A lot of the previous speculation was colored by the fact that H&C #2 was insufficiently clever to be Quirrell and insufficiently efficient to be a legilimens, but since then we have found out that legilimency can be detected months later so legilimens are back on the table, and the apparent lack of cleverness could be explained as an artifact of Eliezer trying to help the reader understand what was going on in that confusing passage.
Considering how much Rowling played with the side Snape was on, I certainly expect Eliezer to do so as well. I think it’s fairly clear that Snape has moved on from Lily now, but I’m not certain if we can yet predict which side he’ll choose now.
Also his remarks about his mentors not telling him something, which seems very likely to be that Lily was shallow.
Lily doesn’t really strike me as all that shallow. At least I haven’t seen much to suggest that she was more shallow than an average human female (with the emphasis there on the ‘human’). Even assuming Lily were particularly shallow—that isn’t the message that he needed from his mentor. Far more useful would be the message “quit being a pussy!”. For all intents and purposes it makes almost no difference to Snape how shallow Lily was.
This does not seem to follow as a reply to the grandparent.
Snape just had his first kiss because he wasted his life with a creepy obsession with a girl that was not available to him rather than growing up and living life like a sane person. Doesn’t everyone acknowledge/assume that?
One thing that may have prevented this unfortunate (and pathetic) turn of events may have been persuasive advice from mentors. Advice like “Lily is shallow” would have been better than nothing. Far more useful would be advice that encouraged the development of emotional self sufficiency and rudimentary ability to apply the concept of ‘fungibility’. Or a ticket to a Tim Minchin concert.
It fully explains his lack of skill in the dictionary attack, and the desperation, and sheds new light on the Quirrell/Snape forest conversation earlier.
If Quirrell knows that he has Snape as an ally (as Harry lost him given the speculation RE: Lily), and has removed Draco and Hermione from the picture (and he does seem very guilty) this seems like a relatively good time for him to come out of hiding, which also explains his behavior RE: the interrogation.
A lot of the previous speculation was colored by the fact that H&C #2 was insufficiently clever to be Quirrell and insufficiently efficient to be a legilimens, but since then we have found out that legilimency can be detected months later so legilimens are back on the table, and the apparent lack of cleverness could be explained as an artifact of Eliezer trying to help the reader understand what was going on in that confusing passage.
Everyone is back on the table IMO. Here’s my speculation that H&C is Snape.
Considering how much Rowling played with the side Snape was on, I certainly expect Eliezer to do so as well. I think it’s fairly clear that Snape has moved on from Lily now, but I’m not certain if we can yet predict which side he’ll choose now.
I’m hoping it’s the side with a bunch of cute Slytherin girls in his dungeon...
It’s not clear to me. What has Snape done or said that makes you think that?
He was making out with jailbait. (Far from proof, but evidence.)
Also his remarks about his mentors not telling him something, which seems very likely to be that Lily was shallow.
Or, perhaps, that his obsession with her was pathetic and he needed to move on with his life.
Lily doesn’t really strike me as all that shallow. At least I haven’t seen much to suggest that she was more shallow than an average human female (with the emphasis there on the ‘human’). Even assuming Lily were particularly shallow—that isn’t the message that he needed from his mentor. Far more useful would be the message “quit being a pussy!”. For all intents and purposes it makes almost no difference to Snape how shallow Lily was.
So then why did he just have his first kiss?
This does not seem to follow as a reply to the grandparent.
Snape just had his first kiss because he wasted his life with a creepy obsession with a girl that was not available to him rather than growing up and living life like a sane person. Doesn’t everyone acknowledge/assume that?
One thing that may have prevented this unfortunate (and pathetic) turn of events may have been persuasive advice from mentors. Advice like “Lily is shallow” would have been better than nothing. Far more useful would be advice that encouraged the development of emotional self sufficiency and rudimentary ability to apply the concept of ‘fungibility’. Or a ticket to a Tim Minchin concert.
Because he’s a misantropic nerd who’s spent his life obsessed with a dead woman?
I find that theory extremely persuasive.
It fully explains his lack of skill in the dictionary attack, and the desperation, and sheds new light on the Quirrell/Snape forest conversation earlier.
If Quirrell knows that he has Snape as an ally (as Harry lost him given the speculation RE: Lily), and has removed Draco and Hermione from the picture (and he does seem very guilty) this seems like a relatively good time for him to come out of hiding, which also explains his behavior RE: the interrogation.