nobleflower13

[nobleflower13]

questions for pro-snape-folks

Recently I've been researching the dynamic between the marauders and Snape in their Hogwarts years here on tumblr, and I've been coming across certain information being repeated over and over where I'm not sure where they come from or why you'd assume that. So I wanted to ask, in case someone wanted to share their thoughts:

Snape's childhood

Why do we assume Snape had been abused as a child? As far as I know, there's only the flashback scene of his parents fighting, which might indicate an unhappy childhood, not necessarily an abusive one, tho.

2. bullying or rivalry

Why is James always portrayed as the abuser and Snape always as the victim only defending himself? Pretty much all the information we have is based on SWM, which, yes, absolutely was wrong from James' side, not trying to justify that here. But how do we know that Snape never initiated a fight/attacked the marauders out of the blue himself? Just because we never got to read about it in canon doesn't mean it couldn't have happened. (I can understand why you'd assume a power imbalance due to the differences in socioeconomic status, but is that the only reason??)

3. reason

I've mostly seen people saying that the marauders bullied Snape for his poverty or his looks and I don't understand why. Has that ever been stated and I missed it?? Couldn't it also very well have something to do with Snape's association with dark magic/blood supremacists/death eaters? Or something else? (Many people on here also reference James' "It's mostly the fact he exists, you know", interpreting it as him bullying him "just because he could" or "for fun". But, let's be fr, that's something he said as a 15 year old to his crush, perhaps in an attempt to seem funny, so I don't know wether that's really something to go off of.)

4. Lily laughing at Snape

SO many people on here keep saying that Lily laughed at Snape in his worst memory, so I reread the scene from the book. I'd have thought that Lily smiling during that scene was due to James being cut in the cheek by Snape, since in that moment she still resented James. (Although I read the German version, not the original, so maybe the translation's off.)