:
Lily Evans Severus Snape
Genres:
Essay
Era:
1970-1981 (Including Marauders at Hogwarts)
Spoilers:
Philosopher's Stone Order of the Phoenix Half-Blood Prince J.K. Rowling Interviews or Website
Stats:
Published: 06/27/2006
Updated: 06/27/2006
Words: 5,172
Chapters: 1
Hits: 2,349

S.S. loves L.E.

JoTwo

Story Summary:
A discussion of all the evidence within and outside the books that supports the theory that Severus Snape loved Lily Evans.

Chapter 01

Posted:
06/27/2006
Hits:
2,349


SS loves LE

By JoTwo

"'But Snape always seemed to hate me so much.'

'Oh, he does,' said Quirrell casually, 'heaven's yes. He was at Hogwarts with your father, didn't you know? They loathed each other.'"

(Harry and Quirrell, Chapter 17, The Man with Two Faces, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone)

Introduction

The moment I read the above exchange I immediately thought: "Did they hate each other because they were both in love with Harry's Mum?" This was my gut reaction before I entered, or even knew, about fandom. The first scenario I came up with was that both boys wooed Lily and she chose James over Snape and that's why he hated James so much. When I entered fandom I started to think that Snape had a one-sided crush on Lily. Allegedly JKR herself was quoted as saying Snape being in love with anyone was a horrible idea so Lily probably wasn't interested in him. Most of the discussion and fanfic surrounding Snape/Lily was based on the idea of Severus having an unrequited love for Harry's mother and admiring her from afar. Lily was usually unaware of Snape's feelings or at best showed pity for the lonely, unattractive outsider.

However, when I read OOP I changed my interpretation again and thought they either dated at some point, or at least had had some friendly interaction. Reading HBP and some of the interviews at the time of its publication confirmed this idea for me. I am now sure that Snape was in love with Lily. They may have actually have been boyfriend and girlfriend. Even if they did not date, at the very least Lily had some kind of friendship with him.

The purpose of this essay is to gather together all the evidence for the Snape/Lily relationship or friendship. This will come from canon, interviews, symbolism within and outside the books and metatextual analysis.

Canon evidence

In HBP we discovered that Lily was a dab hand at Potions and that she was a great favourite of Professor Slughorn. This means that she had the opportunity to mix with Snape, who obviously studied NEWT level Potions as well. Although JKR does not state it explicitly, it is almost certain that Lily was in the Slug Club. Slughorn was Snape's Head of House plus teenaged Severus excelled at the subject that Slughorn taught. These factors may have been enough to gain Snape admittance to the Slug Club too. A shared interest in Potions could have been enough to get them talking, and maybe lead to something more: thus there is motive and opportunity for some type of relationship to develop.

There is also a big hint for Snape/Lily throughout all of the books that has not been picked up. Names have hidden meaning in Harry Potter. As fans we spend a lot of time analysing them, and how they reflect characters' roles and personalities. One name that gets taken for granted is that of Harry's father and Lily's husband, James. It seems so ordinary that people never give it much thought. However, James is the English version of the Hebrew name Jacob. This means supplanter. (This comes from a story in Genesis. Jacob supplanted his older twin brother Esau by receiving his birthright and the blessing of their father, Isaac.) According to the dictionary definition the verb to supplant means to oust and take the place of, often by trickery or force. This could imply that James replaced Snape in Lily's affections. This applies whether Snape had previously been Lily's boyfriend, or even if they had been friends. Snape hated James for bullying him and would feel betrayed by Lily; James wouldn't like his girlfriend being friendly with Snivellus. Even if they hadn't gone out together, their friendship would have been ruined.

The major piece of canon evidence for Snape/Lily is the following dialogue from OOP.

"'I heard - that awful boy - telling her about them - years ago,' she said jerkily.

'If you mean my mum and dad, why don't you use their names?' said Harry loudly but Aunt Petunia ignored him. She seemed horribly flustered."

(Aunt Petunia and Harry, Chapter 2, A Peck of Owls, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

My instinctive, instant thought on first reading this was Petunia means Snape. This is because Harry's belief that she is talking about his father is not confirmed and the identity of the boy is left open. The phrasing suggests that Petunia can remember the boy but not his name. She would be unlikely to refer to her brother-in-law in this manner. (Indeed, by contrast, the only time she has mentioned James, in PS/SS she called him 'that Potter'.)

If we presume 'that awful boy' isn't James, then we need to establish who else it could be and why JKR would not confirm his identity. There would be no reason for JKR to hide from Harry and the readers that his mum knew James' friends, so it wasn't Sirius, Remus or Peter. I think, by a process of elimination, that it has to be a character that Harry and the readers would be shocked to discover was on speaking terms with Lily. I think the most likely candidate is Snape.

Another factor in identifying this mysterious character with Snape is the nature of the conversation. As the topic Petunia overheard was Dementors, this suggests the boy had knowledge and interest in Dark creatures. This would fit with the evidence from his DADA exam that Snape is an expert in the darker side of magic. Plus Snape was oily haired as a teenager and I can imagine Petunia judging him as "awful" because of his looks, especially as she is obsessed with cleanliness.

My suspicion that JKR is hiding something significant in this passage received a boost from one of the interviews she gave when HBP was published.

Kids' Press Conference, July 2005, David Moulds, News of the World

"How does Aunt Petunia know about Dementors and all the other magical facts she knows?

JKR: Another very good question. She overheard a conversation, that is all I am going to say. She overheard conversation. The answer is in the beginning of Phoenix, she said she overheard Lily being told about them basically.

  • Is that true

JKR: Yes. The reason I am hesitant is because there is more to it than that. As I think you suspect. Correctly, but I don't want to say what else there is because it relates to book 7."

Therefore JKR herself points out that there is something important about Petunia's comment that we will discover in the last book. This quotation brings me neatly to my next category of evidence.

Quotations from interviews with JKR

In this section I will include the quotations that I think refer to Snape and Lily and explain why I interpret them in this way.

I'll start with JKR's interview with Emerson and Melissa.

Mugglenet/TLC interview, July 2005

ES Was James the only one who had romantic feelings for Lily?

JKR No.

This is the most revealing statement that JKR has ever made about Harry's mum. It proves that this person other than James didn't just like Lily platonically, (for example, as Harry likes Hermione), but was attracted to her (like Harry was towards Cho and Ginny and Viktor and Ron were towards Hermione). Whether this character other than James dated Lily isn't confirmed, but as he had a romantic interest he wanted to go out with Lily and be more than friends.

JKR a couple of questions later reiterates that Lily, "was a popular girl, and that is relevant."

The fact that Lily's popularity with the opposite sex is important suggests that this boy has become a character who is significant to the story line. (And I'm 100% sure that JKR is referring to a male character. No offence to anyone who likes HP slash fanfic, but if a gay relationship appears in the Harry Potter canon I will be astonished. Not because I've anything against it but because every emotion and every relationship that JKR has described so far, for the Trio and the main supporting characters, has been heterosexual. I can't see her changing this pattern, especially not for the hero's mother.)

As the boy other than James who had romantic feelings for Lily is somehow relevant, I think this definitely rules out the boys listed below, who were contemporaries of Harry's parents' generation.

Davy Gudgeon

The only thing we know about him is that he nearly lost an eye through going near the Whomping Willow.

Stebbins

Similarly all we know about him is that Flitwick told him to put his quill down at the end of the DADA Owl and that he shares a surname with the boy who canoodled with Miss Fawcett at the Yule Ball in GOF.

Bertram Aubrey

He was only mentioned on the punishment cards that Snape made Harry copy out in HBP. James and Sirius used an illegal hex on him that made his head blow up to twice its normal size. The purpose of JKR referring to Bertram Aubrey was to show Snape being mean to Harry by pointing out that his father was a bully, and possibly for JKR to confirm that James did go through a phase of hexing people other than Snape.

I suspect that Davy, Bertram and OOP!Stebbins are no more than walk-ons and therefore unlikely to be of any relevance.

The gang of Slytherins mentioned by Sirius in GOF

Rosier, Wilkes, Rodolpho Lestrange and Avery all became Death Eaters. Rosier and Lestrange are definitely pure-bloods as they had family connections to the Blacks. They are therefore unlikely to have been interested in Lily.

Their plot function appears to be as cannon fodder for Voldemort, as Wilkes and Rosier were killed by Aurors while Bellatrix's husband and Avery have ended up in Azkaban. They are not likely to have been admirers of Harry's mother.

Regulus Black

As he was mentioned in OOP and HBP fans theorise that he has some significance to the plot. However, the consensus is that his importance is that he is R.A.B. Also as a pure-blood with a fanatical mother he is unlikely to have been interested in a Muggle-born like Lily.

Lucius Malfoy

Lucius is another pure-blood Death Eater and thus unlikely to have any feelings other than dislike and contempt for Muggle-born Lily. Plus he is probably too old. He is 41 in the autumn term of OOP, when Snape, who was in the same year as the Marauders and Lily, was 36. This makes him about five school years above Lily and her cohort.

Sirius Black

He was James' best friend, best man at his wedding and Harry's godfather. I really can't imagine that he was in love with his best friend's girl. Sirius doesn't really mention Lily much and his emotional involvement seems to have been with Harry's Dad, not his mother.

I can't see how it would add to Sirius's character or plot function to reveal after his death that he had romantic feelings for Lily.

We are now running short of candidates that fit the age criteria and are left with only Lupin, Snape and Wormtail.

To return to the Mugglenet/TLC interview, it continued as follows.

ES Was James the only one who had romantic feelings for Lily?

JKR No.

MA Snape?

JKR That is a theory that's been put to me repeatedly.

ES What about Lupin?

JKR I can answer either one.

ES How about both? One at a time.

JKR I can't answer, can I, really?

ES then presses JKR for a hint, to which JKR replies:

JKR ... Lupin was very fond of Lily, we'll put it like that, but I wouldn't want anyone to run around thinking that he competed with James for her. She was a popular girl, and that is relevant. But I think you've seen that already. She was a bit of a catch.

I think JKR's comments about Lupin rule him out as having romantic feelings for Lily. The phrase "fond of" usually means having a liking for somebody, but more as a friend than having any romantic attraction.

It is noticeable that while JKR talks about how Lupin felt about Lily, she does not mention Snape's emotions at all. The only thing JKR says is that she has heard of this idea and does not make any comment on its validity. In fact she completely avoids giving any answer.

Avoiding questions about how Snape felt about Lily is becoming a pattern in JKR's interviews. She did this in the following one as well.

BBC interview with Jeremy Paxman, June 19 2003.

JP Are we going to discover anything more about Snape?

JKR Yes

JP And Harry's mother. Did he have a crush on Harry's mother or unrequited love or anything like that?

JKR Hence his animosity to Harry

JP Yes

JKR You speculate?

JP I speculate, yes. I'm just asking whether you can tell us.

JKR No I can't tell you. But you do find out a lot more about Snape and quite a lot more about him actually."

It's noticeable from this dialogue that Paxman directly poses a question about Snape's feelings about Lily and JKR refuses to answer.

There are hints about Snape's love life in even earlier interviews, such as this.

The Connection interview 1999.

'"One of our internet correspondents wondered if Snape is going to fall in love."

"(JKR laughs) Who on earth would want Snape in love with them? That's a very horrible idea."

Some fans claim that the fact that JKR uses the word "horrible" in relation to Snape falling in love means that she is dismissing the Snape/Lily ship altogether. I do not agree with this interpretation at all. It comes across to me that she is initially trying to be flippant about the possibility of Snape being in love. I think she is surprised at the suggestion that someone would be interested in present day Professor Snape. Crucially, however, Snape can only have been in love with Lily in the past. The glimpses we have been given of his adolescence in OOP and the clever and amusing jottings of the Half-Blood Prince reveal that JKR seems more sympathetic to Snape as a teenager and he did not have the same personality as he does now. Harry enjoyed the company of the Prince, so his mother could well have liked him too.

To return to The Connection, the interviewer does not change the subject and continues to probe JKR about Snape.

"There's an important kind of redemptive pattern to Snape.

"It is, isn't it. He, um, there's so much I wish I could say to you, and I can't because it would ruin. I promise you, whoever asked that question, can I just say to you that I'm slightly stunned that you've said that and you'll find out why I'm so stunned if you read book 7. That's all I'm going to say."'

This exchange shows that JKR's considered response to "whoever asked that question" i.e. the internet correspondent who wondered about Snape and love is that she's "stunned" and the reason for this will be revealed in book 7.

People who like Snape interpret this as we are going to find out that Snape was once in love with someone/Lily. People who dislike Snape think it means the revelation about Snape in book 7 will be something that rules out the idea of love. I agree with the former interpretation. I think that if the suggestion of Snape being in love was completely inaccurate, then JKR would indicate this. I think she is stunned because someone has made a guess that is very close what will come out in book 7.

JKR also revealed that there was something important about Lily in this interview.

" ...Are we going to learn a lot about his [i.e. Harry's] mother?

"Yeah, you will. It's - yet again - you won't find out - OK, in book 3 you're absolutely right. You find out a lot about Harry's father. Now the important thing about Harry's mother, the really, really significant thing, you're going to find out in 2 parts. You'll find out a lot more about her in book 5, or you'll find something very significant about her in book 5, then you'll find out something incredibly important about her in book 7. But I can't tell you what those things are so I'm sorry, but yes, you will find out more about her because both of them are very important in what Harry ends up having to do."

So far, all we learned for definite in OOP was that in fifth year she wouldn't date James because of the way he acted, and that she defended Snape. As stated previously, I think too that we received a hint that Lily had some interaction with Snape from the passage that JKR connected to book 7. This may fit with her reference to book 7 in the above quotation too.

Back to the TLC/Mugglenet interview

MA Has Snape ever been loved by anyone?

JKR Yes, he has, which in some ways, makes him more culpable even than Voldemort, who never has.

JKR doesn't clarify what type of love Snape received. It could be mother love from Eileen Snape née Prince, as this is a theme in canon. The obvious example is Lily sacrificing her own life for Harry. The living example of the loving mother is Molly Weasley who fusses over her brood and whose greatest fear is losing one of her family. There are mothers who break the rules for love: Mrs Crouch swaps places with her son in Azkaban; desperate Narcissa defies even the Dark Lord to protect Draco's life. Muggle Petunia and pure-blood Narcissa have one thing in common. They have both spoiled their precious only sons out of misguided love.

However there are mothers that fail to live up to the highest standards. Fridwulfa deserted Hagrid, and she wasn't overly fond of Grawp either, but Hagrid puts this down to her not being the maternal sort because she was a giantess. Sirius's dear old mum disowned him, but she thought Regulus was a much better son. Poor, defeated Merope didn't love Tom Marvolo enough to stay alive for him.

The only glimpse we probably received of Eileen as a mother was in one of Snape's memories in OOP:

"a hook-nosed man was shouting at a cowering woman, while a small dark-haired boy cried in a corner..."

This is not enough to decide which category of mother Eileen comes under.

Another possible type of love Snape could have received is the love of a mentor/surrogate father. This would be from Dumbledore, who gave him a job and thus a second chance.

However, taking this reference to Snape being loved in consideration along with the Connection interview, my conclusions are as follows. Snape has been in love. It also seems that this person loved him, either in a romantic sense, or at the very least, as a friend.

I am now going to try and deduce whom this person was. I think the likeliest candidate has to be Lily for the following reasons.

For starters, the object of Snape's love is definitely going to turn out to be female. No offence to anyone who like slash fanfic, but if a gay relationship appears in the Harry Potter canon I will eat the Sorting Hat. As I stated earlier, every emotion and every relationship that JKR has described so far, for the Trio and the main supporting characters, has been heterosexual. I can't see her changing this pattern for Snape.

There are not many female characters in Snape's age group that he can have loved in his teens. The only options I can think of are discussed below, with my reasons for rejecting them as Snape's love interest.

Bellatrix Lestrange née Black

From their attitude towards each other at Spinner's End, it looks like there is no love lost between Bellatrix and Snape. I don't get the impression that they liked each other any better in the past. Plus she doesn't seem to like half-bloods on principle.

In fact I can't see Bellatrix loving anyone. She doesn't seem very interested in her own husband, Rodolpho Lestrange. I get the impression that she married him because it was a socially acceptable match between pure-bloods. The nearest Bellatrix comes to love is her fanatical devotion to the Dark Lord.

More importantly, I don't see what Snape once being interested in Bellatrix would add to the plot or characterisation. Harry's reaction would probably be she killed Sirius, he killed Dumbledore; they deserve each other.

Narcissa Malfoy née Black

While Snape seems to genuinely like Narcissa, there's nothing in canon to suggest any previous connection between them. Narcissa appeals for his help as Lucius' old friend and Draco's favourite teacher, not on grounds of any feelings he has for her.

Again Snape having feelings for Narcissa wouldn't affect Harry. So what if Snape was in love with Draco Malfoy's mother? Harry hates Snape and he's not very keen on Narcissa either. It would be no skin off his nose.

Aunt Petunia

As stated previously I believe Petunia has met Snape when they were young. However I don't think she liked him if she described him as awful. I think that was her genuine reaction because she was jealous of her sister's magic and would thus dislike anyone from the wizarding world by association. Plus Snape was unkempt as a teenager and Petunia is fanatical about cleanliness and tidiness.

Similarly, Harry would not be that bothered if Snape had feelings for his aunt who never cared about him.

Andromeda Black

Married Muggle-born Ted Tonks and had Nymphadora. Unlikely to have been interested in anyone other than Ted.

Florence

The memory of Bertha Jorkins in Dumbledore's Pensieve in GOF said that a boy hexed her because she teased him about kissing Florence behind the greenhouse.

People assumed that because the boy used a hex on Bertha that it must have been Snape, because he turned up at Hogwarts knowing more curses than half the kids in seventh year. However, this is no reason to connect this girl with Snape. Snape wasn't the only boy at school who was handy with hexes. After OOP and HBP we know that James and Sirius went around hexing people. No, I'm not suggesting that one of them kissed Florence, just that lots of boys obviously knew about hexes and it could have been anyone.

We know nothing else about Florence, and I suspect that she is probably another nobody, like Mark Evans.

Therefore the only character remaining who is still viable as the object of teenage Snape's love interest is Lily.

Symbolism within the books

"'Potter!' said Snape suddenly. 'What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?'"

(Severus Snape, Chapter 8 The Potions Master, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone)

This is the first question Snape fires at Harry in the first Potions class. The other two questions and answers from Snape, about wolfsbane and a bezoar turned out to be significant later in canon, so fans speculate that there is some hidden meaning to this question as well. JKR does lots of research into symbolism, including the plants featured in canon, and there is a theory that asphodel and wormwood could be representative of Lily and Snape.

Asphodel

The scientific name is Asphodelus Luteus. Asphodel is a member of the Liliaceae, commonly known as the lily family. Lily, to state the obvious, is, of course, the name of Harry's mother.

Asphodel is associated with death, as in Greek legend it bloomed on the Elysian Fields where the dead wandered in the afterlife. The ancient Greeks planted asphodel on graves. Specifically its roots were considered to be food for the dead. This all fits with the aura of death that surrounds Harry's mother.

The roots were also used to cure snake bites. This links to another HP image.

The meaning of asphodel in the language of flowers is "langor and regret" and "memorial sorrow: my regrets follow you to the grave". If Snape did love Lily then he would indeed regret that he ever told Voldemort about the Prophecy and thus unwittingly set in motion the chain of events that lead to Lily's death. Although Harry does not believe it, Dumbledore explicitly states that this was Snape's motivation:

"'You have no idea of the remorse Professor Snape felt when he realised how Lord Voldemort had interpreted the prophecy, Harry. I believe it to be the greatest regret of his life and the reason that he returned -'"

Wormwood

In legend wormwood grew where the serpent passed when it was expelled from the Garden of Eden. This obviously links to Slytherin.

Wormwood is used to flavour the spirit absinthe, a green liquor: the Slytherin colour.

As the bitterest herb in flavour, it is associated with bitterness of the spirit, and this certainly applies to Professor Snape.

Unsurprisingly, in the language of flowers wormwood indeed means bitterness. Its other meanings are absence or separation. It also means protection and love.

This fits too with magical lore. Wormwood is used in protection spells. Even just carrying a sprig on your person was thought to protect you from being bewitched. Apparently it is also used in love potions.

In the magical classification of plants and items into male or female, wormwood is considered masculine. (Interestingly in this system the lily is feminine.)

So perhaps this what you get by adding asphodel and wormwood.

Male, Slytherin Snape is in love with female Lily. He loses her friendship or romantic affections, which leads to separation and absence. He becomes bitter seeing her with James. When she's in danger his love revives and he wants to protect her. However she still dies, leaving him even more bitter and full of regret and sorrow.

Symbolism outside the books

I don't know if JKR's extensive research went as far as heraldry. There's a possibility it did because she drew a coat of arms for the Black family tree, which although imaginary, had elements of real heraldic symbols, such as the dogs standing on either side (technically known as supporters) which do represent loyalty.

Even though it has never been mentioned in canon, there is shared heraldic symbolism for the names Evans, Snape and Potter.

(Actually, coats of arms are granted to individuals [in Great Britain by an organisation dating back to the fifteenth century called the College of Arms] who then have the right to pass them to their descendants. However, as heritage and family history are big, money-spinning businesses, something called 'bucket shop heraldry' has developed in which a coat of arms that once belonged to a particular family is marketed as being the coat of arms for all families that share that surname. This is where the following Evans, Snape and Potter coats of arms have been found.)

Evans

On a blue background, a golden lion standing on its back legs, facing left.

The crest on the coat of arms (i.e. a symbol on top of the shield) is a stag with golden antlers and hooves.

Snape

The crest is a buck's head. A buck is a young male deer. In heraldry, whether the image is described as a buck or a stag, it is the same animal.

Obviously the heraldry links Lily with James as he was a stag animagus. However, Lily and Snape both have a male deer for their family crests which links them together. The buck also connects Snape to James.

In nature during the rut, mating season for deer, stags fight each other over the doe. Perhaps this is a hint that Snape and James were once fighting over Lily.

Potter

The crest is a sea horse. However in one representation I've seen it looks more like the sea-goat: one of the symbols of the zodiac sign Capricorn, which is Snape's sign.

Thus, the heraldic imagery may be co-incidental but the symbolism does seem to link up all three characters.

Metatextual

In this section I'm discussing some of JKR's favourite literature, which could well have been influences on her own writing

A Tale of Two Cities

One of JKR's favourite books is A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. JKR said that it is one of the 2 books with an ending that always makes her cry.

This is confirmed in the biography of JKR by Sean Smith. This describe how she read A Tale of Two Cities while living in France as a student and her flatmates came home to find her in floods of tears. She was crying so much that they initially thought she had heard that someone had died.

This book that so moves JKR features a love triangle. In a nutshell, two men, exiled French aristocrat, Charles Darney, and English lawyer, Sydney Carton, are both in love with the same woman, Lucie Manette. Even though they are lookalikes, they dislike each other (although they are rivals rather than bitter enemies) chiefly because of the girl. Lucie falls in love with Charles, and later marries and has children by him, but not before Sydney Carton has made a declaration of love (book 2, chapter 14). He has an idealised view of her as someone who could have saved him. (He is a heavy drinker and it's implied that he lives a life of debauchery). Lucie feels compassion for Carton and she never repeats what he has told her in confidence, although she argues that he should be treated with understanding (book 2 chapter 20). Even after the marriage Carton is still in love with her (book 2 chapter 21). When Charles is in danger during the French Revolution, the antihero Carton sacrifices himself to save the man who has what he wants, to ensure Lucie's happiness.

As JKR is familiar with this legendary, if melodramatic, plot, then I wouldn't be surprised if she re-invented it for her backstory, with Lily as the object of desire, James as the husband, and Snape as the disappointed rival who will do anything for the woman he still loves.

Wuthering Heights

JKR included this novel by Emily Bronte in her top ten recommended books for children. It's a story of obsessive love. Heathcliff, a dark, brooding, outsider is passionately in love with his childhood companion, Catherine Earnshaw. Cathy, however, marries another, more eligible, man, Edgar Linton. Despite this, Heathcliff cannot let go and he becomes twisted and bitter. Even Cathy's death is not enough to end his obsession.

Conclusion

After discovering all these different types of evidence, I am convinced that Snape was in love with Lily. The big questions in book 7 for me are whether Lily ever loved him as more than a friend and why did their friendship or romance end.