Okay, okay, okay, this is probably deeply off-track, but all I can think of is Harryââwho upon learning that Snape, of all people, his pain in the neck potions professor knows his auntââhas now received what can only be called a psychic punch to balls.Â
How, how, how, is a teenage boy supposed to rectify this, mentally? Connect these strange unjoined worlds to somehow explain that SnapeââSnape!ââknows his Aunt Petunia?
âIt doesnât make any sense, mate,â Harry tells Ron, blearily, desperately wishing at age thirteen years that his butter beer was a real beer. âIt justââit canât be. Why would he know Aunt Petunia?â
Ron grimaces. âWhy would he want to? I mean, I know heâs Snape, and all that, butâââ
Harry writes his only letter back to #4 Privet Drive, dotted with tears, and it has one line: How do you know Severus Snape?
Petunia writes back: DO NOT MENTION THAT MAN EVER AGAIN.Â
And this. This. Sparks a light in Harryâs head. This is the same way Petunia talks about celebrities who have deeply, personally offended her. Usually when she fancied them and then they got married. Itâs so completely clear to him, now: Snape is deeply, irrevocably, utterly in love with Aunt Petunia.Â