An Assembly Of History, Literature, And Slow Burns

I’ll write a more elaborate post another day but as we see in the Prince’s Tale, only one person’s path ‘changed’ from his encounter with James and that’s Sirius ‘my whole family has been in Slytherin’ / ‘maybe I’ll break the tradition’ Black.

Severus ‘you better be in Slytherin’ Snape wanted to be in Slytherin and ended in Slytherin. Severus ‘she’s only a [muggle]’ Snape continued to believe muggles had less worth.

Lily doesn’t stop being friends with Severus because he calls her a mudblood but because he calls everyone of her birth that. Lily and Severus’ friendship was already crumbling, as Lily points out none of her friends understand why they are friends.

We see them fight quite a bit in the Prince’s Tale. To me it feels like Severus is showing Harry how their friendship didn’t fall apart because of Lily reacting to a slip of the tongue but because of the growing gulf between them as he made choices he came to regret. Severus is not using the time to show Harry scene after scene of him and Lily being happy and James ruining that. Severus takes more accountability for his own choices than most those who defend him.

Lily and Severus might have stayed friends a little longer but as Lily herself points out: this wasn’t about one mistake, he had chosen his path and she choose her.

No, that does not mean that the bullying didn’t leave deep scars and lifelong trauma as Severus’ continued bullying of Harry proves, but Severus was always going to be thrown into the path of his Death Eater friends.

Emma Woodhouse Costume Appreciation Series-

(c. 1815 spencer, Chertsey Museum Collection)

(c. 1810, V&A design)

And the DETAIL

The piping on this spencer