severus snape’s doe patronus…
why is his a doe and james’ is a stag? spoiler alert: it’s not obsession.
firstly, severus was not obsessed with lily. she was very important to him. she was the only person who was ever nice to him, who ever bothered to get to know him. because of his love for her, he left her alone when she told him to. he delivered the prophecy without a moment’s hesitation, which means he had no idea it could link to lily. severus may even have been able to move on if lily hadn’t died as a result of his actions. but even if he had moved on, i don’t think his patronus would have changed.
i think the reason that the two people who loved lily the most have different patronuses that relate to her is because they had completely different relationships with her.
severus and lily met when they were nine. she was the first person to look past his surface, and he was the first person she met that was like her- magic. he told her all about the magical world, how much fun they would have. where tobias hated magic, where petunia called lily a freak, they saw each other and, for the first time, were understood (i am not comparing a jealous child to an abusive father. i’m pointing out that both severus and lily had their nature targeted by family, who were supposed to love and support them. petunia was not abusive to lily, but your older sister, who you adore, endlessly having a go at something that you can’t change and that makes you who you are has got to hurt, especially for a child).
in the seven years they had, severus and lily had other firsts together. yes, potentially that one, but i’m also talking about things like their first train journey, first night away from home, first magical lessons, first trips to the hospital wing, first detentions, first quidditch match, first year at hogwarts, first hogsmeade visit, first argument, first make-up, first heartbreak (and i have no doubt that they were each other’s first heartbreaks, whether you choose to read them romantically or not).
they spent their formative years attached at the hip, made some of their most crucial memories together.
when you grow up with someone, you become entwined. my best friend for six years was perfect: pretty, talented, popular, kind. we went to different secondary schools and drifted. but i would be a different person without her, in the way i interact with my current friends, in my self-perception, in my interests and skills. the year before secondary, she joined a cool group of girls and made them apologise for bullying me, and convinced them to let me join. six years on, i sometimes still feel like my friends only tolerate me. i do english literature at college- i wouldn’t be so good if she hadn’t been a natural. that kind of relationship, no matter how it ends, (we’re perfectly civil, we just never talk) leaves a unique imprint.
to me, the doe is less about severus’s love than it is a result of his and lily’s relationship. it doesn’t just represent lily: it represents him too. were he an animagus, i’m sure he’d be a doe- i doubt gender would matter. even if they’d got married, severus and lily’s relationship would still have had a platonic base. james and lily didn’t influence each other in the same way; they were older, already their own people, and their relationship had a romantic base. neither option is better or worse- just different.
stag patronuses are associated with strength, heroism, nobility, confidence, and pride. doe patronuses, however, link to protection, care, nurture, gentleness, determination, intuition, sensitivity, grace, and vigilance. harry and james definitely fit their stags, and severus and lily both fit their does.
to say that severus’s patronus is purely because of his individual feelings for lily is completely inaccurate. he didn’t just take on her protective role for harry because he loved her- he was also able to perform this role because they learnt the above qualities from one another.
i’ll finish this worryingly long post with a lyric. i think it is the only way to sum everything up:
