I made an interesting little discovery yesterday, and I thought I'd share. To give you a bit of background, I am currently working on a fanfic for a kiriban winner over at DeviantArt. She requested a Sev/Lily fic with Victorian flower language. It has sort of been a joy of a prompt, because I just love that sort of thing, but that got me to reading "The Prince's Tale" chapter of DH again. And the following passage, in particular, stood out:
Lily had picked up a fallen flower from the bush behind which Snape lurked. Petunia advanced, evidently torn between curiosity and disapproval. Lily waited until Petunia was near enough to have clear view, then held out her palm. The flower sat there, opening and closing its petals, like some bizarre, many-lipped oyster.
"Stop it!" shrieked Petunia.
"It's not hurting you," said Lily, but she closed her hand on the blossom and threw it back to the ground.
"It's not right," said Petunia, but her eyes had followed the flower's flight to the ground and lingered upon it. "How do you do it?" she added, and there was definite longing in her voice.
"It's obvious, isn't it?" Snape could no longer contain himself, but had jumped out from behind the bushes...It is specificall the description of the flower:
The flower sat there, opening and closing its petals, like some bizarre, many-lipped oyster.which stood out to me. I was instantly reminded of this:
And all of Georgia O'Keefe's many other fabulous flower paintings, which, I think everyone will agree, were paintings of something more than simply flowers ;-). I remember the first time I read DH, I thought that a very odd description of a flower:
some bizarre, many-lipped oyster.. It stood out to me as odd, but I never really realized how overtly sexual a reference it was until rereading it just the other day.
It tells us alot about Lily, and Petunia and Snape, I think.
Firstly, we have Lily, the one who is wild, and free and unafraid to openly display that most private and beautiful part of herself. In the text, this would literally, of course, refer to her magic, but magical energy and sexual energy are very closely linked. When writing fanfic I have always characterized Lily as a highly sexual young woman, without being promiscuous. Rowling seems to draw many parallels between Ginny and Lily in the books, and Ginny too, was written as being highly sexual as she matured, so I don't think that such an assumption or characterization of Lily is too far away from what the author might have intended. Lily is also, as per her name, a pure white flower. A flower that is not only associated with purity and maidenhood, but also very strongly with death. So we see here, in this one little girl, the union of purity, sexuality, magical power, and even hints at death (necessary for any rebirth of the soul), all laid out before Snape (hiding behing the bush), and he is naturally drawn to her.
I found it interesting that he had obviously been watching her for some time, and it wasn't until the flower magic that he revealed himself. He stayed hidden even when she flew (or floated depending on your interpretation), which was much more powerful and advanced magic (we learn later in the series) than simply causing a flower to open and close. If Severus was so enamoured, obsessed by, and drawn to her magical prowess, as some readers have suggested, why did he not leap from behind that bush when she leapt from that swing, displaying that more powerful magic? Why was it not until he saw that small bud opening to him that he
could no longer contain himself and had no choice but to leap from behind that bush and make his presence known?
Personally I think it was that overt display of burgeoning, pure, whole womanliness. This is a young woman on the brink of bursting full on into what appears to be a very healthy and pure form of female sexuality, and Severus, starved for love, beauty, affection, warmth, a sense of belonging, and so many other things, saw in that small flower, whether aware of it or not, a very potent and powerful display of the divine feminine. In short, he saw all the things he had ever desired and ever dreamed of, laid bare before him, and not only that, but plucked from the very bush behind which he chose to conceal himself. And that is significant too, because Lily could have plucked that flower from the lawn beneath her, but instead he took it from that bush, the bush Severus Snape used to conceal himself.
But lets speak of Petunia for a moment. I have always seen many parallels between Petunia and Severus, and here we see Petunia cautiously curious about Lily's little display, as well as frightened and disapproving. Lily seems to effortlessly embrace her sexuality, whereas Petunia is curious yet cautious, and even afraid. I have often suspected that Petunia had been mistreated or abused as a child. She showed all the signs of it, and being the eldest, and having a deep love for her sister (having a little sister myself it was always very evident that despite everything, deep down Petunia really did love her little sister), would have no doubt done everything in her power to protect her. My Petunia, the one that has developed in my mind, born from between the lines of the bare bones we are given in canon, is a woman who has born the brunt of some sort of abuse in order to spare her little sister that same suffering. This is the root of her pain, and bitterness. She comments upon Lily's display of pure, unsullied magic and sexuality
with longing in her voice because she knows it is something that such a girl as she will never know, and she knows that Lily is able to experience it because of what she sacrificed for her. Every good thing that happened to Lily after that must have seemed like a cruel slap in the face, as I am sure that Petunia felt that it might have been hers had not she had to give up so much for love of a sister. In my personal opinion Petunia is one of the most tragic characters in the series. Both she and Severus loved Lily, and sacrificed for her but Petunia's love for her twisted in her gut and only served to make her more and more bitter, whereas Severus allowed that love to transform him into everything Lily silently promised with her flower magic that first day they met.
And that brings us back to Severus. Severus too, is curious about Lily's magic. He watches from behind that bush, a parallel to all the walls he has placed around his young and wounded heart, walls that were erected to protect him from the ugliness, neglect and abuse he had probably experienced from the time he was an infant. But here is this pure Lily, plucking a small piece from out of the wall around his heart and transforming it into something vastly pure and lovely.
It is like she is saying: "See here. You put up these wall to protect your heart, they are a piece of you, a piece of you that you probably think is dark and ugly, but they awaken this beauty in me. I can transmute them into love and pure, sensual delight." She is showing him the beauty that lies within him. He knew in that moment, that he could never fully conceal himself from her. She saw through his walls, and not only that, but she was able to take a little piece of that blackness and transform it into something beautiful. No wonder he was compelled to leap from behind the bush and reveal himself. He was already laid bare to her, and he knew it. Why continue to hide?
I am reminded of that scene in the movie version of PoA where Lupin tells Harry that Lily was a person who could always see the beauty in others, especially when they were unable to see it in themselves. This was always what Lily was to Severus. Her emerald eyes were like some sort of magical mirror, into which he could look and see all the true beauty of his soul (I am instantly reminded of Alchemy's 'Emerald Tablet' which reveals the key to enlightenment, or transmutation of the soul, but that is a whole different essay for another day ;-)). I think it terrified him. I think as he grew older, he fought it all the time, but he could never give it up, because he needed that magical mirror. He needed to see that part of himself, because it was the one thing that kept him going, the one thing that gave him hope, and hence strength, to do what he knew he needed to do. And when she left him, the hints of death that her name signified burst forth in him, and it was that death, and her own death later, which truly allowed all of that beauty to be awakened in his soul, until, in the end, his own strength, his own beauty, the strength and beauty that had been there all along, stood on their own.
I could speak of much more here. I could trace these hints of burgeoning sexuality all the way through their relationship to "Snape's Worst Memory", but I have already gone on far longer than I intended here, so I'll leave that for another time.
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