At the same time I think the author shows that he went from being a boy that lacked empathy (he doesn't understand why Lily cares about Petunia
I don't think it's lack of empathy as much as Snape truly believes Petunia is beneath them because she isn't magical. I mean, he practically says as much. The fact that she's not magical trumps the fact that she's Lily's sister (and it's not like Snape's an orphan; he knows what family ties are).
doesn't get that "mudblood" and what Avery and Mulciber get up to is bad
I absolutely disagree that he doesn't get it that mudblood is bad; he knows it is, which is why he tries to convince Lily he didn't mean it. If he truly had no concept of its wrongness, he'd have no understanding of why she's upset that he called her one. And I think the sequencing of events there is critical, too. He and Lily had had their argument *before* she tried to stick up for him to James. He was angry with her already when she did that and he did what a lot of people do when they're really angry at someone they care about -- reached for the most hurtful thing he could think of to say to her. He feels bad about it after-the-fact, but that's not the same thing as him being unaware, in the moment, of what he was doing.
doesn't get that Lily might be upset if her son and husband are murdered
At that point in the story Snape was 21 (he went to Hogwarts for the first time the same year Lily did and Lily died at 21, so they were approximately the same age). I can give him the benefit of the doubt re: Petunia initially because he was all of, like, 7. But at 21, he's old enough to know that Lily would be upset about James and Harry being killed. He cares more that she's alive, though, than that she might be unhappy for a while.
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part II
Date: 2007-07-26 03:23 am (UTC)I don't think it's lack of empathy as much as Snape truly believes Petunia is beneath them because she isn't magical. I mean, he practically says as much. The fact that she's not magical trumps the fact that she's Lily's sister (and it's not like Snape's an orphan; he knows what family ties are).
doesn't get that "mudblood" and what Avery and Mulciber get up to is bad
I absolutely disagree that he doesn't get it that mudblood is bad; he knows it is, which is why he tries to convince Lily he didn't mean it. If he truly had no concept of its wrongness, he'd have no understanding of why she's upset that he called her one. And I think the sequencing of events there is critical, too. He and Lily had had their argument *before* she tried to stick up for him to James. He was angry with her already when she did that and he did what a lot of people do when they're really angry at someone they care about -- reached for the most hurtful thing he could think of to say to her. He feels bad about it after-the-fact, but that's not the same thing as him being unaware, in the moment, of what he was doing.
doesn't get that Lily might be upset if her son and husband are murdered
At that point in the story Snape was 21 (he went to Hogwarts for the first time the same year Lily did and Lily died at 21, so they were approximately the same age). I can give him the benefit of the doubt re: Petunia initially because he was all of, like, 7. But at 21, he's old enough to know that Lily would be upset about James and Harry being killed. He cares more that she's alive, though, than that she might be unhappy for a while.