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Could Lily have saved Snape?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Severus, May 23, 2017.

1.4444400072098/5, 9 votes
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  1. Sorrows

    Sorrows Queen of the Flamingos Moderator

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    May 16, 2018 #81
    You know all this talk of school day Snapes radicalization kind of makes you realize how remarkable it was that Sirius, from 11 no less apparently went fully the other way. He was the hair of a House fanatic about blood purity and yet from the age of 11 he managed to stick his finger up at it and never looked back. He should have been pretty indoctrinated into that world view if his family is anything to go by. Its a rare 11 year old who throws off their families ideology so completely especially one that I seriously doubt had many outside influences. Can't really see the Blacks sending their kids off to muggle primary schools or associating with halfbloods.

    Makes you wonder what his turning point was; getting unexpectedly sorted into Gryffindore? The train ride to Hogwarts? Influence of his aunt Andromeda and her subsequent banishment? Secret muggle friends?
     
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  2. Genghiz Khan

    Genghiz Khan Headmaster

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    May 16, 2018 #82
    Wasn't Andromeda his first cousin or some such? And didn't she get banished after Sirius had converted to the enemy's religion? I'd always thought Sirius just began his rebellious phase early and then himself bowed to peer pressure. James was said to have quite a magnetic personality, after all.
     
  3. Sorrows

    Sorrows Queen of the Flamingos Moderator

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    May 16, 2018 #83
    Tonks was born in '73 and Sirius was born in '59. So he got sent to Hogwarts around 1970. Makes sense that the drama with Andromeda was happening around that time if Tonks was born a few years later. Watching his favorite (and evidently muggleborn sympathizing) cousin getting banished around that time I would have said that had an effect.

    Don't think Sirius met James till the train (I think?) It would have to be a seriously magical train-ride to convince him to throw off generations of expectations and pureblood indoctrination to go into Slytherin. But if he was already primed for rebellion over the treatment of his cousin it could have occurred to him (if only in a childish shortsighted way) there was no better way to say screw you to his family.
     
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  4. Sataniel

    Sataniel High Inquisitor

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    May 16, 2018 #84
    It was suggested that Walpurga was pretty damn crazy, so it might just be that he went full-on "screw purebloods" mode largely to oppose his mother. I would have to mine for quotes, but I'm pretty sure it was at least heavily implied that Sirius stance was anti-pureblood even before him going to Hogwarts.
     
  5. Genghiz Khan

    Genghiz Khan Headmaster

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    May 16, 2018 #85
    Ah. Then Andromeda's banishment leading to the beginning of his rebelliousness makes a lot more sense.

    Snape's memories of his first Hogwarts Express ride, when he's sitting with James and Sirius at first seem to imply it. I don't have the quote, but I'm reasonably sure that was where it's mentioned.
     
  6. Sorrows

    Sorrows Queen of the Flamingos Moderator

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    May 16, 2018 #86
    She was pretty crazy post Sirius disappointing all her expectations and shitting all over her families ideology sure. No reason to thing she would be while pre-Hogwarts. I can't imagine Sirius being exposed to many outside viewpoints on muggles pre-Hogwarts considering his family, they probably only socialized with similar families and there are many idiologically similar purebloods to choose from. Andromeda makes sense as the person he first heard such crazy stuff like 'muggles and muggleborns might not be so bad' from. Her families treatment of her after they found out about Ted could have cemented such ideas in his mind.
     
  7. Mishie

    Mishie Fat Dog

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    May 17, 2018 #87
    Honestly to me, the more interesting option isn't that for some reason he was already rebelling against everything that he'd been tought because of some vague feelings of rebellion, but that instead the Sorting Hat didn't sort him based on his politics, but instead of his character. Harry didn't almost end up in Slytherin because he was secretly a dick but because it felt that it suited him because of his personality and that it would encourage him to be more ambitious.

    So to me, I really like the mental image of Sirius expecting to be put into Slytherin, but when the Sorting Hat really looks at him, it tells him that it wants to put him into Gryffindore and seizes the opportunity because that's just the kind of person that he is.
     
  8. Hymnsicality

    Hymnsicality Seventh Year

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    May 21, 2018 #88
    Sirius in isolation is a really interesting character. He's a man child, with good reason, who's spent more than a decade in hell and escapes to find not only his whole family dead but also with almost no one he cares about still alive. TBH he reads a lot like classical indie!Harry only with a tragic ending.

    Could Lily have saved Snape? Eh, probably, I mean in the books she's basically perfect, she probably could have figured something out if she really wanted to. Would she have ever done so though? She's basically a Jewish girl who's best friend voluntarily joined the Hitler Youth.
     
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