Harry Potter fans love to argue about the relationship between Severus Snape and Lily Potter. Snape's self-proclaimed love for Harry's mother became the guiding force of his actions throughout the series, and there was a portion of the book dedicated to seeing Snape's history with Lily and understanding the moral relativity that exists in even the people we think are clearly good or evil. J.K. Rowling has apologized for cutting out Snape, but what she should apologize for is creating a love story so mired in a man's inability to see a woman as a human person that none of her readers can agree on whether Snape is a friend, foe, or somewhere in-between.
The love story between Snape and Lily starts out like a Taylor Swift song: a young boy and his neighbor meet in her backyard and fall into a world their families can't understand. Snape falls in love with his best friend, and she doesn't notice. Then, things start to get a little Anakin Skywalker-y. Snape turns to the dark side, and his blind faith in the wrong cause leads to him causing her demise. It really is like Star Wars, which is an ironic comparison considering Revenge of the Sith is the worst prequel in recorded human history, and The Deathly Hallows is an intricately thought-out conclusion to a beloved series. Not everything makes sense in Potterworld, though.
Here are the 21 Things That Make No Sense About Snape And Lily’s Relationship.
21. Snape Was At The Potter Home In Godric’s Hollow
The first issue with this movie-only canonical addition is the timeline and motivation behind Snape's appearance at the Potter home on the night of Lily's ing. He could have been checking in, or he could have known she was gone and had to see for himself as a morose stage five clinger. He could even have intended to find Voldemort there, but at that point, it was all moot. Nothing he could have done there could erase his mistake.
Meanwhile, he left Harry crying in the crib alone. There was no shock on his face at finding the alive child, and Harry's uncanny ocular resemblance to Lily apparently didn't spur him to help the poor kid before everyone else got there. Also, speaking of the Order of the Pheonix, did he just happen to conveniently leave before they arrived? The timeline makes little sense, and Snape's motivation makes little sense.
20. Snape Called Lily A Slur
Snape was a half-blood, making his allegiance to Voldemort even stranger. Teenage boys are pretty dumb and prideful. Lily standing up to Snape's bully when he couldn't and Snape's insecurities about an attractive, popular boy being attracted to Lily made him lash out at her in a weak moment.
That was a very believable, but even if this lead to the revelation that Snape was too far gone into the Death Eaters, calling Lily a "Mudblood" makes no sense in their relationship. He is half-blood, but also, his insecurities towards her have nothing to do with her heritage. As her best friend, he must have known things closer to home that he could have used to wrongfully attack her, and as an angry, rejected young man, he must have thought things that were more relevant to his issue to mention.
19. ... And His Worst Memory Was Of That Moment
Snape has done some horrible things to Lily and to himself, but his worst memory was when he called her a slur. It wasn't when he decided to the Death Eaters and actually lost her ,because Snape may still not understand why Lily never returned his affections, nor was it when he betrayed her to Voldemort and caused her demise.
This shows that he fundamentally misunderstood what he needed to atone for, and he cared more about how Lily felt about him than about Lily herself. His regret isn't that he failed Lily but that he failed to win her, and that is why their love story isn't really a love story at all.
18. Snape Hated Harry
If Snape loved Lily so deeply for so long, why did he hate Harry so much? Sure, Harry looked and acted like his childhood tormentor (who, for the record, was a teenage boy targeting a bigoted student), but he also looked like Lily and was Lily's son.
If his love was as true as Snape seemed to think it was, having even the smallest piece of Lily should've brought comfort. Instead, Snape seemed to really dislike Harry in spite of secretly helping him and seeing him as his chance for redemption. Why would Snape risk blowing his shot at making things right just because he still didn't understand teenage boys? Harry would have been more than a reminder of Lily's choice in James if Snape's love was more than a desire for proprietary ownership of her soul.
17. Snape ed the Dark Arts Against Lily’s Wishes
Everyone knew what the Death Eaters were. They were scary, vitriolic demons and Lily knew that. If Snape was trying so hard to stay in her life, choosing a path that actively alienated her was clearly not the correct one.
He also gaslighted her when she tried to show concern for him, turning it into a conversation about James. J.K. Rowling even said that Snape "never really understood Lily’s aversion; he was so blinded by his attraction to the dark side he thought she would find him impressive if he became a real Death Eater.” He didn't even really care to understand Lily, he just liked the idea of her.
16. And He Only Left The Dark Arts After Her ing
Snape only chose to leave the Death Eaters out of guilt. This doesn't make him less of a classist or a racist, however. He didn't learn the error of his ways. Instead, he just hurt himself by hurting Lily and went back to focusing on the only thing he's ever cared about: himself.
Snape had at least three years during which he could have realized it was the Dark Arts keeping Lily far from his life, and he did nothing to change it. He could have left a long time before she ed away if he cared as much as he thinks he does, and he could have tried to mend things, but he again only wanted an idea of Lily, not Lily herself.
15. Lily’s Husband Was Snape’s Bully
Snape and Lily grew apart naturally. Lily chose the path of light, while Snape chose to embrace the darkness. That has its own challenges, but regardless of what happened between the former best friends, it's hard to believe that Lily would choose to marry the man who tormented her childhood best friend.
Lily had such a strong moral code and had seen James, who did mature as he aged, at his very worst. Although Lily and James didn't start dating until two years after she ended her friendship with Snape, as their friendship was represented in the books, it seems likely that Lily would have trouble separating James from his past indiscretions and history of bullying.
14. Snape Was Probably The Reason Why Petunia Hated Magic
When Petunia vitriolically refers to "that horrible boy" who hung out with Lily after she discovered her magic, Petunia was probably speaking about Snape and not James, who most fans assumed was the target of her scorn. This is because Snape was regularly at the Evans' family home.
It's possible that James actually only met Petunia once, when the newlyweds had dinner with Petunia and her new beau Vernon, as James didn't become a large part of Lily's life until she was sixteen and already estranged from Petunia. It's weird that Lily would maintain a friendship with Snape after he was awful enough to her sister that it created a wedge in their once-solid relationship, especially if many of his insults were rooted in hatred for Muggles.
13. Snape Was Obsessed With Lily
Lily remained friends with a young man who was obsessed with her for a long time, which is a strange phenomenon in and of itself. Usually, when someone stalks another person at their home and seems to view them as property, it is off-putting and quickly creates distance in the relationship.
Lily's complete ignorance of the situation only makes it more unusual and could realistically be a willful ignorance in which she chose to ignore the clear signs of an unhealthy attachment out of obligation to their friendship. Lily was the only person who was ever nice to Snape, in his mind at least, and it's sad that her kind demeanor ultimately caused the relationship that would lead to her ing.
12. Snape Lived In The Muggle World
Snape was a half-blood, like many wizards who live in the Wizarding World. Snape, however, lived in the Muggle world in a toxic family on the wrong side of the tracks and continued to return there whenever he wasn't at school, much like Harry in the books.
Snape was able to watch Lily from afar and later learn of her magical abilities because he lived in the Muggle world. His hatred towards Muggles comes from this time in the Muggle world, but the Muggle-born Lily was such a formative person in his life and one of the only positive aspects of his childhood, so his decision to focus on the negative aspects of his Muggle upbringing rather than Lily, his obsession, is confusing.
