listening to The Prince's Tale as i'm working and had to stop several times because this chapter tells us more about severus in one go than the rest of the series put together:
"Does it make a difference, being Muggle-born?"
Snape hesitated. His black eyes, eager in the greenish gloom, moved over the pale face, the dark red hair.
"No," he said. "It doesn't make any difference."
implies somebody had been teaching him the difference between blood statuses. eileen, most likely, and strengthened by his own experience with tobias. his hesitance may have been due to the fact that eileen didn't have a good opinion about muggleborns, but he diverged from it, since he'd already met lily and liked her. even as a boy, he had his own mind and spoke it.
"I saw his reply. It was very kind."
"You shouldn't have read--" whispered Petunia, "that was my private-- how could you--?"
Lily gave herself away by half-glancing toward where Snape stood nearby. Petunia gasped.
"That boy found it! You and that boy have been sneaking in my room!"
"No-- not sneaking-- " Now Lily was on the defensive. "Severus saw the envelope, and he couldn't believe a Muggle could have contacted Hogwarts, that's all! He says there must be wizards working undercover in the postal service who take care of--"
"Apparently wizards poke their noses in everywhere!" said Petunia, now as pale as she had been flushed.
snape visited lily's house, and it was enough times that petunia kind of treated his presence at their home as an irritating but normal occurrence.
"So she's my sister!"
"She's only a--" He caught himself quickly; Lily, too busy trying to wipe her eyes without being noticed, did not hear him.
he had a dislike for muggles, or did not think highly of them. not surprising given tobias, but it also hints on the relationship he and tobias must have had, and it wasn't a great one.
"They sneak out at night. There's something weird about that Lupin. Where does he keep going?"
"He's ill," said Lily. "They say he's ill--"
"Every month at the full moon?" said Snape.
"I know your theory," said Lily, and she sounded cold. "Why are you so obsessed with them anyway? Why do you care what they're doing at night?"
"I'm just trying to show you they're not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are."
The intensity of his gaze made her blush.
"They don't use Dark Magic, though." She dropped her voice. "And you're being really ungrateful. I heard what happened the other night. You went sneaking down that tunnel by the Whomping Willow, and James Potter saved you from whatever's down there--"
Snape's whole face contorted and he spluttered, "Saved? Saved? You think he was playing the hero? He was saving his neck and his friends' too! You're not going to-- I won't let you--"
"Let me? Let me?"
Lily's bright green eyes were slits. Snape backtracked at once.
"I didn't mean-- I just don't want to see you made a fool of-- He fancies you, James Potter fancies you!" The words seemed wrenched from him against his will. "And he's not...everyone thinks...big Quidditch hero--" Snape's bitterness and dislike were rendering him incoherent, and Lily's eyebrows were traveling farther and farther up her forehead.
i can't believe they had this conversation AFTER the whomping willow incident!!! i never realized! snape must have felt so trapped, especially since he couldn't tell lily about anything while she was telling him that he should be the better man between him and the marauders. he had attempted to protect her since he knew already what lupin was, but couldn't explain why.
a lot of this also hinted at how in control snape usually was, especially of his words, even as a child. you could tell he thinks before he says anything consciously, and edits his statements just before they make it out of his mouth. he never wants to offend lily and is careful around her, but when tested, he really lets loose.
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